Fence sitting.

Don’t get excited now, this isn’t a post about politics or vaccines or maniac warmongers. Well, I guess it could be, depending on how YOU relate to the message, but that isn’t my intention.

No, what is on my mind today is undecidedness and “shortages” or shall we just say the current state of commerce.

Our story begins with a guitar. A beautiful, black Gretsch semi-hollow, electric 6-string. Left handed, of course.

Me being a drummer primarily, and not really an adept player of stringed instruments, I really had no need of this guitar, it was more of a lifelong quest to own one like this. To be perfectly, 100% honest my dream is to own a left-handed Rickenbacker 360 in a jetglo finish, but spending $3k for an instrument that I’m only noodling around on would be insane. But after much research and comparison, I “settled” on the Gretsch as an acceptable alternative and had it on a “wishlist” with one of my favorite vendors.

About a year and a half has passed since I finalized my decision. I have no idea how many times I went back and looked at it, and told myself “not now, but soon!”. There was always something more important to spend money on, and I already have one guitar that I don’t spend enough time with, so it was easy to keep talking myself out of it and to keep waiting.

Finally, yesterday I decided “today is the day!”. I’d received an unexpected bonus and decided I’d take a little bit of it and treat myself to the guitar I’d been longing for.

I went to the vendor’s website, pulled up my wishlist and…the guitar isn’t there. Huh? I’ve looked at it every couple weeks for the last year and a half, where is it? I did a search and the same model came up, but not in black. I’m not here to judge, but honestly I cannot believe some of the colors they put on instruments these days! Anyhow, I proceed to check a couple other places online and find the guitar in the right color, but nobody has it in stock. So I go back to my preferred vendor and contact my rep there, who informs me the guitar has been discontinued. “You’ll have to hit the used market if you want one”, he tells me.

So now I hit the usual suspects of the online used gear market, trying to track down this guitar. No dice. Not a single one to be found.

So naturally I’m a little bummed out by this development. But luckily this was for a completely superfluous purchase. Something I did not need whatsoever, and something that will not effect my life in any way at all by not having it other than some mild disappointment.

Yes, you could say I got lucky. But what if the “wishlist” item WAS something critical? What have you been putting off, waiting for the “right time” to purchase? Maybe your oven crapped out…maybe your car tires are bald…maybe those solar panels you want to help yourself be a little more self reliant. Whatever it is, if you have the means, get it NOW. We’re in unprecedented and unpredictable times. That common thing that’s always been there may not be there tomorrow. I went through a similar situation with a rifle a few years ago…waiting and waiting for the “right deal”, then the Plague hit, and that particular rifle is STILL unavailable more than 2 years later. You just never know.

I realize that right now with runaway inflation causing astronomical food and fuel prices, it’s hard to think about spending anything beyond what is absolutely necessary, but keep in mind that same inflation is decreasing the purchasing power of the dollars you possess every single day you hold on to them. For example, last week we had a blowout, requiring a replacement tire. The destroyed tire was a year old, almost to the day. That one cost me $250, the replacement last week was $309. For the exact same tire, from the same vendor. That’s a big increase in a single year. Keep that in mind when you’re saving for rainy day. It might make sense to buy your umbrella NOW, and hold onto it, rather than waiting for the storm only to find out umbrellas are now 3x the cost or simply unavailable at any price.

I’ve seen all kinds of shortages and delays since the Plague hit . Of course the infamous toilet paper shortage of 2020, but things like SPAM (the food, not the email irritants) were unavailable for months. Air filters for the furnace were unobtainable for months. N95 masks and latex gloves. Now we’re hearing tales of major shortages of wheat this year and another round of bird flu, on top of last year’s swine flu killing off livestock, adding to meat supply shortages. I regularly purchase from the LDS Cannery for long term storage foods and even they are sold out of things like flour, wheat kernels, pasta…

These kind of things don’t happen overnight, but they don’t “go back to normal” overnight either. Plan accordingly. If there is something you NEED, and you can (legally) get your hands on it now, do not hesitate.

With the way things are heating up, both here and internationally, and with the gaggle of dingbats at the controls, none of us have any idea what’s around the next corner. Do what you can NOW to make your future a little more secure.

Just my two cents…

Thanks for reading!