This week I couldn’t use the computer much so read more than usual, including two long books and one hard-to-read one. I finished: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein: I confess I recorded my podcast episode with Richard before reading the book, initially motivated by my mom’s sharing (on her and my podcast episodes) about growing up in a mostly[…] Keep reading →

I have spoken and written at length how I see our relationship with polluting behavior as qualifying as addiction, a view that I think helps frame the challenge of sustainability. Overcoming addiction is harder than creating new technologies or taxing things. It takes powerful internal social and emotional skills. Just acknowledging one is addicted and harming others is a big hurdle, let alone acting on it. Not seeing the huge[…] Keep reading →

The final tally for running on empty: Days in a row of rain to mostly cloudy: 12 days (January 22 to February 2) Extended streak of days at least mostly cloudy: 23 days / 25 days (January 9 – February 2) Nearly every day it didn’t outright rain, I climbed to the roof twice to catch what power I could. Many days I got zero. Some days I got enough[…] Keep reading →

What do you know, more clouds today. There was enough sun to get one battery to 12%, which let me use the computer enough to catch up on some emails and post. My computer shut down while in sleep mode, it hadn’t been charged in so long. I hope my posts haven’t come out too repetitive lately, but in over a year and a half I haven’t hit this little[…] Keep reading →

Check the calendar below. I count three days mostly sunny in the past 23 days. Everything else has been mostly cloudy to full on rain or snow. I’m still going up every day that isn’t raining. Many days not getting any power. I missed my first meeting today for not being able to plug in, but it worked out okay, I think for my explaining my situation. It was a[…] Keep reading →

The forecast was for some sun today, but more clouds. The less sun, the more stairs I have to climb since I have so little energy stored so have to climb for any sunlight I can get, while still conserving as much as I can by reading and writing. Luckily, there’s no shortage of work to catch up on that way. Again, I’m not challenging myself for some abstract “environment”[…] Keep reading →

I’m writing this post fast because New York has seen almost no sunny days in a week. I’ve had to conserve power as much as I can. All my batteries are nearly dead. Amazingly, I feel I live with more abundance in what matters despite having less power than when I plugged into the walls. We come together and help each other in difficult times, like snowstorms and hurricanes. I[…] Keep reading →