Coolness.

They're heading our way ...

May 17, 2008

Chasing Utopia, Family Imagines No Possessions

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and RACHEL MOSTELLER

AUSTIN, Tex. — Like many other young couples, Aimee and Jeff Harris spent the first years of their marriage eagerly accumulating stuff: cars, furniture, clothes, appliances and, after a son and a daughter came along, toys, toys, toys.

Now they are trying to get rid of it all, down to their fancy wedding bands. Chasing a utopian vision of a self-sustaining life on the land as partisans of a movement some call voluntary simplicity, they are donating virtually all their possessions to charity and hitting the road at the end of May.

“It’s amazing the amount of things a family can acquire,” said Mrs. Harris, 28, attributing their good life to “the ridiculous amount of money” her husband earned as a computer network engineer in this early Wi-Fi mecca.

The Harrises now hope to end up as organic homesteaders in Vermont.

“We’re not attached to any outcome,” said Mrs. Harris, a would-be doctor before dropping out of college, who grew up poverty-stricken in a family that traces its lineage back through the Delanos and President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Mayflower settler, Isaac Allerton.

Mr. Harris, 30, who dropped out of high school and “rode the Internet wave,” agreed, saying they were “letting the universe take us for a ride.”

They are not alone.

Gilt Trip

So, we finally got the three little pigs. One girl, two boys. They're in a pen while we get the grounding rods straightened out -- not enough of a charge to keep them in the fence. We'll have it together tomorrow, Friday at latest. Funny little animals.

Been busy as hell this week. Trying very hard to get the garden put together, but we're interested in farming crops, not rocks. Sigh. There are a lot of them down there. Also been engaged in a ton of Will chaffeur-ing. I had to take him to Rutland for a meeting for his June youth leadership conference in Phoenix, and Lisa and I got him from Rutland again a few days later for another meeting. Fortunately, the weather has been more or less gorgeous.

More on the triathlon death in Houston (maybe a week or two ago). Awfully sad. Sometimes, these things just happen for no good reason. I'll still argue that the swimming leg is the most dangerous part of the sport, with or without heart problems.

The death of a Conroe man who was stricken while swimming in a triathlon last weekend resulted from drowning, but a heart problem also was a factor, according to an autopsy report.

Randolph Wray Parnell, 51, was competing in the 500-meter swim when he was found floating face-down in Lake Woodlands on Saturday.

An autopsy, conducted Monday by the Southeast Texas Forensic Center in Conroe, showed that Parnell drowned, but that dilated cardiomyopathy was a contributing factor, said Edie Connelly, Montgomery County Precinct 3 justice of the peace.

Parnell was one of about 900 competitors in the CB&I triathlon at Northshore Park in The Woodlands.

He had been training and competing in triathlons for 11 years, family members said, and this was his third year competing in the CB&I triathlon.

Survivors include his wife, Sharon, and son, Mason.

You Can Do It. We Won't Be Around to Help.

Cheap, but it pretty much says it all. The Home Depot in Bratt has been run off. I've got mixed feelings. It had a big and cheap selection, but wasn't local. Most of the employees were nice and helpful; some, not so much. The reason they gave for closing the store -- seems like $11 million wasn't enough -- just struck me as shameful. So I don't know that this was so much about a small town victory as much as corporate asshattery.

I'm just finishing up a very long day at work, so more later. But here's the AP story, by way of the Boston Globe:

• Home /
• Business

In Vermont, small shops beat Home Depot in customer battle

Wayne St. John (left) of the family-run Fireside True Value sold a lawn tractor last week to David Dunn of Dummerston. (Jason R. Henske/Associated Press)

Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By John Curran Associated Press / May 4, 2008

BRATTLEBORO - When a Home Depot set up shop across the street, Fireside True Value hardware store owner Wayne St. John knew it would probably take some of his customers away.

more stories like this

He and his brothers, who've operated their store for 35 years, had heard the stories about big-box stores and their low prices driving competitors into the ground.

So the store stuck to what it does best - good customer service, competitive prices, and a willingness to stock the hard-to-find parts that folks never seemed to find at the big building with the orange roof.

Four years later, it's Fireside True Value that's still standing.

"I've had a lot of customers come in and say 'You guys put them under,' " said St. John.

In truth, many factors played a role in the closing of Home Depot store No. 4552 and in the Atlanta-based home improvement giant's decision to close 14 other "underperforming" stores whose annual sales averaged about $11 million, far below the $36 million desired by the company.

Among them: Opposition from grass-roots groups that succeed in stirring up boycotts and bad publicity even when they don't stop the stores from opening.

"We've seen big-box stores defeated in over 200 communities in the last two years," said Stacy Mitchell, author of "Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses."

"Campaigns are proliferating and even if they don't succeed, the public education they do often has a significant impact on people's shopping choices after the store opens," Mitchell said.

In Brattleboro, an artsy southern Vermont town (pop. 11,741) known for its left-leaning sensibilities, Home Depot was a public enemy before it even opened the store in a former Ames department store 1 1/2 miles from downtown.

Small by Home Depot standards at 60,000 square feet, it was sandwiched in between two other Home Depots - one across the river in Keene, N.H., the other in nearby Greenfield, Mass. - both within a 30-minute drive.

BrattPower, a citizens' group, fought to keep the home improvement retailer out, saying its bargain prices and sheer size would siphon business from local businesses.

"This is not an orange-blooded town," said Al Norman, an antisprawl activist who has spearheaded campaigns against Wal-Mart and Home Depot in dozens of communities.

"Yes, it's a bad housing market. Yes, it was a bad location. Yes, it was a small location. But it was also in hostile territory."

Loyalty to existing businesses also played a role.

Brown & Roberts, a family-operated Ace Hardware store downtown beloved by locals for its creaky wooden floors, peg-board displays, and attentive personal service, couldn't compete with Home Depot's prices on some products, but many customers continued going there anyway.

"That first year, business was flat," said manager Paul Putnam, 59, who runs it along with seven other family members.

"We haven't had a banner year in their four years here, but we've managed to make it. Good customer service, having friendly, knowledgeable employees, that's always been our strong point."

Neither store changed its merchandising strategy or price structure to compete with the new store in town, believing that customers would stick with them. For the most part, they did.

Home Depot spokeswoman Jean Niemi wouldn't comment on the common traits shared by the towns where the stores will be closed. She said the lackluster sales were the bottom line.

Again.

I don't know, but I think 1,000 people swimming together might be too many. I'm wondering if the sport might not be better off with some sort of pre-qualifications across sports. Something like, you can enter if you've run a 5K in 24 minutes or less in the past year, or swum 500m in 10 minutes or less, that sort of thing.

Here's the story from the Conroe Courier:

Conroe triathlete dies

Elliott Cochran
Courier Staff

05/04/2008

Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendly

A Conroe resident died while competing in the swimming portion of the 2008 CB&I Triathlon at Northshore Park in The Woodlands Saturday morning.

Randolph Parnell, 51, an experienced triathlete, competed among 1,000 participants in the race. He died from undetermined causes in the swimming portion of the race, according to officials at press time.

Chris Nunes, director of parks and recreation for The Woodlands, said rescue personnel were present at the time of the incident, and information and details of the occurrence are ongoing.

“We’re still collecting a lot of information and debriefing our staff,” he said. “There were personnel on site as part of the race, including between 12 and 14 lifeguards in individual kayaks and on the shore, as well as The Woodlands Fire Department on one of their rescue boats.”

The triathlon included a 500-meter swim, a 15-mile bike ride and a 5k run.

Bret Strong, a participant in the event and friend of Parnell, said Parnell appeared to be prepared for the event, and was enthusiastic.

“I talked to him a little before the race and wished him luck; he seemed happy and ready to go,” he said. “We’ve known him and his wife and their son for 18 years now. When we first moved to The Woodlands, they were one of the first families we met.”

Parnell previously competed in the 2006 CB&I Triathlon, finishing 281st overall, and 25th in the male 45- to 49-year-old division.

The body was taken to Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital.

Some Days Just Suck

And that's all I'm saying about that.

Pig Things, Part Two

But we're really not all screwed until we start stockpiling animals.

Courtesy, today's WSJ:

As Food Prices Rise, Shoppers Stock Up
By GARY MCWILLIAMS and DAVID KESMODEL
May 1, 2008; Page D1

Ross C. Powell has found a novel way to counter rising grocery prices. He started an informal food cooperative out of his garage.

The San Antonio project manager is currently stocking up on inexpensive beef, anticipating meat prices will follow dairy, egg and grain prices higher. "It's a hedging strategy," says Mr. Powell, a 48-year-old father of three. He recently installed a 22-cubic-foot freezer in his garage to go along with the shelves he built for deeply discounted food staples. Neighbors who once dismissed his frugal ways as overkill are now joining him to make bulk purchases of meat.

Even as rising food prices have triggered protests in developing countries, Americans are rediscovering the economic virtues of a well-stocked food pantry and storage freezer, and embracing discount and wholesale retailers for cut-rate meals.

Stockpiling staples such as rice, meats and canned soup is coming into vogue again as food inflation and $3.60-a-gallon gasoline have consumers cutting the frequency of shopping trips -- and loading up carts when they do shop. Sometimes shoppers are prodded by fears of impending food shortages, though none have yet materialized in the U.S.

The Department of Agriculture predicts a 4% to 5% increase in food prices this year, nearly twice the rate for 2005. The largest increases are forecast for fats and oils, estimated to rise 8% to 9%, and cereals and bakery products, projected to jump 7.5% to 8.5%. That's on top of existing increases: A dozen large eggs cost $2.20 in March, up from $1.63 a year earlier. White bread now costs $1.35 a pound, compared with $1.16 a year ago.

For most Americans, stockpiling fell out of favor decades ago as the rise of lower-price supercenters, wholesale clubs and discount chains curbed food-price inflation. Customers who made a trek to discounters -- Aldi Group, Costco Wholesale Corp., or Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- no longer needed to stockpile. The new competition forced grocery chains to push down costs, helping to drive down food inflation through the 1980s and 1990s.

Today, the impact of some countries banning rice exports has prompted stores to limit purchases of certain foods, including rice and cooking oils -- and that has helped to trigger a return to 1970s-style stockpiling. Consumers witnessing food inflation in their weekly trips are responding by buying more than their immediate needs.

"It's not prices going up that kicks off this behavior," says John Rand, director of retail insight at consultants Management Ventures Inc. "It's the fact that prices go up in a predictable fashion."

Lynn I. McDermott, a 51-year-old Brewster, Mass., real-estate agent, has used a freezer for stockpiling heavily discounted frozen foods. "In the past, if it was a killer sale, I'd buy a few. Now, when they're on sale, I'll buy a lot," she says.

Pig Things

Got a call last night from a guy who can sell us three Yorkshire piglets, so I spent a couple of hours early this morning on the fenceline, trimming brush. I'll put the electric fence up this weekend and assemble a quick, pallet-shack for the beasts. Also have to get a trough and watering barrel. Lot of stuff to do.

On the goat front, the Southern Vermont Dairy Goat Association is right up the road from us. I've been doing some back-and-forth with them, and one of their members may be selling a couple of yearling goats. They wouldn't be ready for milking until fall, but ...

Need to rent a rototiller in the next week, too. We got flurries yesterday (!) and the last freeze shouldn't be for another couple of weeks, but we'll have to have everything in the ground by then. I've done just about enough hand tilling to last, oh, a lifetime.

Hoping to get back on the running track next week. Looks like physical terrorism is just about over.

A quick tip of the hat to Frances Bolles, Don's child (Don was the Arizona Republic reporter who was killed in 1976 by a car bomb planted by some major assholes, one of whom is 78 and asking for parole. And shouldn't get it). She's right about the cute little centerpiece in the Newseum:

She's married and has a son. She's a successful author and career development expert. Nearly 32 years have passed and still, at any moment, it's once again June 2, 1976. Like when she read that the recently opened Newseum in Washington, D.C., has her father's bombed out car on display.

“That is just grotesque,” Frances said. “I can't tell you what pain it is knowing that people are going to walk by and gawk. It reinforces the idea that my father is a footnote, and I rail against that. Over time, a victim is forgotten so that in something like a clemency hearing the focus goes to the person who is living rather than the person who was killed. My father was real. I don't want anyone to forget that.”

Back to the day job, aka making little rocks out of big rocks.