"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
IMAGINE1 Living off the grid
I opened the front door to find the inside of the house filled with dark. "Hellooooooo?" I called out as I kicked off my running shoes.
"The Grid's down!" yelled my daughter from a couple rooms over.
I wandered into the den. "For how long?"
My daughter didn't even look up from her book. She was snuggled against the window to take advantage of what sunlight there was. "10 minutes. More or less."
The Grid. At one time, there was 'the power' and then there was 'the Internet' and now everything has become so interwingled, that they are now considered one and the same. And now we live two lives. Our "normal" lives are lived when everything works (more or less) and then there are those times when life suddenly lurches off-grid - and you are rudely thrown into an indefinite holiday. Or possible disaster.
Luckily my kids have enough old-timey off-grid pursuits to hold them over until the Grid returns but I, normally so calm and collected, immediately get the Fidgets when I'm not online. That being said, I think I have valid reasons why.
I made my way up the stairs into my tiny home-office and pulled out an ancient looking piece of laptop hardware from under the bed. As I connected the lappy to the battery and fired up a connection on the MESH, I started speculating why we were off-grid. Infrastructure failure? Political cover-up some of event that the powers decided should happen in darkness? vAMPires? I had a bad feeling about this.
But before I could get connected, the lights suddenly came back on. I checked the console and saw that husband and son would shortly be returning from soccer.
After I returned my gear to their proper spaces, I double checked my travel bag to make sure that the batteries inside were fully juiced and my clearances were all up to date and in order.
The call could come at anytime, whether I was on grid or off.
"The Grid's down!" yelled my daughter from a couple rooms over.
I wandered into the den. "For how long?"
My daughter didn't even look up from her book. She was snuggled against the window to take advantage of what sunlight there was. "10 minutes. More or less."
The Grid. At one time, there was 'the power' and then there was 'the Internet' and now everything has become so interwingled, that they are now considered one and the same. And now we live two lives. Our "normal" lives are lived when everything works (more or less) and then there are those times when life suddenly lurches off-grid - and you are rudely thrown into an indefinite holiday. Or possible disaster.
Luckily my kids have enough old-timey off-grid pursuits to hold them over until the Grid returns but I, normally so calm and collected, immediately get the Fidgets when I'm not online. That being said, I think I have valid reasons why.
I made my way up the stairs into my tiny home-office and pulled out an ancient looking piece of laptop hardware from under the bed. As I connected the lappy to the battery and fired up a connection on the MESH, I started speculating why we were off-grid. Infrastructure failure? Political cover-up some of event that the powers decided should happen in darkness? vAMPires? I had a bad feeling about this.
But before I could get connected, the lights suddenly came back on. I checked the console and saw that husband and son would shortly be returning from soccer.
After I returned my gear to their proper spaces, I double checked my travel bag to make sure that the batteries inside were fully juiced and my clearances were all up to date and in order.
The call could come at anytime, whether I was on grid or off.
Views: 82
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Comment by Nathaniel Fruchter on February 20, 2010 at 9:15pm
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Definitely an interesting view of the future (and one that may not be so far from the truth—fortunately or unfortunately). You've definitely caught onto something that seems to be a common theme among different contributors to EVOKE, which would be the upcoming ubiquity of the "grid", the internet, or whatever you want to call it. As a society, who knows how that's going to change us?
Great creativity and quite visionary. Keep on writing! :)
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Comment by Robert Hawkins on February 26, 2010 at 1:24am
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Quite haunting. Will our overdependence on overly complex technologies that we dont fully understand be our undoing?
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Comment by John D. Boyden on March 6, 2010 at 5:01pm
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You're a good story teller, Mita. Reads like the beginnings of a novel. Are you going to continue the saga, or does it stop there. Makes a very fine point, and one that is so very true. +1 creativity
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Comment by Alessandra Giabbani on March 9, 2010 at 1:34am
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+Vision
Please, continue telling stories, as John said you are great story teller.
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Comment by Nick Heyming on March 9, 2010 at 2:00am
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Nice story. You're doing a good job as a Mom if your kids don't skip a beat when the power goes out. Did they come up with any fun games?
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Comment by Laura B. on March 9, 2010 at 5:05pm
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Really like the story!
And I can really see that happening in the future, with 'the grid' and all =)
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Comment by Emmanuel Tabarly on March 9, 2010 at 5:15pm
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Great writing slash scenario planning :) writers are great predictors of the future (William Gibson anyone? just to name one of the most ubiquitous)
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Comment by Zack Dowell on March 9, 2010 at 7:02pm
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Creative and well-imagined post that hits close to home. In the foothills of California, power outages of 16/24/52 hours are not uncommon. I'm good as long as the 'top battery holds. During long periods of no power, each day I take the computer to work and fill the battery, "borrowing" power from the city to take back to the mountains.
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Comment by Deborah Cazden on March 10, 2010 at 11:11am
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Great beginning....can't wait to read more!
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Comment by James Ream on March 11, 2010 at 6:50pm
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Transparency and ultimate knowledge can be scary, but it can also be empowering. Knowing where your husband is can help with planning, organization, etc.
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