Sunny, a slight breeze, I had to meet with a guy about converting my garage into a tiny house/man cave.
The street was lined with older large homes, average city lots, all spiffied and immaculate like storefronts. Like storefronts because the sides were weathered and beaten. I pulled into the driveway, small sign said come to the back.
Beyond the end of the house sat a shed attached to a quonset greenhouse and another shed on a trailer docked to the end of the greenhouse. Strangely patterned quilts hung in a clothesline and a solar bar-BQ grill I never seen in real life. I was expecting a Martian to appear in my presents as I gazed disconnected from reality.
"The quilts are a matrix of piezo crystals and solar cells to capture sun, sound and wind energy." I didn't even spin to see whom was speaking. "The front house facade is for show, I mostly live back here now." Yoda, you must be Yoda! I blurted out. There was silence then we burst out laughing. "I've been called that. Who is that anyway?"
"We are all joined by the hip to the grid. I just thought I sip through a straw instead of gulping like it's my last day on earth." "How much of anything do I need anyway." "Besides, it's fun to do what I do with my own time and dime and not spending most on grid fees." "They give incentives to use less energy, then raise the rates because you aren't paying your share, endless game." "I am constructing a smaller house within the big house so in the winter time I won't have to heat all of it."
"In the summer I come out here, it's a minimalist paradise, I'm an urban techno native." "The stationary shed sleeps two, has everything needed for a simple decluttered life." "We live mostly in our mind so once you clean your head of others thinking, demanding, approving, and influencing, you can get on with unobstructed living."
"The greenhouse has a fish unit, veggies, herbs, I can really go shopping once a month." "The mobile shed is my travel house, I haven't seen the inside of a motel in years." "On a good sunny day, I can grill whatever, even steaks. It also has a thermo/electrical converter that makes electricity." "I charge batteries of all kinds for the whole neighborhood with my extra energy." "Too bad the hood isn't all as I but some get it and some never get anything."
I took it all in. Sitting here at home reliving that experience and complaining. Damn, I just let that man redefine my values and I've got to do something about it. I'm drawing plans for an inner house, mobile shed and greenhouse. I wonder where he keeps his light-saber?
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