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Nikki Weatherhead with her thought-provoking Occupy Tacoma sign. Photograph and posterization by Loren Bliss copyright 2011. |
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ESPECIALLY IN THE WAKE of the deadly and ruinous ice-storm that swept through the southern Puget Sound region earlier this week, several of you have questioned why I haven't posted here for nearly two weeks.
Actually the answer is quite simple: I'm at work on a piece of writing that is taking much longer than I anticipated. Hence the relevance of the image above: that's precisely what I'm doing – occupying my mind.
Presumably then – a stipulation always essential when one is nearly 72 years old and not in the best of health – I'll be back in a few more days.
Meanwhile I'm fine, though the storm destroyed the beautiful stand of cedars that shielded my windows from predatory eyes and protected my apartment from the scorching glare off the adjacent concrete parking lot and its mass of heat-reflector vehicles, which means that summers here will henceforth be hellish indeed. Apartments so exposed become ovens, with interior temperatures exceeding 100F even with outside temperatures seldom above the mid-80s.
Not only will there be this intolerable and potentially deadly oppression by reflected heat; the fact I'll now have to keep my venetian blinds closed 24/7 to project against the ever-searching eyes of street criminals means my window fan will be useless for cooling this apartment after dark; venetian blinds block airflow as effectively as solid walls – and the cost of air conditioning equipment plus a prohibitively expensive surcharge for the additional electricity denies me that option forever.
Such is the “terminal” in what in scientific truth should be labeled “terminal climate change,” but which – in a typical act of Orwellian malice – the Ruling Class renamed “global warming,” no doubt both to obscure the impending horror of its extreme weather and impose maximum conceptual paralysis on the associated debate.
LB/21 January 2012
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