Modern Amenities - You don't miss them till they are gone

[Elheru Aran]

take it from me, squatting's not so bad when you HAVE to do it... as I can attest from experience... but I agree that the throne's preferable!

[Hethrir]

I have no probs camping and getting 'back to basics' as such, but the biggest commodity of modern life that is missed is street lights. Try driving through the busy parts of town in a black out.

[Enforcer Talen]

I'm watching a show on the History Channel about plumbing. It just reinforces what I experienced a few weeks ago. Modern plumbing and other such items are wonderful, but you don't think about them till they are gone.

About 3 weeks ago the water heater went out and leaked all over the garage. My friends don't live near me anymore so it was not until the following week I could get it replaced. I tried taking one, and only one, cold shower. Fuck that! Even in California the water is too cold in February for that shit.

Anyway, I ended up taking showers at work as a compromise. Its fixed now and Im glad for my hot showers. No back to nature for me. No living in the ruins of civilization fantasies for me.

So, what modern convenience that is often overlooked are you thankful for?

a warm bed, meals, and water.

[Elheru Aran]

does anybody here have any idea what would be lost without electricity?

starting with the house... lights, computer, refrigator (no food preservation), stove (unless gas), water heater (again, unless gas), security devices...

then there's the town-- street lights, traffic lights, water pumps, subways.

And i don't want to think about what the effects would be like on a national level...

But I can assure you, I have very intimate personal experience with living without electricity for >2-3 weeks at times...

[Broomstick]

Toilet paper is a good one, but I suppose we could always get by on rabbit fur.

Toilets, period, are a modern amenity we very underestimate.

I shudder at the thought of looking for a bush day after day....wondering exactly what I'm going to be using as toilet paper.

Recently read a book called Surviving the Extremes, written by a doctor who's done a lot of wilderness medicine. His account of Amazonian Butt Fleas is both horrifying and amusing.

Basically, in the Amazon there is a variety of flea that sits and waits until suitable mammal buttocks present themselves (usually when said mammal squats to defecate), then jumps up and burrows in. They set up house, feeding on blood, and their little abodes periodically swell up, itch, and extrude flea eggs. Removal is a minor surgical procedure. Anyhow, after the first infestation of the research team the doc was accompanying, ever afterward when folks went to do their business they traveled in teams - one to squat and the other to stand guard and swat fleas off the ass of the squatter before they started burrowing.

Definitely made me appreciate my modern bathroom.