decline and fall – Daynotes Journal

Fri. Feb. 12, 2021 – what do you really need?

Cold. Damp. Dreary. Like yesterday.

Cold all day. Wet, with intermittent rain. So I didn’t do much outside. Everyone from my wife (who follows all the online weather guys for us) to the national forecast said the same thing- we’re not getting freezing temps in Houston until the weekend. So I didn’t cover the trees as I’d have to do it in the rain. It was 36F and falling when I went to bed. Not freezing but way too close.

I spent the day dry and warm working on ebay stuff. I had a bunch of speakers and vintage amps/receivers piled up that all needed to be tested, photographed, measured and weighed, etc. I also needed to re-cover one grill. So I did that. Now that stuff can be listed, and the items themselves can go out of the house to storage. Unfortunately some of it will be listed ‘for repair or parts’ that I was hoping would be in working condition.

A bunch of auctions closed yesterday and I was watching prices. There was a lot of stuff that went cheap. I am afraid that people might be done buying. At some point, they will have other concerns than buying stuff they don’t really need. I am hoping to get rid of a bunch more stuff before that happens. I’m getting nervous about timing.

Which brings us to the question, “what do you really need?”

I could talk about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I could do the usual prepper list of categories -water, food, shelter, defense, health, welfare, hygiene, communication. Instead I’m going to ask the question, What do YOU need for YOUR threats, in YOUR location, given YOUR resources? And as a refinement, What do you STILL need?

The current world and US situation complicates the answers a bit. We are in fact living through a disaster, the global pandemic. The disaster has many different features and facets in different places and so like the blind men and the elephant, it looks different to different people in different places.

Further, in the US we have the unsettled political situation, with many people believing the current President is a usurper, and illegitimate; but even if he isn’t, his policies and party are anathema to half the population. The continued polarization of the populous makes it far more of an issue in this time than in previous times. This has many people considering the likelihood of a Civil War, or insurrection, or a massive increase in the police state and persecution of conservatives.

Pandemic and civil war are not normally high on the typical American prepper’s list of threats, but we’re currently in one, and facing the real possibility of the other.

On top of those, there is the very real threat of an economic collapse or prolonged depression, brought about or exacerbated by the pandemic, and the shift in US politics. Again, not normally an urgent threat in the US, but here we are, MUCH closer than 4 years ago, or even 6 months ago.

Three really big, massive even, threats that were barely on the radar 2 years ago, and they are suddenly top of mind for preppers. Add in the normal issues caused by human stupidity and Mother Nature, and it’s really hard to answer, What do I NEED?

Start with which of the threats do you think are most likely? How will each affect you? What do you want? Those questions will lead you to answers to what you need.

I think some version of all three threats will be active at the same time. I don’t know the sequence of cause and effect, but I do believe we’ll be engaged in some level of street fighting/terror attacks/low intensity conflict. Whether because of it, or the cause of it, there is no way our economy, mostly built on gambling with other people’s money and constant buying, will survive a de facto Civil War. Economic disruptions, with violence and civil unrest, coupled with restrictions on movement, speech, assembly, supply chain breaks, and a general breakdown in the social and civic structures we take for granted, will not be pretty.

What do I want? I want to continue living my current lifestyle with as few changes as possible. I want to shield my family from the worst aspects of the new abnormal. I want to survive to get to the recovery and rebuilding phase.

Ask, What do I need to accomplish my goals? And that will tell you what you need.

I need a safe and secure base (my home). For some people, that will mean moving, now or later when it becomes a life or death issue. Sectarian violence drives out the ‘other’. You will not want to be the last of the “whatevers” to be in your area. You can move while conserving as much of your assets as possible, or you can leave as a refugee, with nothing but the clothes on your back. Lots of people have faced choosing one or the other throughout history, and some even face it today in other parts of the US and the world. Don’t wait too long, and if you choose to stay, build your plan around that.

I need to accumulate the resources now that will be unavailable or VERY expensive later. That might mean food, a good education, medical supplies and Doctor friends, or a skill that will be hard to come by. It might mean having the tools needed for an income stream. If you weld, do you have wire, gas, and spare parts for your machines? If you sew, do you have fabric, thread, buttons, zippers, patterns, etc? Money is always good, as long as your “money” is something that will hold value in the future you see for yourself. Bolivars didn’t do so well. The dollar has already lost ~98% of its purchasing power since the institution of the Federal Reserve. It’s not impossible that it will lose the rest. No one is taking Confederate Dollars at the grocery store…

I need the support of other people. I need people to feed me work, to buy anything I have on offer. I need people to teach my kids. I need people with the skills I don’t have, whether that’s medical, technical, or political.

I may need to change my politics, or my public persona. That might mean going grey, it might mean running for the School Board. The goal is to survive. -To be here for my kids. -To rebuild if it’s possible. -To remind if it’s not.

Every one of those needs can be further unpacked into specific things to have, specific actions to take, skills to learn, or people to meet. And each one of those things can be further unpacked, and once more, and again, recursively and fractally, forever. But don’t let that dissuade you or dishearten you. You are likely to be further along than you think.

Take a mental or physical inventory of what you already have. What stuff have you been accumulating? What skills do you have? Who do you know? What processes have you already begun? Because BEGINNING is key. Start work on filling those needs once you start identifying them. Don’t wait until you have all of them documented in your 3 ring binder, start filling in where you know you are short WHILE assessing where you need to be. Start extending and building on what you have.

Every project has tasks and milestones that need to happen serially and in order. Every project has tasks that can happen in parallel. Every project has tasks that can happen in any order. Prepping is no different. Identify which of your needs can be met by which sort of task, and proceed accordingly. And when in doubt, the prepper basics are basics for a reason. Get started with them, then keep building on what you have. Always be working to improve your position.

And of course, keep stacking.

nick

Thur. Feb. 11, 2021 – starting to get chilly

Cold. Wet. Dreary. With freezing temps on the way.

Yesterday was 0ccasional light misty drizzle pretty much all day.

Once the sun went down the temperature started to drop… da drop, drop…..

46F when I went to bed.

Got very little done during the day. Got a bit done during the afternoon. I did do some housecleaning, and a load or 3 of laundry, and put clothes away, and some other domestic bliss, but no where near what my list needed. Sorting lego from megablox and chinese knockoff ‘building blocks’ doesn’t really count as work, even if it did need to be done eventually, does it?

I made one of my bachelor staples for dinner though. Canned chicken in maple curry sauce, over minute rice… It all got eaten, wife liked it and the kids had seconds. Hooray for me! Of course my fingers still smell like the curry cubes, and I’ve washed about 7 or 8 times. Still, super easy, really tasty, and all from long term stores.

I’m going to avoid talking about the show trial. The language in the reporting is so over the top, I can’t believe I’m reading it. Does it really play well for the ‘folks back home’? If so, we’re in a LOT worse trouble than I hoped. And what must the inside of their heads look like if they hear ‘coded phrases’ in everyday speech? They sound psychotic. Thank God they don’t do half of what the voices must be urging them to do.

I am increasing my stores. Holy cow this won’t end well. They are actually nuts, and there is no reasoning with crazy.

You need water, and ways to get more. Food. Meds. Comms. Money. And you need them in place and outside of normal channels. “Normal” has left the building, and won’t be back for a while. And hey, if I’m wrong, donate it to a food bank later on. I know there will be plenty of them.

Keep stacking.

Mon. Feb. 8, 2021 – Monday morning quarterback… there’s a phrase from the past

Cool and windy, clear with sun. Like yesterday.

Although it wasn’t dry. I had water on the driveway that never dried. I’m not sure what the humidity level was, but it was high.

I spent the afternoon cleaning up stuff and scrapping out stuff in the driveway. I’ve got about half a pickup truck load of mostly aluminum and wire, so I need to run that to the scrap yard today. I’ve also got to return the RugDoctor cleaner that my wife put to good use yesterday.

We only have carpet in the room we call the toy room/library/kid’s room, but was originally the formal living room. We’ve got no need for formals, but we left the carpet in that room as a place for the babies to play. White carpet. More than 13 year old white carpet. With two kids and a dog.

I cleaned it a couple of years ago but it was LONG overdue. Looks much better now, but it’s still 13 year old white carpet. We had planned to eventually put the same glue-down engineered hardwood in there as the rest of the house. We even have the flooring already. But. Moving the bookcases out would be a BIG job, and there’s no reason to create more projects at this point.

I didn’t do any garden work, possibly today I’ll get the beds ready and move stuff around. I’m home in the afternoon to pick up child two anyway. I’ve got plenty to do around the house and I was making progress yesterday that I’d like to build on today.

Part of the work in the driveway is getting the shelves I put up moved into the garage (or some others). I’d like to get the stored food out of the driveway under tarps and into the garage. It will be a lot cooler in the garage this summer, with the A/C unit running, than under a tarp. I made progress by scrapping out stuff that was on one shelf, and moving some of the canned soup to the other shelves and the can rack on the patio. I’ve still got to reorg the patio shelves to add the two new can racks. It was all a bit hurried when I shifted from stacking food to getting ready to USE the stored food. It needs to be tweaked a bit.

I really need to do a bunch of ebay listings too. I’ve got stuff that is best sold to a worldwide market, and it isn’t going to list itself.

As long as people are still buying, I need to be selling.

The political and economic insanity continues. Looks like the dems will try the former President of the United States in absentia for stuff he clearly didn’t do. If you think otherwise, go to the primary source and watch the video in question. I’ve linked to it before.

The stock market looks more rigged and more casino-like every day.

The left is screeching for blood from the right. The deplatforming continues, and shows no sign of slowing. People who have been plainspoken in expressing their views are taking steps and spending money to preserve their ability to use their public voice. There’s no way to scrub your online persona, so you might as well own it, and continue speaking your mind.

You may want to take some steps to cushion any blowback you get if you come to the wrong sort of attention. Other people are.

And I’ll say plainly, as long as we are ONE NATION, we have ONE National Anthem, and anyone promoting anything else is an agent of subversion. You want apartheid, you’ll get it. I don’t think you’ll like it much.

It will get worse. Keep stacking.

nick

Sat. Feb. 6, 2021 – wow, that first week went by quickly

Cool and damp, but supposedly no rain. We got misty drizzle late yesterday after a day of threatening skies and occasional sprinkles locally. The national map has the front moving out of our area though, and that will be nice.

I didn’t get much done on my list yesterday. It seems that for every productive day, I end up having one much less productive. I did advance a couple of projects. I started the ‘burn all the DVDs and get them out of the living room’ project. This is very important to my wife for some reason, so I thought I could and should get started. It’s not a quick process, but like ripping CDs, I just feed the machine while I’m sitting here anyway. Like so many things, just getting started and then doing it is the only way to make it happen.

I spent some time doing PC maintenance too. Deleting stuff, moving stuff. Installing stuff I meant to install years ago…

And I went looking for something I remember writing and linking here, but couldn’t find it. In the process though I reviewed some posts from last year at this time. Pretty prescient if I do say so, at least as relates to prepping, although the wuflu turned out to be less for us than it was for them.

I’m going to have to be a bit more productive today, and that means leaving the house. For years the weekend has been ‘just two more days to work’. Put it to good use.

And keep s t a c k i n g. But also keep in mind, the anti-conservative white male three letter agencies will be looking hard at your purchases. Start countering that.

nick

Fri. Feb. 5, 2021 – now the weeks are flying by

Cool and on the edge of a weather system, so we might be getting some rain. I think the grass could use some, but my list would benefit from another day of dry. We did get just a spritz in the late evening yesterday. It was a bit of overcast and low clouds, mixed with sun throughout the day. Shorts and T shirt weather.

I did mostly homebody stuff yesterday. Laundry. Leaf blower on the dustbunnies. Kitchen clean up. Vac seal and freeze over 20 pounds of sirloin…. that sort of thing. It was very quiet in the house, alone.

Today I will keep plugging away at the list, depending on weather. I won’t have to be home to pick up kid #2 from school in the middle of the day so that expands my options.

I’ve really got to make some progress on my secondary location. I played catch up on the home front, so if the weather allows, I’ll probably head out today.

Time feels like it’s getting short.

There is a feeling of acceleration in the changes going on. There was a comment from Harold here yesterday- “I spent some time in the good old USSR and know firsthand where we are headed. I wouldn’t have believed it a year ago. ” -emphasis added. The old joke is that it goes slowly, then very quickly.

That is what I’m seeing. They are working very quickly to shore up their gains and lock in changes as a fait accompli. The crazy sounding stuff they are proposing sounds perfectly reasonable to them. They have been working toward the goal for a long time, either knowingly or as a willing pawn. They are willing to lie, cheat, and steal. They are certainly willing to have some deaths occur if it furthers their goals. Gotta break a few eggs, don’tcha know…

You may want to accelerate your own preparations. I’m not saying you should do anything that looks like panicking, or anything that is irrevocable, but your bank is ratting you out to the FBI regarding your perfectly legal activities. The three letter agencies have been compromised, and are being weaponized against conservatives. FBI, ATF, SEC, DOJ, are all aggressively coming after conservatives (and ordinary people who are not lefty enough) after conspicuously NOT going after the new ~~brown shirts~~ shirts of color.

The pattern is for everything to degrade now. Stuff will work, but not as well. That includes social systems. Eventually things will degrade to the point they don’t work at all. Violence will increase. Sectarianism will increase. Things have ALREADY degraded from a year ago, and they have been degrading slowly for a long time. But the pebble is rolling down the hill now, and gathering momentum.

I know, doom and gloom. Show me the rays of sunshine though. Show me where things are getting better consistently. The barbarians are not at the gates, they are among us. We are eating the seed corn of our culture and society. When it runs out, things will get REALLY bad. Who knows how long that will last? Maybe the recovery will be as rapid as the decline, but I don’t think so. I think it’s going to be a long haul. Get yourself ready.

Keep stacking it up.

nick

Wed. Feb. 3, 2021 – just not feeling it.

Cold to start, continuing the nice clear days. Warming up later.

Yesterday was another beautiful day starting with an absolute light show of a sunrise. I get to see the sun come up while I stand on the corner with daughter 1 waiting for her bus. In the old days I’d have said that sunrise should come at the END of a good long day…

12 years and 24 days since I quit drinking. Missed the anniversary, but realized it yesterday. It’s not normally a big deal for me, I figure the running total out when I think of it- I’m not actually counting the days any more. Without any judgement either way, I can say definitively that it saved me a LOT of money be spent on other things. And probably saved my life and my relationships….

I made my drop off at the ‘industrial’ auction, so that’s another pickup load gone. Still lots more to go. Funny how the auctions and estate sales sometimes go in ‘waves’. No O gauge trains for a long time, then trains in every auction. Or loose wrenches and sockets. Or coleman lanterns. None for a while, then they’re everywhere.

Since yesterday was an ‘office’ day for my wife, I picked up youngest from school. 2:30 in the afternoon is not a convenient time. For anyone. And having the kids start at 7:15 makes little sense for most people. What it does do is let the district reuse the busses to pick up the high school kids for their later start time. One more example of the district running things for their own convenience and not the parents’ or students’. And the mid afternoon ending time created a whole industry of “after care” babysitter organizations. All of which cost money by the way, and almost none of which are running due to covid. Anyway, it puts a limit on what I can do in the afternoon.

Today I’m picking up auction stuff for my ongoing home remodeling and maintenance projects. Then I’ll see what else I can get done either on my list for home, or for my secondary location. Gnu g-noes there is plenty on the lists…

Meanwhile, our would be rulers are continuing to show their true nature. Some are now calling for the creation of a ‘ministry of truth’, while others want to purge the ranks of the military along political lines. I can’t see the leadership allowing that, but I don’t see them staging a coup either. It will probably just get slow rolled with everyone hoping someone else will deal with it. Everywhere I look I see the breakdown of the institutions and cultures that led to our great success. It’s much easier to destroy than build.

I’m focusing on Yoda’s advice for the nonce… “Save you what can.”

Stack it high.

nick

Sat. Jan. 30, 2021 – so, still January. Jeez.

Cold and clear, until it rains. And it will probably rain, just to mess with me.

Yesterday was cool and clear everywhere I went, but I could see the rain coming down HARD in the distance. Some parts of the Houston area must have been hammered.

Ran my errands. Have another load of industrial stuff scheduled to drop off on Monday or Tuesday. Most of my stuff in the last auction did well. Both auctioneers are happier with the stuff I’m bringing. Me too for that matter. Now I just need to get MORE of it to them each time.

If I can I’ll work in the garden today. I’ve got cleanup and pick ups scheduled though. Sunday is supposed to be clear so that’s my backup plan.

Got the dog’s ashes back yesterday. There will need to be some time spent dealing with that, and the family, over the weekend too. I’m still checking for him every time I walk through the room, or checking that his water dish is full when I walk past that area. It’s amazing how much energy an 18 pound chihuahua mix can infuse into the house, and how empty it can feel when it’s gone.

Out in the world, the crazy continues to grow and spread. The government wants to make literally half the country into outlaws and domestic terrorists. (Funny how we have so many flavors of ‘terrorist’ these days.) It’s a bit like the constant use of the ‘racist’ label, and I can’t help thinking of the saying, “as well to hang for a sheep as a lamb”. Be careful what you wish for….

The casino that is the financial markets finally met a card counter they didn’t own, and they’re running scared. It’s been a house of cards for a long time, and it might finally be crashing down. This isn’t good by the way.

I saw a meme that kinda lifted a veil so to speak, exposing something I’d internalized that wasn’t true. For a long time, I’ve been referring people to the election map of the last election BY COUNTY because it shows quite clearly that the majority of the country is red, with only the big cities in blue. It looks very different from when the whole state is colored in. The meme (I can’t find again) showed the same map, and said- There are no blue states, only corrupt blue cities in red states. And just like that, I realized I’d been programmed. My way of thinking about the issue was framed by someone else in a way that benefited them more than me. Watch out for that.

We have some time yet before whatever breaks things for real happens. I don’t know how long, but it’s not infinite. Keep working to improve your position. Keep stacking.

Thur. Jan. 28, 2021 – Home today, plenty to do

Cool and clear. Windy? Yesterday was. Very windy and all day long too. I wore shorts, but also a sweatshirt. 50F when I went to sleep, and not all that much warmer during the day.

I ran my errands, starting with helping my wife pick up the GS cookies. Did a pretty good job of filling a honda minivan, and then the half of the foyer. The volunteers at the warehouse rocked.

Then I got some stuff together and took a pickup load to auction. My check for the last one was about ~$840 after commissions. I don’t know what my net was but we are getting back into the area I used to be in- a decent part time income from part time work. If I can get up to doing $500 a week I’ll be happy. And yes, my wife has a great job, for which we are all thankful. Everything I make is “extra” if there is such a thing. I am the ‘stay at home’ after all.

Everyone should be establishing some extra lines of income. Everyone should be exploring alternative sourcing. I’ve mentioned I think things are going to get a lot worse, right? I seem to recall saying something at some point….. anyway. People are still buying stuff. That could and probably will change. Pokemon cards are not going to fill empty bellies, so there is a ‘sell by’ date on Pokemon. Ditto for most of the stuff on ebay or etsy. However, local trading groups and FB, and all the other forms of local selling are going to facilitate barter and money saving reuse/repurpose/resell for the foreseeable future, and may shift from unloading stuff to selling desperately needed basics.

Explore your options now. Everything has a learning curve. Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, or a mix of both, the ‘secondary market’, which is where I’ve been living for years, will play an increasing role in your everyday life. You want to be careful of course. One man’s money saving yard-sale-ing could become .gov’s black-marketeering in short order. The prepper-sphere is always talking about barter for after SHTF. Consider that the fan isn’t so shiny, and has a suspicious odor already…. and start working on some of those skills. In Gulag-19, I’m the ‘scrounger’. Who are you?

Skills, people, stuff. Stack ’em high.

nick

Tues. Jan. 26, 2021 – references, they’re not just something that never gets checked on your resume’

Cool and damp again. Maybe some rain, maybe not.

Yesterday was misty in places, overcast most places, and somewhat warm for a short time. Just a pretty gross day. So I spent it indoors.

Solved my client’s issues with a lot of technical help from my sometimes business partner. A piece of hardware somehow lost its “IP Table” which tells it where the other parts that it controls should be found. The fix meant downloading a current version of the IDE, then a firmware file, uploading the firmware (32 minutes), then downloading the control software files, and finally reinstalling them. All that messing around followed by rebooting, restarting, and testing. Still, it got him back up. He’s getting a bit tired of piecemeal replacement of the stuff that got damaged by lightning. I may be doing a complete remove and replace on the system. That won’t be cheap. Should be good for me though.

Lest anyone think I know what I’m doing with any of the above, I have good help. I’m just monkey punching the buttons. I’m the remote set of hands when it comes to the software side of all that. Kinda like here, where Rick keeps it all working, while I’m the smiling face that people see. I’ve been very lucky in my career to have access to really good people to backfill my gaps…

I’m sure you have gaps in your preps and skills, and I can’t emphasize enough, that you need good people to help you fill them. Consider how you’ll repay them for the help too, either through stuff or loan of skills of your own. There is a great feeling too, when you can help someone else with your own expertise. It’s about building a community, or network of resources and it helps in normal times, as well as bad times.

On the other hand, your normal network might not be available. That’s why you need a reference library. It doesn’t have to be a ‘rebuilding society’ library, but should cover the sorts of things you don’t know well, and it should also provide backup for the stuff you DO know well- because you might not be there.

It has to be offline too. Consider infrastructure failures. Consider censorship. Consider the internet balkanized. Consider search engines distorting results. And consider your browsing history being weaponized against you. Can’t happen? If I’m an oppressive government and there is a general famine, and I want to seize the “excess” or “hoarded” food, I’m going to start with everyone who bought canning jars. I’m going to cross that with searches for “how to can vegetables” and “beginning gardening” or “stealth gardening”. After 9-11 there were stories that various agencies went on a terrorist hunt by collecting grocery store ‘loyalty card’ purchase histories, and looking for people that bought hummus, or falafel. It’s part of their institutional knowledge now. Even if they don’t have the resources to do it as a dragnet, they will certainly use it to build a case, or reduce the pool of candidates. And they’re likely going to go for recent low hanging fruit, because they’re lazy.

Now that day may never come, and you and I will both continue doing searches for what we think of as normal or ordinary things. We’ll leverage the beast for our own betterment with youtube and google. Just keep in mind that you really really might not want to have watched a repair video, and then ordered a gun part, after having declared all your illegal guns to be sold or lost. Much better to have a couple of books, picked up used, to answer your questions in what might become the ultimate in ‘non-permissive environments.’

With that cheery thought, I once again suggest that you keep stacking…

nick

Sat. Jan. 23, 2021 – busy day, making progress though

Cool and clear, I hope. National map has us on the edge of a rainy area. Usually the edge misses us. I would like to get stuff done without getting rained on.

I spent some more time at my secondary location doing clean up and throwing out stuff. One of the things I un-buried was a shelving unit for my nearby storage unit. I’ll be setting that up today if the rain holds off. That will get some of my ebay stuff out of the house, without it being very far away. Farther than I’d prefer, but keeping it here is not an option at this time. Room needs to be made for GS cookies.

Yep, cookie season is almost here. We thought it would be fully online this year, but I guess not. Soon I’ll have hundreds of boxes of cookies in my foyer and living room. Few of them for me, though.

My auction pickup yesterday was two ham radios. Early 80s, solid units. One was bringing crazy money on ebay. I’ve got some work to do cleaning them up a bit and hopefully doing a little bit of testing. Even as just a ‘parts’ machine, it should bring >$1100, which is nuts. I am selling it, and not keeping it. Need the money, have radios… In fact, I’m toying with the idea of doing an auction in March of all the stuff I’d normally take to the hamfest. I’ll talk to my local auctioneer and see what he thinks.

I’ve got a pickup in Conroe today, it’s stuff for building antennas. I’m hoping to leverage some collapsible flagpoles into decent antennas. They are always in that particular auction and go relatively cheaply.

There has been some discussion in various places regarding alternate comms and news sources. Alex Jones led the way by having his show on shortwave for years. Say what you will about him, a few of his darts have hit the board, and he was deplatformed before it was even a word. He’s still around though. I’m sure his shortwave show contributes to that. In general, I thought the standard prepper recommendation to own a shortwave radio was not particularly useful. The main broadcasters are religious based or state propaganda organs. That said, many of the church people do news and talk too, and it’s possible to learn stuff from propaganda. Given the crackdown on free speech in the US, I’m moving shortwave radio up the list a couple of notches. Lots of good info about shortwave radios and listening on youtube. (yes, evil youtube. support the content creators that are making a living or living their dream on the platform. Use patreon or whatever the creators like, and run adblockers to starve the beast.)

Compromise (or at least the appearance of ‘going along to get along’) is going to be the word-o-the day for a long time. We need to maintain our ability to act, to support those that need support, and we need to get THROUGH this and out the other side, to wherever that may be. There are times when that is not going to look very pretty. I’m sure my tolerance for the necessary levels of compromise will vary and there may come a point where I can’t do it. But given what that would cost me, the current plan is pull back, pull in, and abide. You may evaluate the situation and come to a different conclusion. I may come to a different conclusion at some point too. But I intend to survive this as intact as possible, and I’m PLANNING and provisioning to do that.

Stack it high. Stack it in a bunch of small piles scattered all over. Stack it wherever you can. But STACK up some resources, friends, and knowledge.

nick