Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

The "good old days" are over because they were based on the fact that a large part of the world would never come to prosperity and did not even aspire to it. That is definitely over, Chinese, Indians, Brazilians... in the future they all want to live like us.

That is a narrative. Back to the good old days is another narrative. Politics - like many other things - is driven less by actual reality than by the currently popular narratives about reality. But these are always only distortions, sometimes better and sometimes worse. And when enough people believe in a narrative, it has very real consequences. Whether the narrative was good or bad. The last 2.5 years have provided plenty of illustrative material in all directions. And it becomes very dangerous when one group tries to impose its narrative on other groups for whom that does not fit their reality at all.

Autonomous driving is becoming interesting. I only fear more individual traffic, with fewer private vehicles, because it can be very comfortable. Aside from the child seat problem. You go out partying in the evening, get driven. You need storage space for a surfboard or shopping, the appropriate car is ready. Ice, snow, fog, wildlife, the sensors will handle it.

City with 20K public transport runs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hourly, Saturdays until 1 p.m. Sundays and public holidays not at all. I once lived in a small town with 30K. I had to walk 5 minutes and then there was a relatively regular bus to the next big city. Frequency between 15 minutes and 60 minutes. On weekends at night there was no bus for 2 or 3 hours, on weekdays it was a few hours more. Of course, there was no party crowd. From the small town to the big city's downtown it was easier, faster, and cheaper than it used to be from a district of the big city to downtown.

Autonomous driving together with ordering vehicles sounds basically great to me. However, as long as it is not virtually guaranteed that transport is almost always possible and also available at short notice, a large part of the people in rural areas will continue to have their own car as a backup. You just have to think about commuting. If you don’t get out of the office on time, you need to have a relatively quick way to get home. If the dog dawdles too long in the morning, likewise. Unfortunately, there are countless other examples that require high flexibility. And since we already (in my opinion) sacrifice too large a part of our lifetime for work and the way to get there, I don’t think I am willing to sacrifice another 1-2 hours of my life for the commute to/from work.

Today, after 10! months, our cooktop was finally delivered. Still no sign of the oven..

Today, a technician from Siemens was also here because our dishwasher was making strange noises..

The good man told me today that currently around 1.3 million customers are waiting for appliances and that it will still take months for them to arrive.

When delivery times will ease again is currently not foreseeable..

Last conversation with wholesale regarding delivery times...

for a standard 1000-liter heating buffer storage LZ approx. May 2023

Heating element with photovoltaic connection maybe sometime in March 2023

Pulleys sometimes 6 weeks

Last conversation with wholesale regarding delivery times...

for a standard 1000 liter heating buffer tank LZ approx. May 2023

Heating rod with photovoltaic connection maybe sometime in March 2023

Pulleys partially 6 weeks

Do you want a buffer tank for your (new) house? Perhaps install it later?