Some of my rural readers have been writing impassioned letters about a troubling domestic issue (the rising cost of renting a PO Box). “Dear Mr BobWords, (wrote Perplexed Pensioner of Reeseville) “When we knew we’d be moving to Maleny, we applied for a PO Box. “When we arrived here on Dec 22nd, 1993, the post office was still in the old house on the corner of Teak St. “They kept saying (once we presented ourselves…
Solar energy is great – we’ve got eight panels on the roof, a hot water system and a portable panel in the caravan. Pretty useless on Thursday, though, with ex-cyclone Debbie sending heavy rain our way. It would be great if we’d had a battery bank under the house to store the energy from the sunny weeks we’ve been having. But battery bank technology is yet to become affordable for the 1.6 million Aussies who…
A musician friend alerted me on Monday that not only was it his birthday, it was also International Day of Happiness. Once I’d finished doing cartwheels around the room in response to this spiffing news, I wished the dear boy a very happy birthday. As if that was not enough to get the cockles of the heart percolating, the next day She Who’ll Sing at the Drop of a Hat went down town to celebrate…
“If you’ve got money in your pocket and a switch on the wall, we’ll keep your dirty lights on.” So goes a song by American alt-country singers Darryl Scott and Tim O’Brien about coal mining and power generation. Their album Memories and Moments includes a version of John Prine’s Paradise, which remains the definitive song about the downsides of coal mining. That seemed a noteworthy way to introduce the potentially dry topic of energy, be…