Theatre of the Absurd

Treehugger: Gas too Expensive? Dump Environmental Rules.

My least favorite form of theater is the absurdist movement of the 1950 forward, plays like Waiting for Godot make me nauseous.
To me, life is way too absurd as it is.

This afternoon a van from the Reykjavik Energy Company was parked in our yard. This would be a painfully dull statement, if it weren't for the fact that they had the key in the ignition and the van running whilst they were checking out whatever they were checking out.

For well over 30 minutes.

I have no choice but to pay these clowns every month for heating and electricity. There is no option if you live in Reykjavik. With the liter of gas going for 124 ISK (translates to roughly $6. 45 per gallon) it seems that most of what I pay is goes to keeping their vans running. Lovely.

But then again, why should they be any better than members of parliament? A while ago I drove my very own gas guzzler to a store in search for a present. Outside, I noticed a gleaming SUV parked, keys in the ignition, motor running. Inside the store nobody seemed to be in urgent need of help or in a hurry to leave. Fifteen minutes later, a member of the Independence Party and current member of Parliament left the store and got in the vehicle. A couple of minutes after that, he drove away.

So glad I can oblige by paying his wages too.

Leaving the car running is completely unsexy and astoundingly common in Iceland.

Man, I'm going to have buy a lot of TerraPasses. One for our own little darling, and several hundred to make up for the fact that I'm Icelandic.