Back in the Saddle

We are home.

I am pooped.

Hubby ended up in Urgent Care with swimmer's ear that has been remarkably resistant to treatment thus far.

Since he refuses to establish with a PCP, that means another Urgent Care visit probably tomorrow.

(No, that's not how I would do it, but the hubby is his own man.)

The asthma was good, except for when an improperly doused campfire smoldered through our window all night. I couldn't figure out why I was up hacking like a smoker and using the rescue inhaler, until we saw the smoke the next morning (and then I smelled it, but not before). Once the fire was truly out, everything settled down.

I used to be able to handle fires, but, a few years ago, my lungs made it clear those days were over. When the family gathers around the campfire, I sit inside with all the windows shut.

Today I am having some post-vacation adrenality. Burning flank pain and muscle cramps, particularly in the small muscles of my feet. The plan is to out-sleep it.

Meanwhile, I've been sending this important article to everyone I know:

Profit from Ecological Mayhem

“Energy “will give us serious and sustained problems” over the next 50 years as we make the transition from hydrocarbons — oil, coal, gas — to solar, wind, nuclear and other sources, but we’ll muddle through to a solution to Peak Oil and related challenges. Peak Everything Else will prove more intractable for humanity. Metals, for instance, “are entropy at work . . . from wonderful metal ores to scattered waste,” and scarcity and higher prices “will slowly increase forever,” but if we scrimp and recycle, we can make do for another century before tight constraint kicks in.

Agriculture is more worrisome. Local water shortages will cause “persistent irritation” — wars, famines. Of the three essential macro nutrient fertilizers, nitrogen is relatively plentiful and recoverable, but we’re running out of potassium and phosphorus, finite mined resources that are “necessary for all life.”

We are living this now. It's not some distant future, it's here today.

There is no economic recovery against this backdrop, only more poverty for more people…unless there are major innovations on multiple fronts...which I’m not holding my breath.