Make things last! #ramble

I’m well past my three score years and ten now. So what advice would I give my younger self if I could? I found out later in life that I have autoimmune problems so I could give myself some health advice. I was very into technology when I was young, and I would advise myself to take an interest in the arts. I was interested in finance and the stock market but didn’t save enough money to invest. That was a big mistake, but it was much harder to be an investor then. I did waste a lot of money trying to fit in. We are all trying to fit in; if our friends have bad habits, we will adopt them too. We all wanted to be accepted. We all get pretty anxious about acceptance and rejection, so my final advice would be to relax and not worry!

I’m writing today’s post with Word and with the Grammarly premium add-on. I’m getting suggestions to improve my writing as I type. It is changing my writing style, but maybe I am developing a different writing style. It seems to be working well, anyway!

Besides developing and improving my writing, I want to do the same for my photography. It’s only 7 C at the moment, so a bit cold for a photography outing. It will go into double digits this afternoon, so I might venture out. Today’s white sky will give me a diffused light, but that isn’t my favourite weather. The sun will break through this afternoon, giving me a few shadows and making the pictures more interesting. I might even find people willing to be photographed!

I’m still really into experimenting with cooking. My Sunday dinner will be an experiment in improving flavour! I’ll be cooking various fresh vegetables and making a delicious sauce. We should enjoy our food. I might even have a drop of tawny port with my dinner!

I sometimes drive out of town to take pictures, but I often wonder what I am missing close by. We see things every day, such as corner shops, disappearing from our lives, and we don’t think to take pictures; then, they are gone, and it’s too late. Soon there will be no corner shops or pubs, and even our pharmacists are under threat.

I’ve been thinking a lot about climate change and energy use. Someone has to; the government doesn’t seem to have many innovative ideas. I was experimenting with a small solar panel and some lights and trying to develop an idea to get more energy to power the lights for longer. We should only build new cars with much smaller engines in the short term. Car engines have got bigger and bigger since I was young. We could probably manage with a limit of 1000cc for engines in new cars. That would be a pragmatic solution to the problem of emissions in the short term. Do some research, and we could probably get that down to 600cc or less. The idea that we can change from heating our homes with gas to electricity seems ill-thought-out. I would like to see the data from tests on heat pumps, not only about their efficiency but also their longevity. We need warranties on them for at least 20 years, maybe longer. We also need extended warranties on other household appliances like televisions and washing machines. The world needs to make things last again!

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