Zooming In and Zooming Out

Lately I have given some thought to end-of-world scenarios, fueled by recent scholarly articles about solar storms that could come in the next year or two and knock out our entire power grid for a long time, or even forever. The mind boggles at such a thought, and several depressing things occur to me, not the least of which is that my hair will be eternally frizzy since it needs the force and heat of a dryer to blow it straight. Of course I could always wear hats, but even the lightest little cap gives me a headache after a while. Other things seem problematic too, like no more food or potable water for anyone, anywhere, leading to the eventual death of all living things.

Looking on the bright side, while impending doom for all mankind is admittedly pretty bad, it's beyond my control and thus I can go about my business and let someone else worry. Meanwhile, my still relatively new car smells like rotten eggs when I turn the motor off. This will require a trip to South Portland to the dealership, where I'll have to sit in that little room with the popcorn machine and the big TV overhead that's on way too loud and tuned to something awful, like drag racing or Jerry Springer, if that's still on the air, waiting for God knows how long until they fix it for I can just imagine how much. I guess if the solar storm came right then, while I was reading the complimentary copy of Highlights magazine, I could handle it. And I bet John Edwards would be all the way to ecstatic.