Screw it, I'm going sailing!

Just got off an online chat with a person I have never met. We are Facebook friends. She lives in the NY area. Right now they are experiencing a very severe and unusual snow fall. This person is someone who cares about others and has a grasp of things human that outstrips most I know. She is frightened about loosing the power to her home. Ice on the trees and power lines. Temps below freezing. That's tough stuff, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I used to live in Indianapolis, Indiana. I remember snow and ice storms in the 80's that took down entire forests, blacked out cities and killed many in various ways. To die when it's cold and dark. No thanks. In the 60's I carried papers in snow that was drifted up to the roofs of single story buildings, sweating inside my layered clothing while I hauled a sled full of the news that few read. I know the cold in an intimate way.

For a while, later in life, I had a horse ranch in Southern Indiana. In 1999 it got so cold that the snow froze in balls in the horses hooves and the ice from their breath closed their eyes and hung off of their muzzles like beards. The heater in the stock tank couldn't keep up. I would have to heat water and carry it from the house to the barn so they could drink. I know the cold.

My job in the city was that of a country boy keeping city boys in business. I was the miracle worker that got the snow plows back up and running, performing field repairs, laying on my back in the snow and ice and sometimes slush, under the trucks, beating on twisted steel with a hammer and heavy wrenches. I know the cold.

Now I live in Florida in the Tampa Bay area. Tonight the temp is going to reach below freezing. Climate change? Is it real, is it here, who caused it, can we stop it, can we slow it down? Who cares!!!! IT'S HERE, IT'S HAPPENING, AND WE HAVE TO COPE!

Climate change means that places that used to be wet are now dry. Climate change means that places that were dry are now wet. Climate change means that lots of us are going to find survival just a little difficult. It means that lots of us, right now, planet wide, are finding it difficult to get by. While our "leaders" point fingers and deny, we starve, die of dehydration, heat exhaustion, freezing, resource driven wars and poverty driven diseases.

I care and I wish there was more I could do. The system does not want me. I'm too old, too white, too expensive. My experience is a drag on the bottom line. I've been unemployed long enough now that employers will not even speak with me. I have so much to offer in so many skilled places and yet I feel useless. Welcome to America.

Screw it, I'm going sailing.