Friday, December 27, 2024

Happy New Year

            My fan club has unanimously suggested that I stop being such a curmudgeon.  Both said I should drop all the doom and gloom and be more positive about the world. I have been very happy lately.  Gummy happy, without the gummy.  I have relished the little and big things, like the elk and eagles in the backyard, as well as where I live and who I live there with.  So, to be more optimistic I have made a resolution to see the world through rose-colored glasses again and look for the silver lining.  It can’t be all bad.  The glass is at least half full.    Here are five things to look forward to in the new year. 


Short of WW III or a Greater Depression this Trump thing could be very entertaining with crazy people like RFK and Elon Musk and ideas like deporting our work force or deconstructing the government and the economy.  There is a random and reactive component to all this that must be fun at some level.  I would like to think they are just crazy, and not evil, and crazy can be funny if they are not going crazy on you.  Maybe they can fix Daylight Savings Time, so we get extra light at night and in the morning.  We won’t have viruses or vaccines or worms any more, in our bodies or our brains.  Perhaps they will scare or outspend the world into tearing walls down like Regan did.  Maybe they will trim the fat and balance the budget, by sacrificing the middle class, like Clinton did.  Musk can take over NASA, Bezos take over the Post Office and Zuckerberg take over education and save us all some money.  They could privatize the National Weather Service, so we only get the weather that we want and solve climate change, hurricanes and fire problems.  Housing could mean that all trophy homes have separate servant quarters for all their workers, solving unemployment too.  Or we could privatize Interstates with tolls, solving all the traffic problems.  They could divvy up all the public land in the USA and we would all get 6 acres.  The rich still get Yosemite and Yellowstone.  We could get rid of the IRS if we all agreed to just pay our share of the budget, about $10,000 each or 17% of all income.  We could join up with Putin and China and have one big happy world family with peace and prosperity. No armies, no human right rebellions, no race riots, and no religions too.

The great thing about living in the USA is the government puts half of our expenses on their credit card.  The great thing about living in Park City is that people with second home McMansions pay twice the taxes and most of our bills.  It’s mostly OPM – Other People’s Money, that we are living the high life with.  Which is nice.  I am looking forward to Park City 5.0 with a new Main Street, Snow Park, Mayflower, Canyons, Dakota and Arts Center.  Everyone is going for the Olympic gold with gusto, the golden ring on the merry-go-round, the golden egg laid by the golden goose.  That’s a lot of gold.  There should be gondolas going all over, from Kimball Junction to the Kimball Art Center, from the Pendry to Peak 9990 and from Main Street to Snow Park and Silver Lake and Jupiter Peak.  Cars and buses will go away, and the county will hire personal E-drones to fly us around in three dimensions.  Trophy homes will have servant quarters (see above).  Main street will have no stores, only Disney Land rides.  A snow globe will be installed over the city, and snowmaking will be everywhere.  Utah powder will not be snow or cocaine, but cold hard crypto-currency.  Let’s just hope the people making all of it will decide to make this their home and not take the money and run.  Share the wealth, build the community and make it home.  It could happen.

With less supply and more demand, water will be the hot commodity, priced for what it is worth.  It will then be too expensive to grow rice and cotton in the desert or fruits and nuts in the central valley or alfalfa and hay in the mountains.  They can do that in Japan and Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Texas respectively, where It rains.  Then we will have enough water to refill the Great Salt Lake and for the Colorado River to resupply Lakes Powell and Mead, while having enough water left over for poor western white people and the Native Americans.  Farmers will be bought out and buy a motor home to move to Florida or Arizona.  Hobby Ranches and Dry Farmed Estates will proliferate, and golf courses and pickle ball courts will dominate.  Solar and wind powered dehumidifiers will supply drinking water, and the middle class will take over once again.  There will be red states, blue states and green states that look like Greta’s own backyard.

We will find great reserves of natural hydrogen or fire up the old Nuke plants so that we will have unlimited energy and never have to burn anything again.  Wind turbines and solar panels will be on everyone’s house and the grid connects us all in a many-to-many configuration.  The atmosphere will recover faster than we thought, and the temperatures will ameliorate exponentially with tipping and inflection points in the right direction.  Mother earth will welcome us back like the Prodigal Son.

Finally, with less struggles, we will see the things we have in common and not the things that divide us.  Race and sex will no longer matter, nor will nationality or political preference.  Free speech will be rampant, and guns will be reinstated with light sabers that glow with gold of sunshine.  Truth, honor and civility will make a big comeback, and our representatives will be selected from the best and the brightest.  Everyone will be paid a living wage for their individual contributions to society, and no one will be hungry or cold or compromise their pursuit of happiness.  Imagine. 

 

Matthew Lindon, P.E.

Snyderville, 2025

Waterandwhatever.com

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