Hungry, but not hungry enough to order a hotdog and fries.  I ordered the hotdog.  The man behind the counter about to swipe my card, inquired, “No fries?”  That’s right I replied.  I hate to throw out the fries, and that’s what will happen.  “Ok” he said.

I watched him compose the hotdog.  A properly constructed Chicago style dog is a thing of beauty.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is it not?  I think so.  I said to the young man holding the hot dog, as he laid the peppers with some care upon the sausage, “You are an artist!”  He smiled and replied, “I just keep working.”

The solitude of the round table on the sidewalk just outside the front window of Bulldogs looked good.  I prefer solitude in order to enjoy a meal, or to contemplate my surroundings.  I am intrigued at what my mind does with the external world.

The hotdog was delicious, as tasty as it appeared.  The early afternoon was sweltering, but bearable on the shaded sidewalk.  I remembered hearing that it was 91 Fahrenheit this afternoon.  The temperature gauge in my vehicle registered 104 when driving the short distance from the house to Bulldogs.   We are lucky for the time being here in the Midwest.  At least the woods have not yet been reduced to tinder by prolonged drought as they have in the Northwest.  And then the recent floods in Humphreys County Tennessee with 22 reported dead…

Anyone with a basic knowledge of chemistry understands what is happening.  The intense prolonged temperatures evaporate extraordinary amounts of moisture, which is released suddenly, in a deluge by the inevitable clash of hot and cold layers of a undulating stratosphere .  The earth is “alive.”  And we experience the effect: fire and flood.

I found the crumpled receipt for my meal, the hotdog and diet Pepsi.  I doubt that $6.74 covered the true cost of my meal.  What of the true cost:  the property damage in Tennessee, and the wildfire destruction out west?  What if the transportation/distribution cost, the addition of heat to the atmosphere were added?  Someone has to pay.

Is it possible the elements of the Chicago hot dog, held in my hand could be produced locally, close to Batavia, right here in Kane county?  Do we have farms raising hogs, cultivating the tomatoes, the peppers, and how close are the wheat fields necessary for resourcing a local bakery?  How much of the transportation heat load could we eliminate, or dramatically reduce for the food needs here in the towns along the Fox River Valley?

So were my musings.  I finished my Chicago dog on the sidewalk at Bulldogs.

The temperature gauge in the car read 104 degrees.

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*Bionomics is a shift in economic thinking.  It features a reversal of the usual priorities underlying the social science of economic thinking. In bionomics in a descending scale of priority: 1. the well being of the Planet 2. the well being of society 3. the health of the economy 4. the desires of the financial sector.