Hour of Power 2008

I will struggle to remain awake to turn on my lights at 8 p.m. for Appreciate Living in a Prosperous Society and Being the Most Fortunate Humans Who Ever Lived Because We Have Stuff Like Electricity and Our Section of the Globe at Night Doesn’t Look Like North Korea Hour. I work with inconsiderate jerks who delight in coming to work while infectious (not hyperbole) and now my head is producing more mucus than it can comfortably store. I'm hoping the fever burns most of it off. Mostly I'm pissed my Saturday is ruined; I was supposed to go to the Brewers game and I barely made it through the tailgate. I'm sure I'll be fine Monday morning. *dark mutterings*

I will say that lying on the couch, half-dozing, listening to Bob Uecker is a pleasure. Slightly less of a pleasure than eating bratwurst with Special Stadium Sauce and seeing the game live, but except for the dripping and the aching I enjoyed my afternoon.

Anyway. Turning out the lights for an hour--an hour--on a Saturday night is a joke. Try turning out the lights at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday near a solstice, see how much work gets done. Turn out the lights for 24 hours, but authorize the police overtime first.

Hell, if you don't like owning appliances and using heat and fans and lightbulbs in the evening, just don't do it. No one's making you live in comfort kings and queens couldn't buy even 200 years ago. But don't you DARE tell me I can't.

(I especially love 250W bulbs. I have some lamps rated for 300W, but the largest bulbs I can find around here are 250W. My mother's family starts to lose their vision around age 70 and close sewing with insufficient light HURTS. Sue me.)

I've started asking people who go off about "carbon emissions" and "destroying the planet" why they haven't killed themselves yet if that's what they really believe (and at work, I ask them why they don't live within walking distance of work--sure, there's new bullet holes in the front windows this week, but what sacrifice is too great to save the planet??). I recommend it; you don't ever have to participate in a conversation about the lie of Anthropogenic Global Warming with that person again.

Going back to the couch. Happy Hour of Power.