{"id":7365,"date":"2021-03-18T05:29:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T09:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/?p=7365"},"modified":"2021-03-18T02:58:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T06:58:28","slug":"thur-mar-18-2021-whew-missed-the-green-beer-again-and-all-the-puking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/2021\/03\/18\/thur-mar-18-2021-whew-missed-the-green-beer-again-and-all-the-puking\/","title":{"rendered":"Thur. Mar. 18, 2021 – whew, missed the green beer again…and all the puking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comfortable, sunny, breezy, and nice.\u00a0 That’s what I’m hoping for, we’ll see what we get.\u00a0 We had all<\/em> the kinds of weather yesterday.\u00a0 Overcast, thunderstorms, drizzle, sunshine, wind and rain.\u00a0 We even had a few minutes of ‘very nice.’\u00a0\u00a0 Today, the national forecast has Houston in the clear.<\/p>\n

Didn’t get a whole heck of a lot done yesterday, that couldn’t have been done more efficiently and more quickly by someone who was motivated.\u00a0 Keeping my motivation up, and keeping moving forward is harder some days than others.\u00a0 But Summer is Coming, and with it the most common threat around these parts- hurricanes.\u00a0 Also on the way are un- somethingly hot and humid days.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve got a limited time to do a bunch of stuff that is SO MUCH easier when it’s not in the 90s for both heat and humidity.<\/p>\n

I feel a bit like I’m going through one of those periods like RBT did when he kept posting that he probably wouldn’t be posting\u00a0 much, but then he posted more.\u00a0 I keep saying the same thing every day- “I’ve got so much to do” but then I don’t do it….\u00a0\u00a0 grrrr.\u00a0 External deadlines… I need them.<\/p>\n

I built three or four careers around meeting externally imposed deadlines.\u00a0 It’s in my blood.\u00a0\u00a0 Internally imposed?\u00a0 Not so much.\u00a0 I’ve never been good at that.\u00a0 My 10 year plan took me 15 years.\u00a0\u00a0 I did eventually accomplish it all, but it was both simple and complicated.\u00a0\u00a0 Get my finances in order.\u00a0 Find a good woman and marry her.\u00a0\u00a0 Buy a house.\u00a0 Start a family.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Simple right?\u00a0 15 years to get there from where I started.<\/p>\n

Live through whatever is coming and get my family through it, doesn’t have the same concreteness, and yet it’s an arguably simpler goal.\u00a0 After all, it’s mostly just “continue living”.\u00a0 And how hard can that be?\u00a0 Weeeeelllllll, that depends, doesn’t it?\u00a0 And it strikes right to the heart of a preparedness lifestyle.<\/p>\n

“Live through” – but implied is not just survive, but do it with style, without drama, with simplicity and grace.\u00a0 Succeed, not just endure.\u00a0 Coming out the other end as a starving refugee is better than not coming out, but far from the ideal of being in a position to thrive when things get better.<\/p>\n

“Whatever is coming”- bad things are ALWAYS coming.\u00a0 Good things too and sometimes people forget to prep for them, but mostly we prep for the bad things and figure the good things will work themselves out.\u00a0 Hurricanes and floods are the most likely natural disasters here.\u00a0 But personal<\/em> bad things- job loss, accidents, illnesses, death of a loved one- are the most common disasters everyone faces and if you aren’t prepping for them, you should be.<\/p>\n

What other bad things are coming?<\/p>\n

–Global pandemic was on the list but not top ten.\u00a0 Ebola convinced me to take the possibility seriously and to prep for it ‘for realz’.\u00a0 H\/T to Aesop for that.\u00a0 And HEY LOOKIE!\u00a0 Global pandemic is here.\u00a0 I’m in restocking mode, but I could still be comfortably pulling TP from stock after a year, and that’s with three females in the household.\u00a0 How much is too much vs now you have none?\u00a0 You will have to find your own balance, but I’m usually on the side of ‘more’.<\/p>\n

–Slow economic collapse, worldwide depression.\u00a0\u00a0 RBT changed my mind about this, and changed my planning horizon.\u00a0 Now I think we’re already started on this one.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s harder to prep for because the length of time involved is so great, and because the number one prep – piles of money – doesn’t work so well with the most likely cause, ie. hyperinflation.\u00a0 There are steps you can take and preps you can make though.\u00a0 Unless you like the taste of domestic animals and the local fauna, food is your best prep.\u00a0 Putting your stored up life energy (ie. the product of your work) in something that will survive a currency collapse is a good idea too.\u00a0 If you can’t get your stored up life (money) somewhere safe , or if you haven’t managed to store much up, you need to look for ways to use what remains\u00a0 to continue working through a collapse.\u00a0 Rental income streams were my go-to plan for that, but I didn’t factor in a government that would steal from the landlords.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m busy rethinking and looking for additional streams.\u00a0 Skills involving making and repairing are looking pretty good.<\/p>\n

–War.\u00a0 Internal or external.\u00a0 Both are bad.\u00a0 Both involve hardship and privation.\u00a0\u00a0 Internal would also include economic collapse.\u00a0 External might involve a currency collapse, or might be triggered by more monetary trickery, or it could pull the economy up out of the dumps.\u00a0 So many flavors are possible, with contradictory effects.\u00a0\u00a0 Very little of it is likely to be good on an individual level though.\u00a0\u00a0 Internal war is looking more and more likely every day, with Balkanization being the most likely outcome.\u00a0\u00a0 Where you are is going to be VERY important if that happens and your number one prep.<\/p>\n

There are other bad things that could be coming, some far more unlikely than others, but not impossible.\u00a0 First contact with aliens would be a game changer, for example.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s also unlikely to go well for us, but most of the things that would be likely to happen get covered by preps for the other biggies.\u00a0 Room temperature superconductors, fusion energy, radical life extension, those might fall into the ‘good thing’ column but would also be disruptive as heII.\u00a0 True AI, self aware machines, grey goo, killer plagues, all somewhere on the list of things to consider, and then usually discount.\u00a0 CME, EMP, space debris impacts, other ‘hand of God’ events, well, we’ll do what we can if something that big happens.\u00a0 Having preps won’t hurt.<\/p>\n

And then there is that last part of my goal- get my family through.\u00a0 The everyday part of this is just to raise my girls to be competent human beings, and to make sure they have a good foundation for their lives on their own.\u00a0\u00a0 The prepping part is a bit more specific, but mainly for me it comes down to skills, attitude, and foundational beliefs.\u00a0 What I think those should be would fill another few thousand words, and maybe I’ll spend the time to write those words down, but that will have to wait.\u00a0 Right now, getting my family through means the physical stuff- preps in the traditional sense.\u00a0\u00a0 It means making sure we have the basics to survive and thrive in the most likely scenarios, and even some of the much less likely ones.\u00a0\u00a0 It means resilience and flexibility and adaptability.\u00a0 It means stockpiles of stuff, and collections of skills and reference materials.\u00a0 It means paying attention to possible threats, local and national and global.\u00a0\u00a0 It means engaging in the world around us with our minds and eyes open.\u00a0 And it means planning for what comes next and putting resources in place to support those plans.<\/p>\n

And of course it means STACKING.\u00a0 Start stacking.\u00a0 Keep stacking.\u00a0 If you can’t stack stuff, stack knowledge and skills.\u00a0\u00a0 Stack people, relationships, networks.\u00a0 Do it as a hobby.\u00a0 Do it as a social activity.\u00a0 Do it with passion, or with calculation and focus.\u00a0\u00a0 But Do It.<\/p>\n

It’s never too late to start, it’s always too early to quit.<\/p>\n

nick<\/p>\n

added— welcome to any new readers!\u00a0 Most of the best part of this place is not me, it’s the people who come together here and the conversation that happens.\u00a0\u00a0 Keywords are on the right, and may refer to the comments not the post, so always take a look at the comments.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Comments are always welcome, join the conversation if you like.\u00a0\u00a0 There is an astounding breadth and depth of knowledge in the people who come by and visit and hang out.\u00a0 If you have questions or answers, please feel free.\u00a0\u00a0 There is an About link at the top of this page to explain why this place is the way it is.\u00a0 Again, welcome. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comfortable, sunny, breezy, and nice.\u00a0 That’s what I’m hoping for, we’ll see what we get.\u00a0 We had all<\/em> the kinds of weather yesterday.\u00a0 Overcast, thunderstorms, drizzle, sunshine, wind and rain.\u00a0 We even had a few minutes of ‘very nice.’\u00a0\u00a0 Today, the national forecast has Houston in the clear.<\/p>\n

Didn’t get a whole heck of a lot done yesterday, that couldn’t have been done more efficiently and more quickly by someone who was motivated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 » Read more about: Thur. Mar. 18, 2021 – whew, missed the green beer again…and all the puking  »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,15,83,85,39,62,44,80,49,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beginning-prepping","category-culture","category-decline-and-fall","category-march-to-war","category-personal","category-personal-readiness-level","category-prepping","category-random-stuff","category-why-we-prepare","category-wuflu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}