Font Size:     

Category: march to war

Sun. Aug. 29, 2021 – last day of my show…

Hot and humid with rain, just like yesterday. No direct evidence of the storm yet.

Today I’m headed to a breakfast get together, and then the closing day of the meeting/show/swapmeet.

Yesterday was the second day of our regional association meeting with sellers mart (kinda swapmeet). We ended up with a bunch of no shows on pre-purchased seller tables. I don’t know what the real number is yet, but it feels like about 1/3 to 1/2 were empty. I’m guessing wuflu delta worries, or actual sickness kept them home. People were going table to table, sales were made. Everyone was happy to be back together, but there was an undercurrent. These are mostly small business owners, mostly rural, older, and white. A lot of them have been doing this show for a long time and usually treat it as a social opportunity to get together with friends they haven’t seen in a while.

I spent most of the day talking with people either at my table or theirs.

I joined about 5 conversations about the coming troubles- either world war, civil war, or economic collapse. One guy even said “gotta get in as much normal as we can before it all falls apart.” I didn’t start any of them, but did join and spoke honestly. People aren’t sure what’s coming, but they are sure it is coming and that it will be bad. No one was talking politics, Biddn, or the losses in Afghanistan. I’m not sure they could have without tears. It’s that kind of crowd.

I’ll see if I’m over reacting today, but it felt a bit like a last hoorah, or a last good bye. A lot of people were leaving early so I’m not expecting a busy day. I’ll look around with an eye towards the mood, but it felt a bit melancholy.

My kids were great all day. It was long, 7am to 6:30pm and they were troopers. The youngest was her vibrant and precocious self, charming most of the other sellers. She got me to loan her $45 to buy stuff for herself. Oldest spent the morning building a metal model from Metal Earth, then took a nap under the table. The other folks were amazed at her focus and dexterity with tweezers. (the models are super cool, and the results are impressive.)

I sold a bunch of stuff, and hope to sell some more today. I think I can find a few fresh items to put out this morning. I have so much stuff I forgot about some of it that would have been appropriate for this venue. I’ll miss a bunch of early leavers, but all I need is one buyer for each thing after all.

A quick scan of the news shows me escalating street violence, international destabilization continuing apace, local natural disasters, and all the regular stuff, turned up a few notches.

In the words of Yoda, “save you what can”. And keep stacking.

nick

Read the comments: 48 Comments

Sat. Aug. 28, 2021 – out all day

Hot and humid to be sure, unless it’s pouring down rain…

Got the show loaded in yesterday morning with a minimum of sweat. Thanks mostly to Mr Carrier and his desire to not sweat to death.

Sold a few things right off the bat, and a couple more later in the day. I’ve had the same guy come by the table and fondle one item multiple times. I’m thinking he’s gonna be a buyer at some point.

Taking the kids with me today. Hopefully they’ll occupy themselves with a minimum of fighting.

I’m taking more stuff to sell today too that I didn’t get rounded up in time for yesterday. Wife wants to put an offer on a lakehouse, sight unseen. I need cash suddenly 🙂 (I don’t think she will, the price is too high for what’s on offer.)

————————————————————————

I know we talk about being on lists, and about the surveillance machine the online services have built, and how they have you profiled to the tiniest detail…. and we give some sort of shrug and move on. Think for a few minutes about the taliban having access to that same sort of information. Think really hard, because tech trickles down, and they will be the legit government in Afghanistan. Consider how MUCH some of the ‘Karens’ and lefties here profess to hate some of us for our beliefs, skin color, age, or success in life. Now think about google and facef#ck selling those detailed dossiers sorted by street address.

Think REALLY HARD about your response if they showed up at your door. Think about expanding your options before the need, like a prepper should, and a prudent person would. Suddenly your wallet, phones, computers, and vehicles are all worse than useless, and will remain so for some period of time. What ya gonna do when they come for you?

It’s much more likely that we all suffer when the SHTF. Stacks will help. Having a plan to drop it all and walk away when you see the heat coming down your street wouldn’t hurt. Lately a lot of really unlikely things have been happening. The baying crowd always wants someone to punish, and it’s a bonus if they have stuff to steal too. Just sayin’.

nick

Read the comments: 35 Comments

Fri. Aug. 27, 2021 – early to rise…

Hot and humid. Rain in the forecast. Certainly that was true for yesterday. Hot and hot, with humidity and rain in various places throughout the day.

Did my errands, including cutting my hair. I don’t know if I’m any better at it, but I’m quicker. Looks good OK from the front :-). Loaded a bunch of stuff for my convention and swapmeet.

Truck is full.

After I get the girls out of the house to school, I’ll be finishing the load, getting ice for the water and drinks, and heading to a hotel to help with setup. Then I’ll help other folks get loaded in, and maybe sell some early bird stuff.

Before I can do that though, I need to mount the cargo platform on the hitch. I can’t fit 3 coolers in the truck. And I had to replace the broken hinges on one cooler. I have a small bucket full of cooler repair parts. Drives me nuts that people just throw them out when the hinges, drain, or handle break. Saves me money to scoop them up though, so I shouldn’t complain. Saves money and time to have the repair parts standing by.

Yep, I’ve got a bunch of coleman coolers. Igloo too. Different sizes, styles, and ages, but enough to keep at least one freezer’s worth of stuff cold temporarily. I mostly use them for icewater and soda at gatherings. Speaking of coolers, I picked up another 12v travel cooler/fridge. If you have meds that need refrigeration, get one of the small coolers so you can run it off a car battery if needed. (or solar longer term) They are pricey new, but are common at estate sales. I grabbed one at the goodwill outlet this time. I think I’m up to four? Maybe 5 and I’ve got one or two of the bigger ones too.

Coolers are very ‘dual use’. You can claim camping use, or sodas for youth sports, or just cold drinks at a party, but you and I know they are preps. Fire pits, gear for open fire cooking, cast iron cookware– also stealth preps. Backpacking water filters, kamp toilets, gas stoves and lanterns, even freeze dried foods are solid preps that you can get a lot of other use out of. I’ve got a lot of ‘camping stuff’ even though we never go. “oh I bought that when the kids were little, but we never seemed to find the time.” ” Oh, we used to go more often but now we’re so busy.” Anyone who sees it doesn’t have to think “prepper”.

If stuff ends up in short supply, you might want innocuous reasons for all the gear and preps in your storage area. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but hope isn’t a prep.

So keep stacking, keep building networks, and keep working to improve your position.

nick

Read the comments: 62 Comments

Wed. Aug. 25, 2021 – nut cuttin’ time is getting closer

Whoooeeeee, it shore got hot in the sun yesterday. Gonna happen today too, reckon. Oh, it’ll start out slow, but I’m betting on ‘hot’ and sunny later. At least the humidity was slightly lower. It wasn’t so low I didn’t sweat through my shirt in minutes outdoors, but it was better than the last few days.

Since I spent yesterday morning and early afternoon dealing with power issues here at Casa de Nick, I didn’t get very far on my list. Most of that will have to push to today. Also, most of the prep for my non-prepping hobby convention and swapmeet needs to happen today. I’ll be doing prep for my role in things Thursday, and actually doing the things Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Posting will be as normal but commenting will be light.

On the plus side, now that my service drop is replaced, my electrician buddy should be willing to do the gennie hookup.

On the minus side, there is a smell in the garage like the rat poison worked. No ratons in the traps, so he’s somewhere else. Unlike the house, he can get into the walls in the garage. I’m really hoping that isn’t the case. I’ll know more in a day… Whether I’ll be able to do anything about it is another question.

Whether the world holds together is starting to be a good question. Portland has another ‘autonomous zone’ taken over by antifa thugs. They seem to be entirely without introspection as they’ve named the area the “SSPAZ”. Maybe the ‘kids’ are so well conditioned that they never called anyone a spaz and they just don’t get the reference. Elsewhere shootings and public violence continue to increase. An example of the unequal application of the law has the leader of the Proud Boys facing jail for stealing and burning a flag, while looters, BLM thugs, and antifa punks roam free. Oh, and he had a “high capacity” magazine with him in DC, while antifa tries to literally blind cops and gets away with it.

As well to be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

Disruptions to supply lines continue. Disruptions to the food supply continue. Remember last year when people were saying “don’t worry about the poor crops, we’ve got plenty of grain in storage…” well, this year that grain is probably mostly gone, and it looks like we aren’t going to have bumper crops.

People are talking and advocating for vax status to determine access to and level of medical care. Think about that one for a second. Now extend it out a year or two… what else will they want to use to discriminate against you? There will be shooting when that costs someone a loved one. And honestly, I don’t think it will take a year. You will need tribe and like minded folks to get access and resources. What will you bring to that exchange?

Black market, grey market, secondary market, informal market, whatever you call it and whatever nuances there are between them, start looking. Start practicing. Swapmeets. Yard sales. Garage sales. A guy who knows a guy. You might find yourself locked out of the main economy. Yeah, things would have to be pretty bad before that could happen. Illegals already live that way though. It’s not that big a step and the legal framework went in years ago. There were articles about it, and the pretext was ‘extremism’, but they promised not just to lock you out but also anyone who would do business with you. I don’t know where such a scenario fits on a risk matrix, but it’s on there. And we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and the early stages of a civil war. Just sayin’. Planning. Some preps. Some people. Some practice. Just sayin’.

And stacks. Tall stacks.

nick

Read the comments: 67 Comments

Mon. Aug. 23, 2021 – insert title here — ;-)

Hot. Sunny. Humid. Overcast. Rainy. Houston. Sunday was hot and humid, no rain, no overcast.

I did some small work in the garage, and I continue to be impressed with how well the exhaust fan keeps the temps down. Oh, it was still hot, but nothing like last year or the year before. Definitely worth doing.

I set two more traps for Sr. Raton. He walked past the traps I’d already set, so I baited these with peanut butter and bacon. I know he was there, because he knocked a package of Costco canned chicken off the shelf. However, someone‘s been nibbling on the poison block I screwed to the wall along a likely infiltration path…. so SOMEONE is not long for this world. I just hope he takes himself outside before expiring. I’m sure I’ll know it if he doesn’t.

I had a box of rat traps that I bought last year at auction, and I have been using the poison block refills for the bait stations. I have been baiting with Tomcat Attractant because all the previous rats learned that peanut butter equals death. It got one up in the attic, but my garage thief is not interested, hence the pb&b bait. If you don’t already have some pest control supplies stacked, I’d recommend getting some. If the slide continues, services like trash removal, junk pickup, etc. will be impacted. Your neighbors, floods, droughts, and new construction all influence the migration and presence of pests too. When the need arises, there might not be any available.

The same can be said for soil supplements, and garden pest controls. It will be critical if you are relying on a garden for food, even just supplemental food, that you get as much as you can. Can’t have pests eating or ruining food your kids need. We’ve already seen that gardening supplies can vanish if the demand goes up even a little. Having some reference books with alternative methods wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Of course the best case is you getting your garden up and productive long before you NEED it. In most places the learning curve is probably not as steep as here, but it can be hard to find the varieties that grow well for you in your location. Local knowledge helps a lot with that. And every farmer knows that luck plays its part, particularly bad luck. Start climbing that curve. (also, you probably don’t have enough seeds, or the right seeds. Work on that too.)

In other news, the Biddn administration has decided to punish Russia by blocking importation of guns and ammo. Give the popularity of the AK and SKS platforms, that is not good news. Cheap imported steel case 7,62×39 didn’t stay cheap during the recent drought, but it was cheaper than 5.56, and a bit more available. It made for a good argument to have both platforms available in your safe. Who knows, the UN peacekeepers and the chinese ‘advisors’ might become mobile resupply pods if things get super sporty, and in that case, 7.62 will be plentiful again. Until then, the supply chain just got broken.

If there’s something you want, or think you will need in the next 2-5 years, I’m suggesting you buy it when and if you see it. If you need fast computers, might want to accelerate your purchase schedule. Even I’m thinking about getting a new box for the house. Almost everything here is a decade or more old, except the NVR I built, and it’s not new. With all the chips that come from Taiwan, if things get a bit sporty on the global geopolitical front, and it seems likely that they will given our withdrawal from the world stage and increased focus on internal issues, it’s possible that the supply of new things of all sorts could be disrupted.

To put it bluntly, Chinese misunderstanding and foreign adventures could wreck Taiwan’s foundries. Chinese really don’t seem to understand that there are some things that actually must be done correctly and well to work, and not just have the appearance of quality. Chip foundries, like aircraft carrier battle groups and nuclear attack subs, are hideously complex and all the pieces have to genuinely work for the system to work. There is no ‘faking’ it and there is no commanding it to happen.

How long could you go if you had to start from what you have now? That’s the question to ask when considering what and how much to stack. It might not come to that. Sanity might prevail. Doesn’t seem like the smart bet though.

Stack it high and wide. Stack some in secret.

nick

Read the comments: 75 Comments

Sat. Aug. 21, 2021 – wasted days and wasted nights……..

Hot and humid, of course. Because HOUSTON. FTW! The map for the whole country looks wet for the next couple of days. Houston will have rain. Somewhere. I got wet enough working outdoors that I could have been out in the rain. Then I did it again at my secondary location. And in between I went to lowes, and stopped at my rent house to drop off a replacement CO monitor and talk about drainage issues.

I managed to pack up another bin, went to my storage unit and packed 3 more. Dropped those off at the auction, then went to my secondary, grabbed some more stuff, and took that to the auctioneer. And you can hardly tell that all that stuff left. Jeez.

But it did leave, and there will be more leaving-both to my non-prepping hobby swap meet, and more to the auction.

I need the space and I need the time. I’ve got stuff I want to do, and having room in the garage would be nice. Getting the patio back would be nice. Getting the driveway back would be nice, even if I just fill it with tubs to grow veggies and potatoes. Because Chaka, when the rains come. Or something. The money, if there is any at the end of the day will be a bonus. Part of my prepping philosophy is ‘nothing irrevocable’. Getting rid of this stuff at whatever I can get feels a little irrevocable, in that I feel like I should have worked harder at it, and now I can’t, because it’s gone. But I really believe time is getting short and to continue as I have been won’t work.

Any time now, we could have a weekend like the one in 2008, when the financial apocalypse was upon us, and only the heroic work of the smartest guys in the room, and the coercive power of government could save the day. *cough* Whatever the real story is, we DIDN’T collapse the economy then. I’m not so sanguine about the next time.

There will be a next time, and we’ve already pulled all the rabbits out of all the hats. It happened in Cyprus, it happened in Ukraine, it happened in Venezuela, it happened in Argentina, and Zimbabwe, and countless other places as well. It’s happening right now, and we won’t see the result until it ‘comes out of nowhere’ to bite us on the @rse.

We’ll get through it. Most, some, or all of us, but it won’t be easy. Prepping provides us with options, alternatives, choices. There will be opportunities too, if you are ready to act. Resources will be required. In big stacks. So stack it up.

nick

Read the comments: 71 Comments

Fri. Aug. 20, 2021 – and time keeps flying by…

Sunny and hot, humid, possible rain, and maybe all three. Didn’t get any rain here at the house yesterday but someone must have. It was actually a bit cooler, but very humid, so the breeze in the shade took some of the heat away from baking in the sun…

After spending most of the morning working on my client’s upgrade plans, I walked to my mechanic to pick up my Ranger. It’s only a few blocks, maybe a mile. I didn’t do too bad, kept up my pace and wasn’t breathing hard at the end. It was HOT in the sun, but a lot of my route was shaded.

Truck needed a bunch of stuff along with the brakes and suspension. I’ve still got the accident damage to repair, and the windshield to replace. That will have to wait though as I get some of this auction stuff out of the way. Having the funds ready to pay for the work made it all a lot easier.

Had an interesting conversation with the guys at my mechanic’s shop. They are all Persian immigrants and all hustle to make successful lives for themselves and their families. They are all around my age, a couple a few years older, so they were there and saw it happen. I’ve mentioned talking with them before. They were surprised that I knew some of the history of the area and the period of the Shaw’s overthrow and the rise of the extremists. Anyway they see a balkanization of the US as inevitable. Bosnia/Herzegovina etc writ large on this continent. The timeline is the only real question in their minds and they are hoping for 8-10 years. I agree with them about the direction we’re heading, but while it might take 10 years, it won’t be that long before it starts.

I think we’d naturally end up with something like the Nine Nations of North America, but it won’t happen ‘naturally’. As many have pointed out, it’s not red state vs blue states, it’s blue cities vs everyone else. The geography that our natural dissimilarities would support won’t be allowed to happen because of the blue hives in the middle. There won’t be any clearly different territories because each of the sections has blue in it and the fighting will be blue city vs red country.

One thing I’m pretty sure of is that it won’t happen without a ton of bloodshed. And the disruption to the country, economy, and the world will be biblical. A while back I opined that in 10 years I’d have a Republic of Texas passport. Time is ticking, and I still think so.

My goal now is to get through the disruption and out the other side. I think prepping can do that. There isn’t a Roman Empire anymore but there are still people living in Rome.

Stack it high. Learn it well. Practice what you preach. Pass it on.

nick

Read the comments: 62 Comments

Thur. Aug. 19, 2021 – more stuff to the auction

Hot and humid, more rain later. Although cooler in the morning and late afternoon than the hottest of days, it’s still getting hot in the early afternoon, especially when the sun is out. And someone in Houston is getting rained on every day.

As I drove around town yesterday, I was in and out of rain, and it rained at the house.

I spent the morning sorting and packing auction stuff. I had a bunch that hadn’t been sorted that I found when I moved some of the other…. Packed four bins worth and got it to the auctioneer in early afternoon. Then did a round of pickups and headed home. I’d have taken more on that trip, but that’s really all that fit in the Expy. Today I will pick up the Ranger pickup. The mechanic called and it’s ready. Lots more room for ‘stuff’ in the back, if the rain holds off.

The Ranger needed a bunch of work and I don’t have the total bill yet. If it’s under $1000 I’ll be happy. I haven’t spent much on maintenance over the years so it was due. There is still other stuff it needs too, like a windshield, and the insurance body work. I need it for a week though, so that will be put off again. It’s always something. At least with the two trucks I’ve had some backup, even if the usage is different.

Getting out in the world and talking to people can get you all sorts of information. You never know what you’ll hear, or how important it will end up being. Yesterday I got a bit about the presence of a respiratory virus in kids hospitalized with covid. A bit of confirmation when I got home, and it’s a real thing, although the magnitude and impact is yet to be determined. One practical bit, it gives us a really good reason to continue with masking our kids in indoor social settings. RSV is nasty enough, and if it opens you to bad covid, I’d just as soon skip it.

So today should be packing up and delivering more auction stuff. Followed by a second round if the rain holds off, or if not, then I have a couple more pickups-one needful thing, and a carpet “pet stain” cleaning machine.

While young Zeus is much better at going outside when he needs to, he still will soil the floor when he can. Spray cleaner and paper towel looks like it does the job, but I’d like a bit more cleaning, hence the machine. Our dog sitter has one and uses it multiple times per day.

Apropos of nothing, did you know that Black powder pistols and long arms are not considered to be firearms in the state of Texas and may be freely carried either open or concealed without permit or prejudice? And that there is a muzzle loader only season for deer? Or that there are very modern muzzleloading rifles, many available with scopes? Some things to look into…

Things happen slowly, then all at once. You can adjust the scale afterwards to figure out how slowly, or how long ‘all at once’ really was, but when you’re in it, I’m sure it feels pretty dang sudden. Even if you’ve been expecting it, when the reality hits you, I’m sure there is ‘that moment’. We’ve been in the ‘slowly’ part for 20 years. ‘Bout time for the ‘suddenly’ part. I’ll note in passing that several of the bloggers I read daily are emphasizing prepper themes all of a sudden. Medical, food, location, and defense being primary among them. It ain’t just me tellin’ ya… get crackin’ on yer stackin’!

nick

Read the comments: 72 Comments

Wed. Aug. 18, 2021 – Did something change?

Hot and humid again, although less so. Same prediction of rain in the afternoon or evening. Which is how yesterday went. We had sun and rain at the same time for part of the afternoon… so we didn’t get clobbered, but I think we’re 4 for 4 on rain in the afternoon now.

Spent the day moving stuff from one bin to another, getting ready to drop off some auction stuff today. Then I went to Costco to get TP and whatever else struck me as a good deal.

Hmm. Spent almost $800 and didn’t get much meat, and got no TP. The TP area was BARE except for one or two pallets of Scott. No paper towels either. The napkins I like were on sale so I got some of those. They were bringing out about 10 pallets of kirkland TP, but I don’t need to mess with that. If they haven’t restocked Charmin Blue, I’ll pull some from my secondary location. It’s not that I don’t have any, I just am getting low at the house.

What I did get was some of the stuff I haven’t bought in a year or more. 3 boxes of ziplok bags for example. Dishwasher pods. $40 in black bins for the auction. And lots of prepared meals. They are very convenient with the kids and with me being out of the house in the late afternoon. They’re not cheap, or a great value, but they are tasty and convenient. I also doubled up some purchases to get ‘caught up’ on some stuff I’d let run down. Butter. Cheese. Potstickers. Cereal. Our eating habits have changed and I’ve got stuff on the shelves that is just sitting there that would have turned over twice a year ago.

There were some gaps. No lamb rib chops, so I couldn’t compare today’s price with 2019. No lamb convenience meals either. Still no spiral sliced ham- I don’t think it’s coming back at this point. They marked down the pallet of Community brand coffee. They had switched flavors from what was selling well (and what I bought) to a lighter blend, and it looks like it didn’t sell at all. I hope they go back to the dark roast, and don’t drop the company completely. There was one Mountain House box on an otherwise empty pallet. People must have been buying today. The black bins were sold out on the floor, so I grabbed some from the second shelf. No flip top bins at all.

There was still rice in different sized bags and a couple of different varieties, but nothing like pre-wuflu. It was more like 70c/lb than 50c. That could be brand, or seasonal variation, or it could be inflation. Oh, and no Breathe Rite strips in the store… weird. Lots of indian food displacing the chinese and korean, lots of stuff I’ve never seen in the store before, but all in smaller quantities. All the canned veg was national brands, not kirkland.

There seemed to be a good assortment of cheap wine options, 8-12$ bottles. More selection at the low end than I remember them having pre-wuflu, and confirms what I saw last time. There were a lot of discounted items too, which almost seemed back to normal. It wasn’t crowded at 4:00-5:30pm while I was there, but they must have had a pretty busy day. Storms headed this way, and political storms brewing might do that.

It’s not just foreign actors that will be testing Bidden and the US. Our own politicians will be looking to exploit his weakness and mistakes too. That will give our enemies even more encouragement as we continue fighting amongst ourselves. Don’t look for peace, prosperity, and stability. It’s going to get a lot worse before we get back to those.

Prep as best you can for whatever threat you see coming. If you feel like you’ve got to lower your profile, don’t just drop off the air here. Let us know you’re going to be ‘spending more time with family’… so we don’t worry. Or change your nickname… although that won’t stop us from noticing your old nick isn’t coming around anymore. Thanks for the support for Ray and his wife, especially from those of you we don’t hear from that often. Glad to know you are still coming by.

There’s only so many ways I can say “get prepped” but despite all the time Bob spent saying it, and I spent saying it, some of you were still caught short last March. Don’t let that happen again. For REALZ this time, get prepped! Anyone with specific questions, ask them. It will give me something specific to write about, or it’ll let the other experts here chime in, like battery discussion does.

And let’s not forget that life does go on, even in the middle of a global pandemic, and the coming civil war, and the world wide rearrangement. Ordinary stuff needs doin’ too. I’m not the only one with kids (or grandkids) and we have an obligation to them too. They’ll be the ones that come out the other side of this, and they’ll need a good foundation to build off of. They sure aren’t getting that in school, they need to get it from us. Building the next generation is the biggest prep of all.

And of course, keep stacking. Piles of stuff, a head full of knowledge and hands full of work, and a few stout friends, and you’ll have what you need to get through, and even thrive.

At least, that’s what I am hoping, and building toward.

nick

-title question referred to mood, or zeitgeist. You tell me if you are seeing it.

Read the comments: 72 Comments

Tues. Aug. 17, 2021 – the decline is accelerating

Hot and humid, although the storm brought lower temps overnight. 74F when I went to bed last night. I’m thinking today will be pretty much like yesterday. We’ll have a dry morning, wet afternoon, and moist night.

Had a weird morning yesterday. Got dizzy for no apparent reason, had to lie down for a bit. Pulse ox and heartrate were fine. Weird. Gonna have to find a doctor now.

Spent a little time doing auction stuff, then called my latest auctioneer. He’s agreed to start taking stuff in on Wednesday. HOOORAAYYY. Stuff can finally start leaving here.

Spent the rest of the afternoon picking up and spending time with daughter 2. We ended up assembling a book shelf unit for her room. Mom and d1 got home early so that ended that. Next step is paint or vinyl to change the look, but that will be next time.

Made a special dinner for d1 in honor of her Girl Scout mariner certificate. It’s one of my ‘specialty of the house’ dishes. Grilled lamb rib chops. I dug deep in the freezer and got a package from 2016 and one from 2019. From $10/lb to $14/lb in only 3 years. I didn’t look yet at a current one to see how much more it’s come up. Both packages were in the original heavy Costco vac seal and both were delicious (although the older one was slightly more ‘lamb’ smelling before rinsing). Nothing wrong with leaving stuff in the freezer if it’s vac sealed and consistently frozen. I keep the chest freezer at -2F.

I also tested one packet of a case of commercially packaged coffee I got at auction. 72 “4 cup” packs of Seattles Best decaf in commercial food service packs (think hotel room coffee setup.) It was $5 for the case, and it is past its ‘best by’ but smelled and tasted just fine. I don’t drink a lot of decaf but I’ll put it on the shelf (or in the freezer if there is room). If it actually ages out, I’m only out $5.

The burn on my forearm is dark red, smooth, and sore but itchy. I broke out the silvadene cream and have been putting that on it, and covering it with a big bandaid. What’s the point of having the stuff if you don’t use it when needed? I will be adding to the stocks to replace the open tube with unopened. Re-stocking is important-

Because I’m watching the humiliation of the US on the world wide stage. Every ally has to be re-thinking their assessment of our strength. Every enemy is going to be doing the same. Afghanistan is an invader breaker, and has been forever. And now it broke us. Oh, we’re not shuffling out into the snow, but the complete miscalculation, the refusal to understand that aliens are alien, the absolutely shameful way we abandoned YET ANOTHER set of local players, is a serious blow to our power and strength worldwide. It will surely give potential allies pause, and our enemies encouragement.

Those are not good things for me and you. I expect even more disruption to our economy and to our financial system. Confidence and optimism will be battered. When that happens, markets get roiled and prices fall. I’m as out as I can be, and my feelings on the casino for suckers should be pretty clear by now, so I won’t beat a dead horse, but if you’re in the markets, why? How much higher do you expect it to go? When it drops it will drop in a big hurry. I’m not giving financial advice but I’m going to be VERY conservative at this point. Tangibles you have control over. Just saying.

Other people are starting to notice the slide. There will be a point where it’ll be too late for a lot of things, at least for a while. Prepping will help you get through that time.

When I’m feeling pessimistic, I’m really pessimistic. Seeds. Antibiotics. Lots of reference books. Water treatment and power generation. Stealth. Really low key living. And when I’m worst casing, alternate ID. 30 million illegals are getting it somewhere. The mayor of Kabul probably wishes she had some. Just saying.

Keep stacking. I think we’re already in it. When everyone else figures that out, it will get ugly quick.

nick

Read the comments: 79 Comments
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // end of file archive.php // -------------------------------------------------------------------------------