June 2016: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
"Lachlan Dale James, mechanical and structural engineering."
Lock shook hands with the university official he'd never seen before, turned to face the audience, flipped his tassel to the other side, then hollered out, "Love you Mom and Dad!" as his parents cheered loudly for their only child.
True to his word, the hiring rep for a prestigious structural engineering firm was waiting for him the next morning in the firm's HR department. Lock filled out the stack of papers and just like that he had a well-paying, full-time job less than 24 hours after graduating from college.
June 2017: Stewart Engineering, Seattle, Washington:
"You've got a real future here, Lock. Great work on the water redirection project. You can expect a very nice bonus within the next thirty days."
Lock thanked the man who'd hired him straight out of college for letting him have the number two slot on a very important project their firm had been awarded by the local government after underbidding all the other firms that had competed. Lock laughed when he thought about how many things had been built by the lowest bidder over the years in the military and in other areas where government was involved.
Then again, there'd been no corners cut, no shortcuts taken, and everything they did was structurally sound. So lowest bidder or not, Lachlan James took a lot of pride in what he and his team had done.
"Thanks, Mr. Stewart," Lock said.
He wanted to discuss his future right then and there, but he wasn't quite ready to let the managing partner know he was already seriously thinking about leaving the firm. Even more so, he didn't want to explain why. At least not yet.
Since his freshman year in college, Lock had been fascinated by the prospect of doing what so many others were out there doing. It was called 'living off the grid.' To his great delight, a TV show featuring people doing just that came out during the last year, and he'd DVR'd then watched every episode trying to pick up information he hadn't already gleaned from various websites or other online sources.
The concept was actually pretty simple, and for an engineer like himself, it was child's play. The hard part was finding the ideal location and pulling together enough money to buy the land and build a home on it. The other challenges like catching and reusing rainwater or generating electricity for all the home's needs was very simple and straightforward.
Lock continued to live at home with his parents and saved nearly everything he'd earned the last 12 months, but knew he was still a long way from being able to leave the conventional world and give his dream a real try.
He'd found a five-acre piece of property in central-northern Montana which butted up against a river that could supply the energy he'd need to produce plenty of power. It was a good 40 miles from the nearest town, but there were trails into it that were large enough he could get his four-wheel drive pickup to it without too much difficulty. He'd even taken a quick trip there during a rare four-day weekend in October before the weather turned bad, and by the time he left, had fallen in love with the place.
The realtor representing the seller told him no one had yet made an offer, but as realtors are prone to do, also told him he'd 'better hurry because it was going to be snapped up quickly'. Eight months later, it was still for sale at the same price, and while Lock wasn't sweating bullets, he was concerned it just might get bought out from under him as he waited until he had the money to pay for it in cash.
Taking out a loan was self defeating as he'd have to make monthly payments which meant large interest payments requiring a paying job which defeated the whole reason for living off the grid, making that a 'non-starter'. No, he wanted to buy the property outright and not have to have any contact with any financial institution. For that matter, he wanted no outside contact with anyone except for possible monthly runs for supplies.
So rather than raise the issue which would only cause problems, he thanked his ultimate boss who shook his hand then said, "I've got another project coming up in about a month or so. I'll email you the details once I know everything is set in stone. And Lock? I'm thinking you just might be ready to take the lead."
"Wow. That's incredible, sir. I'll look forward to it," he said without saying a word about his long-term plans. "But I was wondering if, in the interim, I might be able to take a few days off."
"Well, you've been here for a year and that means you've got five days coming. Based on the job you did, I'd say you've earned it. So, sure. Just let your immediate supervisor know and have fun. But come back ready to burn the candle at both ends, okay?"
Having secured the firm's approval, Lock made reservations at a hotel in Eugene, Oregon, and paid for a two-day pass to an event he'd been looking forward to since hearing about it three months earlier.
*****
June 2017: 'Living Off the Grid' Exposition, Eugene, Oregon
"Mom, check this out!"
Her mother looked at it for a while then said, "It's a wood burning stove, right?"
"No. It just looks like one. It runs off of electricity."
"Well, where do you get the electricity?"
"You generate it with water power."
Her mom shook her head then told her daughter, "Jessica? I really, really like all the modern-day comforts of home. You know, like running water, indoor plumbing, cable television, computers. Stuff like that."
Her daughter sighed then smiled. Even though she'd explained it several times already, her mom just couldn't understand that 'living off the grid' didn't mean a return to the Dark Ages. It just meant being as close to self-sufficient as possible and specifically not relying on any power company or public utility.
Her home, if she could ever find someone willing to build it and equip it for her, would indeed have electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, and even basic appliances. She just wouldn't be hooked up to or dependent on the power grid, hence the term 'living off grid'.
"I just don't understand why you'd want to do this, honey," her mom said for the umpteenth time. "You're still young and pretty and there's more than enough time to get married again and even start a family. So...why this?"
Jessica Quinlan understood her mother's concerns. Her husband, Norm, had been gone for just shy of three years and now, having just turned 40, she still hadn't met anyone she wanted to date let alone consider marrying. And, being 40 meant she wasn't likely to ever start a family even were she to meet someone new and had more or less comes to terms with that.
She and Norm had tried for years before learning he wasn't able to have children. After that, the two of them had focused on their careers in real estate, and on enjoying their lives together. A year before Norm's death, they'd talked seriously for the first time about adopting, and just days before he was killed they'd met with an attorney to start the process.
Norm loved bicycling and regularly rode between 15 and 25 miles around their very large development as well as another development adjacent to theirs. He'd crossed the road connecting them hundreds of times over the years, but on that fateful morning, a busy mom on the way to drop off her two children before going to work was texting her sister about an upcoming birthday party for one of the kids. She'd never so much as had a traffic ticket since she started driving some 17 years before, but that all changed when she looked up and realized she was not only running a red light but that a bicycle was in her lane.
She saw the rider trying desperately to get out of the way as she jammed on the brakes, but it was too late and her car hit the bike and its rider so hard that the force of the impact broke his neck instantly sending him flying a good fifteen feet before being thrown into the pavement. The bike was a twisted mess of steel and carbon fiber while the 40-year old man lay limp and lifeless, his body sprawled out on the road as though he was looking up into the sky.
He and Jessica had talked several times about the unlikely possibility of something like this happening, and he'd made her promise she wouldn't sue the driver unless his death was intentional. At the woman's trial, Jessica served as a witness for the defense pleading for leniency and asking the court not to take the mother of two children away from them for a single moment of neglect.
It was very powerful testimony and because of it, the prosecution was willing to accept a guilty plea to manslaughter with no jail time as long as certain other conditions were met. The woman thanked Jessica with tears streaming down her face when the sentence was handed down. It didn't bring her husband back, but she'd done what he'd asked, and knowing she'd done the right thing was the one and only positive part of having lost the man she'd loved.
Now 40 herself, Jessica still knew she'd done the right thing as there was no reason to destroy a second family for an unintentional act. Yes, it was gross negligence on the woman's part, but Jessica was convinced the woman would never again text and drive, and more importantly, she would be there to raise her two children. No, she'd never been blessed to have one, but she knew what it would mean to her child were she taken away from him or her, and that was simply too much to ask for some notion of justice or vengeance.
She'd moved back home with her also-widowed mother not long after the funeral, intending to find her own place once she'd gotten back on her feet. But six months had turned into a year and then two, and now Jessica's mother was very concerned her daughter might never want to try and get her life back. Or not least not anything close to the life her mother wanted for her.
And even more distressing to her was her daughter's recent obsession with 'living off the grid.' It started when a new reality TV series featuring people doing that came out, and Jessica began watching it with growing interest. The interest turned to obsession after several months, and Jessica found herself online for hours each day researching how to actually do it herself.
She'd compiled a notebook of things to do and questions to ask, and she'd been beside herself when she learned a group of people who'd been living off the grid for several years were putting together a seminar/exposition on the subject in their hometown of Eugene.
Today was the first day of the expo, and Jessica was like a kid in a candy store, dragging her mother from booth to booth as she took photos, asked questions, and jotted down copious notes.
In response to her mother's 'why this' question, all Jessica could say was, "Mom, this is the first thing that's really interested me since Norm died."
She looked right at her mom then said very gently, "Why does it need to be any more complicated than that?"
Her mother, Cathy Denton, had loved having her daughter living at home with her, but she couldn't help but feel it was her duty to start gently pushing her back out of the nest. She'd have never dreamed of doing that the first year, and even during the second it seemed harsh if not still cruel. But now, with Jessica having been there for almost three years, Cathy worried she might be enabling her daughter, even though she wasn't sure what exactly it was she was enabling, as her daughter certainly didn't need to work.
