Once Again, as a Round

I used to love chain songs, I'd sing them all the time to my children. And now I can't. I've got no more children, and they all hit too close to home.

I was just an HVAC - Heating, Venting, and Cooling - technician. what was I going to do about the dead rising, and looters, and aliens? I couldn't even get home until well, weeks later. The NEST went into quarantine mode pretty quickly - just apparently not before the reanimation bug got inside.

This is the cat that killed the rat...

I've had my time to come to terms with that. I think. The death of the rest of the world, I don't know. Its all the little things, but surely they are there, and like the songs, its just so simple, yet it goes.

What is a refrigerator? Take it from an expert - its a magic little box. You'd think woman's liberation and feminism is just from changing views of human nature - and don't get me wrong - self motivation was and is a big part of feminism. But the ice box played a large role in making it possible. No longer did time have to be spent every day going to the market for fresh items - shop once a week and store it at home. Nor did a meat dish require raising the animal yourself - go to a butcher and chill it. The ice packs of "Dr, Mom" and popsicles to keep everyone happy. Insulin for the diabetic - also needed proper storage.

Electric lighting and the oven with temperature thermocouples did much the same thing - grant more free time, more time to study, better oneself, or be productive outside the home.

When the compressors don't run, and the tubing gets moist holes can form, refrigerant gets out, cooling fins corrode... the whole system needs to be replaced.

Meat packing, microchips, spaceflight, medicine production, electrostatic paint, server farms, sugar mills - all these things require temperature control to keep the products fresh, or ensure proper application - even outright prevent dust explosions in some of these cases.

Any chance of getting society back together relies on a supply of C-860 and electric pumps, neither of which are being produced anymore.

We're done for. Its all lost, and we're back to subsistence farming, and pre-colonial days. Can't even say its the Wild West - at least then you had trains and could travel without your brains getting eaten. Worse than the dark ages really, and we know so well what we're losing.

Maybe we'll still have books. Or are we going to go back to parchment? Really, who has a printing press and a way to get them to those who can read? Who has time to read, or a good atmosphere to relax in? Can you even save left-overs? If you want meat, you got to catch the goat yourself.

one little goat, that my father bought for two zizm...