When we came home last week Tuesday after climbing the whole area where we live in was dark. Completely dark. No power. This is something I remember from being a kid and in the 70s and early 80s we had some power outages back in Germany. After a big thunderstorm and a flash hitting somewhere close so that the fuses blew out and you had to switch them back on. It was rarely a wide spread thing.

Now in 2010, about 30 years later, in a country that claims it is a modern technical society this happened. It brings you back to reality. At least, if you ever been to Europe. The locals here think it's normal. And that is the common problem with sooo many things here in the States: the typical American doesn't know it better, so why improve it? Just live with it.

It's like that with a lot of technology related items but mostly and most dramatically seen in everything household related. American appliances are the biggest (literally - as they are huge but inefficient) pieces of crap you can imagine, cars (Domestic cars anyone?), electrical systems (see above), houses - oh yeah, especially houses. Made like paper boxes, not thought out at all, mostly not insulated (for what, just turn the heater / cooler on ...), not energy saving, hey, on what planet do we live? Resources without shortage? Sure! In California, we don't even have enough water. And what happens? No, people still water their lawn every morning, wash the car with the hose running every weekend, buy the biggest trucks / SUVs they can get. When is this country going to see that it can't live like that for long anymore? I can't see it happen. It's sad.

On the other hand, there are a few people seeing the issues, fighting them - but with being a maybe 1% or so minority, there is no price to win.

America should try to get real here. We try: we catch cold running water from the shower and use it for the toilet (unfortunately, not a "modern" double flush), have a small, efficient washer and dryer combo and rarely use the dryer at all, because guess what, it's California and we sometimes even have dry weather. We dry it on a rack. We have a small car, mostly ride our bicycles to work, haven't used the air conditioner of the house since we moved in, heat to only 66 or 68F, and only when we're at home. Use energy efficient light bulbs and turn off the lights in rooms that aren't used at the time.

As a modern person you might think, hey, that's all normal. Everybody should do that. Wow, get real, we are outsiders in that respect. Virtually nobody does this. A handful people maybe. The others water the lawn around noon in the summer, use the garden hose to clean the driveway, have the AC running all day even if they aren't at home, drive the biggest, fugly truck they find for the two miles commute and so on.

And all the things mentioned above aren't actually hard. We live a nice life and don't limit ourselves or make our life overly complicated by following some of those energy saving rules. It is actually easy and saves us a lot of money.

For example, look at the graph on the top left corner of this article (click it to get it big), Germany, a country where people have way more comfortable houses, have an incredibly higher household technology standard, and do more with electricity (like heating water, cooking) than in the States has an electricity usage half compared to the US. That's because people make things better (like appliances, insulation) and live with at least a little bit of conscience.

But it is so true: human stupidity and the universe are endless. Oh, wait, with the universe we aren't so sure.

Okay, stop the rant. Live on. Hmmm. No, damn. We keep on saving and trying to make things better, raising awareness! Every little bit helps. Do you do your part?