07 July 2022
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Oh dear... why are the local public transportation networks
making it so hard...

Since the start of the "9-Euro Ticket" i have seen many, 
many people adopting it for their commuting to work or for
other ways they would normaly go by car. I have witnessed
the parking lot of the big neighbour company getting more 
and more empty from day to day. And now, during the last 
two weeks, the local networks are seeming to actively making
live harder for the passengers. Trains are being canceled 
due to "staff shortages", they announce "Schienenersatzverkehr"
(a bus as replacement)... but the bus don't arrive. The
personal on the trains are getting more rude from day to day
and - so it seems - they just shut down ticket automats 
randomly. As i am living in a pretty rural spot in germany
going by public transportation is allways a bit problematic
compared to the big cities, but at least normaly you could
count on at least one train a hour. Now its, what, 3 trains a
day? After spending some afternoons marooned at train
station i will now start to commut with my e-scooter. The
thing is perhaps not THAT confortable as real motorscooter
but for my 12 km commute i can absolutely live with that.
May the train companies try their best to scare me away,
i will NOT go back to use a car.

On a more positive note: I am finally getting around to
look into graphics programming in Plan9, its... just plain
fun for me. Plan9 is - as i mentioned in a previous post - 
just in that "uncanny valley" for people with UNIX experience,
it looks similar, but "something is off". But if you embrace
the things it does different, it is absolutely amazing how
just plainly logical every part of the OS is working together.
I have to keep remembering me that i want to write a more 
detailed post regarding Plan9...

On the "collapse" side of things it seems like the events 
are now accelerating: It is pretty clear that we will 
experience energy shortages in the coming winter and people
are now buying gas or diesel powered generators and of course
electrical heaters. As my family lives in a big old half
timbered house its not that a problem: The house was build 
before the advent of electrical power and can be easily heated
by the big wood stoves (and for that we have enough wood already
stockpiled). I will also buy a few more oil lamps and stock 
up on lamp oil... i don't like the prospect of sitting in the
dark.