This has been a cool spring and we have been in no rush to open the pool. To begin with, we’ve learned to wait until the helicopter seeds from the surrounding silver maples have petered out. More importantly when you get up every morning and put on a flannel shirt, that’s not prime swimming weather. But with the crops planted and no other good excuse, I pulled off the cover and vacuumed. Jan began managing the pool chemistry, all in hopes of barely tolerable water temperatures when grandchildren visit at the end of the month. No – I will not pay for LP to warm it up in May when the water gets too warm in August.
I had been reading about possible shortages of chlorine which we use to kill the bad stuff in the water. Jan had plenty left over from last year, but the shortage has turned out to be real. We’re hunted some down like it was toilet paper. But it’s looking like 2021 will be the year of “we can’t get that”. The reasons are varied: the pandemic when manufacturers slowed production and shippers idled ships and trucks; the freeze in Texas, where much of our feedstock chemicals are produced; a fire in a Louisiana chemical plant; continuing effects of the trade war; shifts in consumer demand toward online retail requiring more packaging material and shipping; the pandemic spike in India, which has crippled major ports for this important source for many of our imports; hackers shutting down a pipeline (bet you didn’t have that on your bingo card); and trickle down effects of the microchip shortage, which we are only beginning to grasp.
The result is a whack-a-mole collection of seemingly unrelated shortages. From chlorine to ketchup packets to chicken to pickups – it is almost impossible to predict which thing we want to buy won’t be available. This gets us to the Tragedy of the Toilet Paper – today’s version of the Tragedy of the Commons. Prudent actions by individuals like stocking up on suspected soon-to-be-hard-to-find items can create those very shortages and impose unnecessary burdens on all consumers. If we all just buy what we need, yadda,yadda.
One good thing may come out of this – the practice of waiting until the last minute to buy crucial supplies is over. Aaron is making sure planter upgrades for next year are in our shop. I’m bringing forward planned computer upgrades and some tool purchases. OK, that’s a bad example since I was thrilled for a powerful excuse to do so. And we’re all pondering what product shortage of would impose a huge burden in the near future.
