What to write about and how to write it. Hmm. That implies a plan. Ha! And yet, life is filled with stories. That’s true for all of us, in my opinion. In my opinion, writers simply have learned to notice the drama and trauma and celebrations that happen around us. Whether anyone is interested in any story seems like something that can be planned, but art doesn’t work that way. Here I sit, just outside a tourist town during a drought. There are people and chores and patience to notice. 

A drought? Blech. I like rain. I particularly like drinking water and cleaning myself. (Hmm. Sounds like a cat.) This town (Port Townsend) has one source of water, one pipe, and one critical failure possibility.

The tourists don’t notice. Many of the residents don’t notice. We assume water, power, sanitation, health, police, and schools are naturally available. Tourists can have higher expectations, thanks to a pleasant setting and marketing materials. Residents are busy trying to live their lives, arranging and enabling groceries, chores, and things like jobs.

The drought will get a hiatus this weekend. Various parts of the Puget Sound are the driest parts of the continental US in August. Deserts are drier, until they get their monsoons. We might get some rain, for a while. Stay tuned. We may even get lightning, but this part of the US has the lowest probability of that. (Southern Florida has the highest, which is ironic considering that we launch rockets from there.)

I will appreciate the rain. The tourists may not. Someone may complain.

Frugality can be seen as the appreciation and respect of the resources available to you. That includes fresh water. And housing. And hospitals, and police, and power, and a very long list.

I long for having a fresh water supply that is more robust, even if it is having a backup well on the property. I am dismayed at the policies that discourage home generated power like solar. I also look forward to a productive garden, which as I understand it, is not allowed within the HOA rules. (Life in a tiny house: MyTinyExperiment.net) I’d prefer to use the local hospital, but evidently, I am not healthy enough to heal. One county over has a hospital that defers to my local one. Another hospital in another direction may supply the service, but rural hospitals have small staffs, and one vacation means a one month delay in my treatment. (Knee stuff)

But, I do have that other option, the water seems to be flowing, I currently (sorry for the accidental pun) don’t need another source of electricity, or food, or the rest of the basic utilities. I am glad for what I’ve got.

And, still, I complain. The tourists are here to get away from a life they may complain about, and some still complain. (Serious question that may not be resolved: When did we start complaining so much?)

Best Sleepover Ever – That was a wave of not complaining. It was a wave of celebrating. Now’s the inevitable backlash with rumors of government intrusion, but I’m convinced that enough of it was real to be glad.

I hope that celebration stays with us. Lately, I’ve been seeing relationships starting up again, as if they were put on hiatus during the pandemic (which isn’t really over yet, but that’s a more complex story.) I’m seeing small, but maybe not small, social revolutions where entrenched organizations are being challenged by new ideas. Attempts to return us to supposed halcyon days of before I was born are falling and failing as renewable energies and general decentralization are setting anachronisms to the side. Change is always the only constant, and changes are being made.

I still worry about certain aspects of AI, intransigent social injustices, definitely climate change, and strive to ignore politics that’s played as a sport. 

But. The drought means I don’t have to mow the lawn. The tourists may be in town, and the town needs their money; but soon comes the welcome shoulder season when the weather is agreeable and the traffic abates. I’ve finished the first draft of my next book (the third in my scifi trilogy that includes Firewatcher). Some docs have had some good news (it’s the system that seems to be the problem. I’m out of mortgage debt. I can afford small splurges. I even have compliments on my books left to adorn my windshield.

There are definitely problems to fix personally, in the community, and globally; but there are also things to celebrate. The bad things headline the news. The good things are usually closer and more personal. Gotta be aware of both.