Perceptions and expectations can change dramatically...

...over time, given dramatic changes in circumstance.

What seems a great hardship at first becomes normal. What seemed a convenience so normal as to be virtually invisible becomes something miraculous.

I haven't had a flush toilet in going on five years, since I moved here. I haven't had running water since winter, when ice damaged so much of the Interim Lair's plumbing it simply wasn't worth fixing. I regarded it as incentive to build and move, and decided to leave it that way.

Every time I've encountered a "real" toilet for the past few years, I've wanted to stand and marvel at its elegant simplicity. This morning I went out early to backfill my septic pit while it was still cool. First I had to fill the barrels with water, and while that was going on I stood in the Secret Lair's tiny bathroom and flushed the toilet. Over and over. It never stopped seeming marvelous to me.

When it does - and it will - I'm going to miss that feeling.

When it got too hot and I got too tired to dig any more, I wandered over to M's Dome where M is industriously stringing cable for his power system. He got the AC side working yesterday. I remember the wonderful feeling of running a tool for the very first time on power you've more-or-less conjured from thin air. This morning he connected his PV panels to the system, and it all woke up. Of course he has a much more elaborate and intimidating system than I do, so there was a lot more to do to get it working right. Three manuals worth of things to do, in point of fact. But his joy was the same as mine last year, when he threw the switches and it didn't quite but may as well have said, "Good morning, Dave." Sunlight hits the panels, and electrons flow through household outlets. Not a power pole or utility company in sight. Nor any monthly bills. Independence Day!