Been a fairly uneventful past week or so, hence the inactivity. The weather has gotten much better and it's starting to look like spring time. I've even been seeing a lot more robins lately which is always a great sign. Most all the damages I've been seeing in home inspections have been very minor compared to earlier in this tour but I've been dealing with a lot of my claims in which have reopened with either additional damages or contractor disputes. One more week until I peace out of Connecticut and get some days off.

I've had a lot of time in between driving to inspections to daydream about the keys to happiness in this crazy life: have a memory that made you really happy in the past, be happy about what's going on in the present and have something happy to look forward to. I have very pleasant memories of going on a cruise with some of my best friends and I really want to get up to Chesuncook to reconnect with my favorite childhood hotspot in the near future. But, in the here and now, I feel really sad about what has been going on in Japan. This past weekend, one of the most devastating natural disasters in history occurred in the form of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that completely wrecked the nation. The entire country is in shambles and the destruction is still ongoing in the form of tsunamis and nuclear reactor explosions. Our world is literally falling apart around us and it's terrifying, and I feel that we are responsible.

The technology race is spiraling out of control to the point where I feel we are all hardwired to some Matrix-like system. The population on this planet is growing out of control and all our natural resources are being soaked up and wasted on making stupid cellphones and big screen TV's that we are all a slave to. I admit I am a responsible party to this since I own a personal laptop and use a blackberry AND I also have a work laptop and work cellphone that I lug around and use all day every day. I sometimes look at my blackberry and work computer in disgust because of this power it has over me and others like me and I just want to throw it out the window and not be so consumed with it. I haven't felt this way since I gave up TV and cable and almost gave up my car last year. A lot has changed since then when I took this job but I feel that if we don't wise up to the fact that we have a serious problem, then we are all doomed.

I want to return to a simpler time, a time when we actually engaged our minds and promoted strong imaginations outside of looking at a blinking screen. We've all become robots. I think that's why I've been thinking a lot about Chesuncook lately, because up there, nature was all you had. It really is a great life, to provide for oneself and entertain oneself and be surrounded by all things natural. When we went up there as kids growing up, my cousins and sister and friends all used to spend weeks at a time playing cards, reading comics, swimming in the lake, going fishing, taking hikes, pretty much anything one could possibly do without the "luxuries" of the latest and greatest electronic devices. It was perceived as a much simpler time and a time that I feel I've really lost touch with.

Sorry about the rant, I get fired up sometimes and hate being such a hypocrite.