Slouching Toward Sustainability

A banner day on the egg front yesterday; a dozen eggs. Three green eggs, nine brown eggs. On the downside, the turkeys and one of the ducks got into a bit of a rumble. The turkeys damn near killed the duck. I had to take it out of the run and put it in a crate while it recovers. A few of the roosters joined in the fun, too.

I'm thinking suspensions for all involved.

Took Will into Keene to get his Halloween duds last night. I think he's getting a bit long in the tooth to be trick-or-treating (13 years old), but whatever makes him happy.

The fun continues. The WSJ notes that it's got peak oil people's knickers in a knot:

Oil Tops $90 on Range of Worries
Tensions in the Mideast

And Tightening Supplies

Push Crude Prices to Record
By NEIL KING JR. in Washington and SHAI OSTER in Beijing

October 26, 2007; Page A3

Oil soared past $90 a barrel to a record on a mix of unsettling news that ranged from Middle East tensions to supply concerns, demonstrating the delicate state of world petroleum markets heading into the energy-intensive winter months.

The events -- which included a statement by a top OPEC official to The Wall Street Journal that the world's oil cartel doesn't see a need to check the price surge -- might not have moved oil markets dramatically by themselves. But oil's 3.9% rise yesterday to an exchange high of $90.46 a barrel shows that prices are responding to a slew of economic and geopolitical forces and suggests further big swings could lie ahead.

Abdalla Salem El-Badri, secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, told the Journal yesterday the cartel isn't worried about prices hovering around $90 a barrel as long as global economic conditions are good.

"We have no price band or price target," Mr. El-Badri said on the sidelines of a meeting with Chinese energy officials in Beijing. "If it persists for a longer period, then we start worrying. But at this time, we don't know what's going to happen next month."

Here's what OPEC has to say:

OPEC is carefully watching developments in the oil market and has observed with concern the recent escalation in oil prices.

While the Organization does not favour oil prices at this level, it strongly believes that fundamentals are not supporting current high prices and that the market is very well supplied. There has been no interruption in crude supplies and OECD commercial inventory levels remain above five-year levels. Forward cover, which stands at 53.5 days, is at a comfortable level.

The rising oil prices which we are currently witnessing are, however, largely being driven by market speculators. Persistent refinery bottlenecks and seasonal maintenance work, ongoing geopolitical problems in the Middle East and fluctuations in the US dollar, also continue to play a role in pushing oil prices higher.

Additional political tensions, seen during recent days, are also pressurizing oil prices upwards.

OPEC continues to strive for a balanced market and a fair price that is favourable for both consumers and producers. As part of its mission to keep the market well supplied, and as agreed in September, the Organization will raise output by 500,000 b/d from 1 November 2007.

Member Countries are in the process of implementing their share of this increase. OPEC will continue to monitor the global oil market and will respond to any supply disruption, so as to ensure the market remains well supplied during the winter months.

It's a little more reassuring than "Holy crap! We're out of oil!"

And on the reassuring front, oil prices always drop in early winter. Then again, my dad also came home from work one day and announced the U.S. had hit peak. This would've been in 1970. Which, 37 years after the fact, is pretty much what everyone now admits. Haven't quite worked up the nerve to see what he thinks of the current mess, but I have a feeling it's not too good.

Speaking of not good: This lack-of-rotator-cuff thing is really getting old. If I roll over in my sleep on my right shoulder, I'm no longer asleep. I don't think physical therapy is going to get it done, and I will never do cortisone shots again. It's not just that I'm a wimp (I am! And pain shots that require a pain shot so you don't feel the really good pain shot should be illegal!), but the last time I did cortisone, I had a terrible reaction and wound up in a hospital on Christmas Eve with a 106.5 degree fever and room full of ER doctors who seemed convinced that I'd gotten a bad dose of heroin.

Of course, surgery isn't a cakewalk, either. Two weeks of no work, four weeks in a sling, eight weeks to lift arm above head, and six months to full recovery. I think I'm going to plod along and see if it doesn't magically repair itself, but I'm not terribly optimistic.

Read of the Week: The Coldest Winter, by David Halberstam.

I believe we're just past peak foliage. Quite a bit of frost on the ground this morning, but not as cool as it was when we moved here in 2001. I still remember driving south on Route 100 during the first week of October and seeing little flurries start to fly. Felt like one of Napoleon's people in Russia:

"Uh, boss, you might want to come take a look at this ..."

Better get back to plugging away on the day job. It could be worse; I came across a 1999 Onion article that makes me want to gargle with razor blades. For 99.9 percent of the population, this is not satire:





The wall-eyed, slack-jawed U.S. populace, beaten down into a state of near-catatonia by the relentlessly deadening banality of their joyless, insipid lives, dutifully trudged through the motions for yet another emotionally blank day Monday, sources reported.



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