[KaiserJeep]

Enjoying The End Of The World As We Know It

This is a thread about the things you will miss most when cheap Fossil Fuels are gone, when everything we buy costs 10X to 100X as much, and we are doing without almost everything we can buy today. Pick your top and most important item, and explain why and how you enjoy it.

I'll start. I enjoy coffee and I'll really, really miss it. There are of course countless ways to enjoy coffee, and this is my favorite:

1) I brew in a stovetop Moka Pot, a Bialetti Moka Express in the 3-shot size. (Moka coffee is as strong as Espresso, but lacks the crema from steam brewing, and I like it better than Espresso or the French press. Sometimes I also brew a 16oz. drip coffee in a Melitta cone, with the same two coffee measures of whole beans I put in the Moka pot.)

2) I have recently enjoyed both Jamaica Blue Mountain and Kona coffees. Currently I favor Papua New Guinea and get whole beans here:
http://www.coffeeam.com/papnewguinsi.html
3) I grind the beans just before brewing in one of these:

Any of these would also work: http://www.roastycoffee.com/10-best-hand-coffee-grinders/
4) Lastly I like an insulated Borosilicate Glass container, either a glass or cup. I use the 6.5oz cup which matches perfectly the 3-shot Moka Pot.


Enjoy your coffee, preferably with someone you love, for it will be unaffordable soon. (Unless like Ibon, you live on a tropical mountain.)

Edit: Don't hold back. Inspire the rest of us to enjoy your activity, food, beverage, or whatever - before it is gone forever. I may re-visit this thread the next time I have a fine wine or a good bourbon, for example.

[onlooker]

Me, I am going to miss the Internet and conversing with all you fine folk. We may not always agree but at least we exchange viewpoints with mutual courtesy. I find all viewpoints have something to teach and are worthwhile to engage with. I also, like just the fact that I can pay bills online, work online, entertain myself online, and investigate online. Also, like talking with people from all walks of life and places. So I am going to miss the Internets haha President Bush referring to it in the plural.

[Plantagenet]

I'm going to miss driving around in my old FJ-40 Land Cruiser.

And I'll miss planes, trains, boats and travel.

Gonna miss it

[careinke]

I too will miss the internet the most. Although, I hold some hope a singularity will appear first and some how figure out a way to save it.

OH, and toilet paper, I'm really going to miss that.

[Cog]

Are we talking Little House on the Prairie or The Road TEOTWAWKI? Cause that makes a lot of difference on what I would miss.

[KaiserJeep]

This post is about the single thing that you will miss most when the power grid is non-functional, the Internet is a distant memory, and you can no longer cruise down to the supermarket and buy food and other sundries.

I have credible plans to be free of the grid and to not need a ICE vehicle or any Fossil Fuels for space heating within a couple of years. I decided I will miss coffee. The Internet appears to be the most popular choice, although the sample is small so far.

I was hoping for more, frankly - I wanted to have new things to try, before they are gone. I gave a detailed recipe for what I believe is the best coffee in the world, so that others could experience it.

[vtsnowedin]

I will miss gas for my chain saw and wood splitter. Working up a wood pile with a bucksaw and axe is a lot of work for this old back.

[AdamB]

Cheap fossil fuels have been gone since about 1970 or so, and most of us were raised in a world of higher priced fossil fuels, at least in terms of crude oil anyway.

And I think in this terrifying aftermath we are stuck in, I will continue enjoying the same sorts of things that I enjoyed before the price began its inexorable increase to where it is now.



Except nowadays, being forced into ever increasing efficiency because of the horrors of increased prices, our cars are faster. Because they make more power for their increased fuel expenses, just like my frig and home insulation and all the other reasons why no one has really noticed these increases. Except some peak folks anyway.

[ritter]

Indoor plumbing--oh the luxury of a hot shower and flushing toilets. A second would be refrigeration.

[yellowcanoe]

I think many of us would miss long distance transportation the most, especially if you are depending on it to visit family and close friends. Right now, flying across the country or to/from Europe is relatively cheap. Those who think we can simply revert to using passenger trains and ocean liners should consider that during the golden age of train/ship travel, going a long distance was expensive and not something that the average family could readily afford. Most people who emigrated to North America never had a chance to travel back to where they came from because they would not have been able to afford the trip. I expect a revival of long distance bus service once air travel becomes too expensive.

[Ibon]

Since I was 20 I have lived in 4 continents, many countries and during the years I was in the world of commerce the market I worked in required me to travle regularly to more than 30 countries. When we bought the land in Panama I said enough is enough, I want to get to know one place deep and stop all this travel. Like many of you I would most miss this ability to change physical locations, now for reasons of visiting loved ones. I am at the moment in South Carolina helping my brother care for my dad. Mount Totumas if it became a permanent place I was forced to stay in without the ability to travel easily would be a different experience, in spite of growing high elevation premium coffee that I can enjoy to the end of my days!

[SeaGypsy]

Big brother is the most pervasive thing to disappear & it's not easy to say he will be missed or otherwise. On the one hand he provides some security to some people some of the time, cumulative effect being a degree of fear of retribution & therefore less crime. On the other- policing of what people can grow in the garden, flipping absurd, border control, traffic flow of people & goods.

I'm not answering my own question, just commenting on what I think the most significant missing item might be. Security is as important as calories & water. Being able to use the whole palate of plants enables best chance of healthy & happy isolated communities.

Having to restructure to secure- food, water, shelter & security, probably a good thing the great distraction of the internet isn't likely to be around.

[vtsnowedin]

Indoor plumbing--oh the luxury of a hot shower and flushing toilets. A second would be refrigeration.

Good point. My plumbing is my own system and runs on gravity alone and I can heat the water with wood heat but the loss of the grid and the freezer would be a major PITA (the first word is pain, you can figure the rest.) I'd have to build and fill an ice house but even then frozen food stored through a summer would be impossible.

[Shaved Monkey]

I would miss travel
Though I hate flying and would be happy to catch a boat to Singapore and pick up one of Chinas fast trains to Europe or Asia (if it happens)
Ive been nearly everywhere for long periods of times(If I add it all up Ive spent about 3 years of my life or more just travelling) so worst case I will just flick through the photo album and remember.
Im currently in Thailand enjoying the cultural diversity and watching people eek out a living by adapting to their environment.
Motor bikes are king when the cost of fuel is similar to Australia and yet the wages are massively lower.
The people seem happy,I dont know if its budhism???
But they seem genuinely happy something we wont be if we were in their shoes.
So they have a massive advantage, we have to deal with thwarted expectations.
Ill be back in 6 months
There are lots of expats here that never left,though home is nice too.

[SeaGypsy]

Glad you are enjoying Thailand, careful around windows & balconies in tall buildings

The happy thing is a bit of cultural illusion, a bit of upward mobility, & Khmer stoicism. SE Asia is buzzing along like swarming 125cc powered billion odd can. I find everywhere very forward looking & despite the many obvious flaws in environmental management, the inspiration of all the scrambling forward, it's an interesting change of pace I find gives me a lot of creative ideas.

[Cog]

I'm guessing what I would miss most is a constant supply of hot water. I've sort of got used to bathing regularly but I guess if we all smell ripe no one will care much.

[Shaved Monkey]

I have 100% of my hot water heated by the sun and its all rain water so no problems there.
Coffee grows like a weed here,its a lot of hard work to process though.
I'm not a massive coffee fan though ,maybe a few cups a week at most,love my tea though.
My tea plants died but I still have a few regular camellias that you can make tea with.
I will replant the tea plants though as they are pretty hardy when established.
But there are plenty of other plants that make a nice tea. (lemon grass,lemon myrtle, ginger,mint etc.)
I chose this place to live for its ability to deliver nearly everything even if it gets Mad Max
Good climate so no need for heating or cooling,water,meat, fish, fruit, veg, herbs,olive oil,dairy,grain.
The imported Asian condiments can be made locally if needed,fish sauce, soy sauce,oyster sauce.
Pasta and bread can be made from grain thats cheap to transport and locally grown.
Rice will be a slight problem but there are lots of swampy areas around if it becomes necessary to grow it.

So its still travel for me
Though living here most people come here from all over the world for holidays because its beautiful and remote so its not really a hardship to not be able to travel.

[Shaved Monkey]

Forgot wine.
Love it with most meals the global economic collapse has given us a cheap glut in Australia so its a good time to be a drinker.
Obviously vineyards will got bust and supply will dry up and get more expensive.
but
My vineyard posts are in I will sort out the vines when I get home,I already have the wine making equipment and the knowledge.

[KaiserJeep]

What a disappointment. I give a gourmet coffee recipe, tell you where to source all the equipment and beans, and I get TP and complaints about not having hot water, long distance travel, and Internet.

I'm on the web, I travel already, I have plenty of hot water and know many ways to make it, and I can even wipe my ass already. Is that all you got?

[Tanada]

What a disappointment. I give a gourmet coffee recipe, tell you where to source all the equipment and beans, and I get TP and complaints about not having hot water, long distance travel, and Internet.

I'm on the web, I travel already, I have plenty of hot water and know many ways to make it, and I can even wipe my ass already. Is that all you got?

I appreciate what you were trying to do with this thread Kaiser but the thing I appreciate the most about the current level of technology and expense is not something I wish to share on an open forum because it sounds like self indulgent whining.