A Gruntled American Speaks -- or rather Writes

We really shouldn't take the future of our country too seriously -- or at least that seems to be the attitude of the electorate. Just kidding. I do feel a bit like one of those Old Testament Prophets, though: Nothing to do now but wait for the locust plagues to show up. Again, just kidding. I do expect a rain of frogs on Saturday, though. OK, more like a light toad shower.

Originally I thought of Kiddington Oh! as the setting for a comic novel (I think the very first post is the very first part). Then I reread it and realized it wasn't funny. Be that as it may. I am toying with another idea for a novel.

See, there's this extended family of bankrupt coal miners. And they strap the mattress to the top of the SUV and borrow some gas money from a rich uncle who works for the government. Or maybe they have one of them stoves strapped to the back that cooks gas from coal to run the SUV. Now their coal cooking SUV spews black soot, and it's a good thing they got carbon credits from their rich uncle because they use them to bribe the enviro-police.

As they travel down the refugee filled roads, they stop at abandoned coal pits to scavenge more fuel. They have to beat off the widows and orphans who make their living clawing coal from the face of the strip mine with their fingers! (And the mine is filling with water so the kids have to dive to get it! And it's freezing! Good thing they're young!). So the family -- basically decent sorts with a few sexual peccadilloes and one potentially explosive sociopath who's just turned sixteen (should it be a girl?) -- end up stealing their coal from the young coal divers because they are desperate for fuel for their coal cooker! And some of the young coal divers might starve as a result if they can't get to where they give out food stamps to the well connected!

But the basically decent family (with the few exceptions I noted) have got to steal the coal from the children because -- you see, they're heading for the new Government work camps that have sprung up in the wind blessed Midwest! There windmill farms are built to send ever more power to Washington! And when the wind ain't blowing, the people get on treadmills because they are like, like, back-up batteries! What do think?

I think I'll call it The Shafts of Coal. No, that's too dark. I know. The Shafts of Lite.