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June 2, 2008

"Off the Grid", Post Ranch, and the New Black

Being "off the grid" is under-rated.  I got to thinking about this while sick recently -- yes, my absence here was a result of a nasty virus and resulting series of opportunistic infections -- and not missing the grid much.

I was reminded of it again over the weekend while reading a piece in the LA Times about the Post Ranch Inn, one of my favorite resorts on the planet. Best thought of as having rustic elegance, it is an unobtrusive place perched on a cliff top in Big Sur, California, and it is wondrous, combining simplicity and nature and luxury in an otherworldly way.

What caught me, in particular, in reading the piece was how the Post Ranch Inn is going solar and "off the grid", and how that was presented as a good thing, not just something you might do as a nutter in rural Montana. It seems being "off the grid" has crossed over from being something done at the fringes to something laudable and desirable.

Here is Google Trends data for "off the grid" since 2005. Other than a bubble in 2006, it is showing a steady trend up and to the right.

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