DISCLAIMER: In no uncertain terms do I want this blog to be associated with “politics”, and it is a subject that I try really hard to avoid writing about, but I saw a story earlier that at first, made me laugh. Then I realized it WASN’T a story from the Babylon Bee, these people were serious. So then I laughed again, but decided it needed further examination.
From the article in question: “NBC News presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss on Sunday warned a second Donald Trump administration would be a “presidential dictatorship.”
Now, before I go any further let me state for the record that I am NOT a Trump supporter. I did not vote for him either time he was on the ballot. I find him crass and boorish and ill-mannered and probably a great many more negative adjectives could be added if I were too spend the time thinking them up. The only thing I truly appreciated about his first run, was that he represented a poke in the eye to “the establishment”, which was sorely needed and long overdue. I was disappointed in my fellow American citizens when they elected him, thinking it was all a joke to them as “nobody that is serious would ever vote for this charlatan”! Nevertheless, I chose to give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he did once he was in the Big Chair.
That was the eye opening era for me. Not because of what HE did, but because of what every other politician, pundit, and media outlet did. The relentless coverage of every word that came out of his mouth or out of his Twitter feed. The incessant bashing of him at every turn before he’d had a chance to do ANYTHING, meaningful or otherwise. I developed not “trump derangement syndrome” but Trump fatigue because of the non-stop reporting (and twisting and spinning) of every. single. thing. It was exhausting. And most of it, as we now know was utter nonsense. And outright lies.
I looked at Trump as though he were in a “Lame Duck Session” from day one. I never expected much from him, as he was stymied from every which way, he surrounded himself with some unscrupulous people, he relied too heavily on his inexperienced family for advice and he pissed off a lot of people already in “The Club”. What he said he wanted to do was pretty bland for the most part – strengthen the middle class, blah, blah, blah – but I had grown accustomed to politicians telling us what we wanted to hear and then actually delivering none of it once the votes were cast. But frankly I couldn’t understand why on Earth he was SOOO hated and reviled. I was shocked when he decided to run again. Why would anyone bring that level of hatred and bile upon themselves? Then when Biden was selected as the nominee? I figured Trump was a shoe-in, which frankly I didn’t see how he could be any worse than Biden. I’m STILL stunned that he got the Dem nomination.
Anyhow. As a person with eyes and more than two brain cells to rub together, I have seen the “Biden pResidency” run (away) from one disaster to another at a breakneck pace and have seen the unelected beauracracy turn into something straight outta Orwell. What I haven’t seen, and believe me I’ve been looking, is anything, and I do mean ANYTHING that has improved since Trump left office. From where I’m sitting – and I say this as a registered independent and non-fan of DJT – EVERYTHING HAS GOTTEN PROGRESSIVELY WORSE since January ’21. Out of the frying pan and into the…septic tank?!?
We’ve got political prisoners sitting in jail for over 2 years without proper charges being filed. We’ve got an historic border problem that is a disaster on so many levels its maddening, we’ve got distrust for our highest levels of law enforcement (and for good reason!!), and untold corruption from the holder of the highest office in the land, if not the world. And I’m just talking about the “cash and prizes” part of the corruption. Then there is the use of the Dept. of “Justice” to go after his leading political rival.
And this folks, is just the tip of the iceberg! If we all know this stuff already – and we do – imagine how much other shady stuff has been, or still is, going on that we DON’T know about?
I guess what I’m saying is, and I hate to be the one to break it to you, Mr. Beschloss, noted presidential historian, WE ALREADY HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL DICTATORSHIP. Two and a half years, and running. And it’s getting worse. I don’t know who’s pulling Joe’s strings, but clearly they don’t have America’s best interests in mind. Poor ol’ Joe just hasn’t got any mind left, he’s just become the face of American Communism, a role he will continue to perform – and make no mistake, it IS a performance – until the egregious crimes are too many to sweep under the rug and he’s replaced by another useful idiot.
No, Trump won’t be ushering in a presidential dictatorship, if anything he’d be continuing one. Not that “they” will ever let that happen!
God help us all… Who’d have ever thought Trump’s time in office would be looked at as ” the good old days”?!?!
Yesterday the Mrs. and I attended a “Celebration of Life” gathering in memory if my dearly departed Uncle Jack.
My Uncle Jack was a really special guy, the life of the party and a friend to everyone he met. He married my father’s sister when I was but a small kid and I’d say of all the extended family I’ve got, we spent the more time with them than with any other relations, on both sides of the family. I always, ALWAYS looked forward to a visit with Uncle Jack and Aunt Mary.
Yesterday my Aunt asked folks to share stories and such of Jack, but I found myself a little too emotional to speak. Although he passed some time ago, I suppose yesterday was the first time it felt real and I really started to process his loss. Anyhow, I thought I’d share one particular memory of him here, for posterity. And maybe eventually, I’ll let people in my family know about this blog and share it with them.
This is a story- one of many I’m sure- that captures just what a special guy Uncle Jack was…
So, many decades ago, I must’ve been maybe 10 or 11 at the most, Aunt Mary and Uncle Jack invited me to go on a camping trip with them and some other family friends. I was so young, I don’t remember any of the details insofar as what lake we were at and exactly how long we were there, but what I can remember – clear as day, as though it happened last week and not 45ish years ago – was Uncle Jack taking me out to learn how to water-ski. Now, I was NOT an athletic kid by any stretch of the imagination, I was NOT a good swimmer and I’d never been on a boat, much less been dragged behind one attempting to stand up on a pair of skis. As you might imagine, things did not go well for me. But Uncle Jack was beyond patient, and kept encouraging me to keep trying. Well, I did. For a while. But I simply couldn’t get the hang of it and the excersize ended in frustration and embarrassment for me. I felt humiliation, though I didn’t even know that word back then. They hauled me back into the boat after I gave up, exhausted, bruised and beaten. All I wanted to do at that point was go home.
Now, this being the 1970’s, the usual adult response to this would have been to mock the kid for being a “pussy” or make fun of their failure to “toughen the kid up”. Not Jack.
Instead of making fun and letting me wallow in misery, he threw me in the driver’s seat and taught me how to drive the freakin’ boat! The next thing you know, I’d forgotten all about my humiliation and I’m having the time of my life pulling other folks around on skis, feeling like king of the world driving around this hot-rodded, kick ass ski boat.
The rest of the trip went without another skiing attempt for me, but I drove that boat every day and had the time of my life on that trip.
That’s how it was with Uncle Jack. He loved life and wanted everyone around to love it too. He was a very special man and I’ll never forget him.
Godspeed Uncle Jack. I’ll see you on the other side, and we’ll take another long overdue boat ride!
Today I started a 10-day “cleanse” as recommended by my Accupuncturist/Nutritionist. Probably long overdue.
Some time ago (sometime between 1-2 years), the Mrs. and I did a 21-day cleanse and it turned out to be one if the most miserable experiences of my life. BUT! Despite the misery, it did help me kick some bad habits (like too much coffee, carbs and sugars), I shed maybe 9-10 pounds, and when all was said and done I DID actually feel better.
But old habits die hard, as they say… The coffee intake kept creeping up, pizzas and pastas and potatoes and breads and all the foods that make life worth living became more of the norm instead of a treat. Sodas started showing their ugly heads again. And don’t get me started on the Holiday Season – basically all self-control went out the window from about a week before Halloween until a week after New Year ’23.
But it’s catching up with me, and then some. My gym routine is non-existent at the moment and my “diet” has been whatever sounds good at the time. Not a big deal when you’re 17 and on the swim team, in the marching band and riding a skateboard a few miles per day. Now? At 55? Spending most of my day at a desk and commuting 2hrs. per day in a car? Not so much. Turns out, too much of a “good” thing is NOT so great for us geezers-in-training.
Not feeling like I’ve hit “rock bottom” or anything, but haven’t been feeling, or doing great this year. And the mediocre health is bleeding over into everything else in my life, which is a big red flag signaling that a change in in order.
No time like the present I suppose. Things are in a bit of a lull. No upcoming shows this month, no auditions, no extraordinary projects and no road trips until the end of July. So now is as good a time as any to lean into the misery.
So wish me luck. I’m kinda dreading the next 10 days, but also hoping this is just the kick in the pants I need to get me back on the right track. There are still waves that need to be surfed, trails to be hiked and drums to be played… I need to get back in “fighting” shape if I’m to enjoy any of that!
Now I TRY to not get to wound up over “conspiracies”, but with social media lighting up over this, it kinda got me thinking they might be on to something…
Feel free to jump to your own conclusions. All I know is that things are not going well for our “leadership” at the moment, and we’re on the cusp of election season. Just sayin’…
Water, food, shelter, medicine and a means of self defense. If you panic now, you’ll beat the rush.
Plan accordingly.
Thanks for stopping by. Now go do something to prepare yourself for our uncertain future!
I really should stop watching the “news” and following current events… These things never put me in a good mood or relieve stress. The more I learn, the more I understand the phrase “Ignorance is Bliss”.
Just one of a multitude of failures by our current “leaders”I can’t find exact data without going down an unwelcome rabbit hole, but the LOWEST number I found of Fed employees reported was 1.8 MILLION. This is so wrong, on so many levels…Tell me this isn’t EXACTLY where we are now… See above for the reason why.Agreed.I’m both paranoid AND conspiracy-minded, and I believe this statement 100%If it isn’t now, you can bet there is (((somebody))) working to make it so!I’ll bet this fact isn’t on the current public school curriculum!Just imagine how much more tyrannical “the Plague” lockdowns would’ve been if not for “a rifle behind every blade of grass”… See Canada and Australia for examples of unarmed “resistance”.Right?!?Same Brother, same.Stand strong and prepare, it’s probably gonna get worse before it gets worse! But all is NOT lost, never submit!!
There are so many things seemingly going wrong at this point in history, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with it all. We are bombarded daily with the latest scandal, the latest crime, the latest business failure, the latest forecast of bleakness in any number of areas…and yet NOTHING ever seems to change for the better.
So that got me to thinking, maybe that is WHY we’re being bombarded. To keep us distracted like a shifty 3-card Monty scammer working a rube.
For example, when was the last time you heard anything about Sam Bankman-Fried? Major, massive scandal. Lost (stole) BILLIONS of dollars – much of which went to political donations. Corruption and deceit the likes of which we might see once in a generation. Wall to Wall news and punditry coverage at first, until the political and academic connections came to light and then…crickets.
How about the Twitter Files? Even if all the information that was released WAS “cherry picked”, it still exposed our government as highly unethical and deceiving, if not outright criminal and operating clearly outside their bounds. At taxpayer expense, no less. A couple congressional hearings later and again, crickets.
Just off the top of my head in the last year we’ve got the border situation, the whole (extremely gross and pathetic) Biden family saga (son’s laptop, daughter’s diary, brother’s shady “business”, and ol’ puddin’ head Joe ON CAMERA AND BRAGGING about using his influence as VP to call off the dogs that were investigating his son’s “employer” amongst other things). We’ve got citizens still locked up TWO YEARS LATER without trial over a protest of the the shadiest election ever held in our country, and the ONE GUY seen repeatedly and often encouraging and enticing other protesters to break laws is walking around free and they are trying really hard to make him out to be a victim.
We’ve seen the beginning dominoes fall in what is sure to be another banking meltdown. All followed by calls of “All is Well!”, while our “leaders” are caught red-handed selling off stocks – just in time, I might add – to avoid personal losses. Then to add insult to injury, the mega banks buy up the good stuff for pennies on the dollar and leave the toxic stuff for the taxpayers to swallow. And then the Fed bumps up interest rates again.
We’ve got near daily reports of racially motivated violence, enough homeless people to fill a mid-sized city, massive amounts of drugged out zombies wandering the cities causing filth and danger to skyrocket. Store after store after store are closing up shop due to unfettered theft and violence toward their staff.
Then of course there is history’s biggest money laundering scheme happening over in Ukraine, where US taxpayers watch their money evaporate into the ether while the Ukrainian elite run around in Bentleys and live an insanely lavish life, while everything around them goes to hell. Not to mention pulling us ever closer to World War III.
Then we have the ever increasing culture wars brewing here at home. Americans by and large (obviously not all, duh) are respectful and tolerant of others, UNTIL you start making demands of them. That’s where we are now, the fringe elements are demanding EVERYBODY bend to their will and support their ways, while simultaneously espousing hate and intolerance for anyone that doesn’t. Quite ironic in my humble opinion.
All this yammering about the “climate crisis” (I’m not sure if that is the correct term this week, it’s changed so many times since the 1980s I’ve lost count) and yet we’re allowing MILLIONS of people to come here with no way to house, feed or employ them all as they help further deplete what natural resources we have. Pushing all electric EVERYTHING when we don’t have nearly the electric grid capacity for anywhere near the growth of use they are demanding.
I could go on and on and on, I’m afraid. All these have just been stream-of-consciousness, off the top of my head. My point being, OF COURSE we can’t solve all this right now. It’s simply too much and too divergent.
To solve problems, you have to have FOCUS. You need time to think. Even when you have a “solution”, those take time, energy, resources to implement. And you have to have the WILL to stick to the program and see things through. You have to be willing to change things up when a plan isn’t working the way you thought it would. You have to work around unseen obstacles and deal with unintended consequences. You must commit to solving the problem.
Even IF we had honest, commited local, state and federal governments (which we absolutely do NOT!), even IF they got together and prioritized all this mess, and decided “OK. We’re going to start with this ONE thing, and everything else can wait” there are so many interwoven issues, it would take a lifetime to unravel it all.
And so NOTHING happens, except more and more crap heaped upon We the People.
The Progressives hate the Moderates, the MAGAs hate the neocons, the liberals hate the conservatives… And vice-versa. But overall the battle between the extremes on BOTH sides are driving lots of people into “Independent” because they don’t want anything to do with either side of these whackadoos. But when most of the government’s “work” is directed towards the two extreme ends of the divide, the important stuff that MOST of us actually care about gets put on the back burner, tossed aside for later or just completely ignored. Which in turn makes people angrier, more distressed, LESS compassionate, and more unwilling to compromise. Wash, rinse and repeat.
The way I see it, either our “leaders” are so inept and worthless, that they are simply incapable of fixing things OR they are so corrupt and self centered, that they are driving the populace to madness in order to tear up the rule book and turn us into something other than what our country was founded to be. Either way, we peons lose.
Identity politics are for a people that have nothing else to worry about. That ain’t us. There are mounting problems – major, life changing problems – that will effect ALL OF US. Whether you are a gung-ho warhawk that thinks the USA should be overthrowing regimes, a bearded lady, a kale-munching, whale hugging neo-hippie, a staunch constitutional adherent, an An-Cap, a trad wife or a professional leftist agitator… we ALL gotta eat. We’d all like to have a roof over our heads. We don’t want to feel like our lives are in danger when we step foot into a city, or a church or a movie theater. We’d like to feel like our representatives actually represent US rather than corporations and special interests… But instead of focusing on the basics, we’re fighting over pronouns and “hate” speech and a bunch of other crap that means nothing in the big scheme of things.
Our country, and many others honestly, are in for a world of hurt. It’s beyond past time to out aside these idiotic, petty differences and focus on the basics. Real, honest food. Clean, potable water. A robust infrastructure, free from crumbling bridges and pothole ridden streets. Reasonable, basic education- reading, writing, arithmetic AND civics. Public safety. A medical system that cares for patients more than pharmaceutical companies. Everything else is gravy. And it can wait.
We have people making laws and passing regulations on things that they have NO working knowledge of. And a complicit media machine cheering them on.
For instance, my idiotic state passed regulations on fluorescent bulbs, essentially outlawing them as of next year. Did the jackasses making this regulation take into account just how many fluorescent light fixtures there are in California? They couldn’t possibly know. In my facility, which is only about a millions square feet, we have over 4,000 fluorescent fixtures still, after doing multiple LED conversion projects over the last 5 years. That is ONE facility, in one city. Basically, they set up a regulation that CANNOT be met in their time-line. Even if it could be done logistically, think of the MILLIONS of dollars required to implement it – many small businesses and smaller landlords simply can’t afford it – imagine the sheer amount of waste product generated by doing this, some of it toxic. So we’ll have tens of millions of new light fixtures required, the vast majority of which will come from China AND thousands of tons of waste going into the landfill sites, all on the name of being “sustainable”. Will all those fluorescent replacements then allow the capacity for charging tens of thousands of new electric cars, now that gasoline powered vehicles will also be banned from sale in a couple short years? Not bloody likely, especially considering how much high density housing the state is forcing every municipality to shove into every nook and cranny. The whole thing is a slow motion disaster unfolding before our very eyes, and there doesn’t seem to be a damn thing we can do about it. The blind leading the stupid in the race to the bottom.
I may be old fashioned, in that I still believe in American ideals. I’m not naive enough to believe that America hasn’t done some bad, really bad things in the past, but I don’t believe that defines us as a nation either. A nation is defined by it’s people, not it’s government. We are far from perfect, no question, but our FOUNDATION allows us to be the greatest, most freedom oriented nation the world has ever seen. We’ve sadly lost sight of that. Our “leaders” sold all that promise out from under us and we let it happen.
As I’ve mentioned before, at my core I’m an optimist. I don’t believe we’ve come to the end of the American experiment. But I DO believe we are fast approaching sink or swim time. Do we want our grandchildren to inherit a bastion of freedom and opportunity or another failed state like South Africa or Venezuela?
We need to come together as countrymen, put aside the petty squabbles and hold the feet of our “leaders” to the fire. We the People are THEIR employers, and it’s high time we start reminding them of this fact.
The time for going along to get along has passed. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place. Right is right and wrong is wrong and we need to stop pretending otherwise. Likewise, your bad decisions are not everyone’s problem. If you screw up, own it, change it and move on with your life in a more positive way. We MUST stop relying on the government goons to take care of us. They clearly are not up to the task anyhow.
We’re Americans, we have a proud and fierce History. Our ancestors changed the world against all odds. It is time to remember their faces and pick up where they left off.
My apologies for the rant. This wasn’t what I had in mind when I started writing, it just kinda took on a life of its own. I’ve been in a horrible funk for the last couple months and I guess it just came to a head. Nonetheless, I stand by it. Nobody is “coming to save us”, and it could be argued that they are actively trying to take us down. It is up to us – you, me, everyone that considers themselves an American, to turn the tide and return to civility, order and common sense.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m a firm believer in preparedness. I never really looked at being a “prepper” as my identity, it was just something I grew up with. First, my matriarch grandmother was a child of the Great Depression, and I spent a LOT of time with her growing up, so I’m sure that mindset rubbed off over the years. (As did religion, but that’s a story for another day).
Then I spent my adolescence and most of my teen years in Boy Scouts, who’s official motto is ” Be Prepared”. Several years working with my father added to it, as he ALWAYS seemed to have whatever was needed on a jobsite, even when you had no idea you’d need it. So in a way, it feels like preparedness is part of my DNA, even if it isn’t my identity.
After the Y2K scare came and went, I got complacent and I really stopped paying attention to preparedness in a meaningful way, and didn’t really start taking is seriously again until about 2008 or so. The big story of 2008 was the Great Recession of course, which didn’t effect me directly as I was too poor to own a home anyway, but it DID effect my employer at the time, which put the fear of the unknown into me and got me started with ” what will we do if I lose my job?” scenarios.
One thing led to another and I ended up going down a deep, dark rabbit hole regarding preparedness and survival. It became a bit of a hobby I guess you’d say, with me spending lots of time on various websites and forums, trying to learn everything I could about surviving “The End Of The World As We Know It” or TEOTWAWKI, and I’ll tell you, it was enlightening to say the least.
From around 2010 or so, the ” preparedness space” online just exploded! Podcasts, websites, forums, news aggregates with a preparedness slant, YouTube channels, a mountain of books in the topic, “prepping” was everywhere! Even mainstream TV got into the act with “Doomsday Preppers”, which honestly probably did more to damage the idea of preparing more than anything, but the fact that a mainstream media outlet would sink money into such a show just goes to show you how popular the topic had become.
But then a weird thing happened back in 2016. We got ourselves a new President and suddenly folks didn’t seem so worried about TEOTWAWKI. Ok, that’s not entirely true, a ton of people thought his election would be then end of us all, I guess they just weren’t of the preparedness mindset to start with. But I digress…
Anyhow, by 2018 or so, the online preparedness space had been decimated due to lack of interest according to several friends and acquaintances that I knew in that space. Many of the websites I used to follow either quit altogether or they just petered out over a year. The main forum I was on from 2009 til that time had far less interaction and started getting stale and boring. My YouTube feed starting having considerably fewer videos about preparedness. It was as if everyone thought “the danger” (whatever that was to them) was over and done with.
By 2020 the focus had become covid, shortly followed by the “insurrection” (don’t get me started on that load of bovine excrement!) and so on. People were focused on censorship and government over reach and again, the economy. But still, you didn’t hear much about preparedness, other than toilet paper, hand sanitizer and face masks. Oh, and baby formula.
But now here we are in Q2 2023 and suddenly the world of preparedness has once again exploded! A bunch of old faces are showing up again, along with a number of new faces.
Now, I’m not complaining. I think it’s useful and important. What’s disconcerting is there seems to be a touch of urgency bordering on desperation, which is different from the preparedness landscape in days gone by.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand it. In fact I’ve been shoring up my weak spots over the last 2 years. This latest prepper-mania has somewhat confirmed my bias toward preparedness.
I could be wrong, but it certainly feels like something wicked this way comes. And clearly I’m not the only one.
Give it some thinkin’. If everything went sideways tomorrow, can you eat? How about a week from now? Do you have cash on hand in case the banking system blows a gasket and your plastic cards don’t work? Do you have a water supply in the event your municipal supply goes offline? Medicines?
If the last two decades have taught me anything, it’s that relying on others, especially in a dire situation, is something best avoided. You are your own first responder, your own emergency service, your own responsibility. Act accordingly.
I’m still struggling to stop the carousel of disbelief in my head, trying to make sense of where “civilization” is headed. At my core I’m an optimist, but WOW! It’s like the world has collectively lost it’s mind…
I wish my father had this talk with me…Without OUR consent, the gov’t ONLY has force as an option.I do not consent. These jackals do not represent me or anyone I know.And slandered, ruined, cancelled…Something they will NEVER teach you in government schools.Why isn’t this common knowledge? Clearly our “leaders” didn’t get the memo.Don’t believe it? Compare the US covid lockdowns to the lockdowns in Australia. Maybe violence isn’t the answer. Until all other options have been exhausted that is. Evil doesn’t simply go away.I’m not a twit, so I don’t really know if Twitter is still working fine, but I know without doubt that the government ISN’T. I say that gov’t employee reduction is a good place to start. Yes, I’m angry. But if I were a vet, I’d be seething about now.It’s always darkest before the dawn, they say…
I’ve been a little quiet lately and “off my game”, feeling out of sorts and spending a lot of energy just trying not to get sucked into the vortex of darkness and doom…
It’s nothing I can put my finger on. It’s the overwhelming sense of being pummeled with bad news, destruction, lies and sheer madness. I cannot continue to believe what we see around us (and what /they/ continue to justify, excuse or simply bury if the other two options aren’t viable) is due to ineptitude. It’s too much, too often, too coincidental. But if it’s NOT ineptitude, what does THAT mean? Honestly, I can’t wrap my head around what is going on in the world right now. It appears to be a race to the bottom, and the good ol’ USA is leading the pack!
I made a promise to myself when I started this blog that I wouldn’t let it go down the path of doom and gloom, that I’d do my best to keep things positive or at least neutral. Since lately I didn’t think I could do that, I’ve simply been keeping my big yap shut. That being said, I figured I’d just share a few memes that struck a chord with me lately.
Here’s to better days ahead!
I’ll be back before long. Just gotta get out of my head for a bit (or maybe get fitted for a tin foil hat!?!). A book review is in the works, concerts on the horizon and other assorted stuff. No travel ’til Autumn due to tightly squeezed budgets, but it is almost surfing “season”, so if nothing else some beach time is right around the corner.
In the meantime, focus on food, water, shelter, medicinal needs, and a means of protection. The LAST thing anybody needs is to become reliant on this Clown Show commonly known as “government”. They do NOT have your best interests at heart. That is YOUR job.
Keep your chins up folks, sanity certainly MUST return at some point…
This morning has me facing a big reality check in my ability to deal with “unforeseen circumstances”. In short, I’m beating myself up pretty good this morning.
As I write this, we’re at about 30 hours without power. I realize that for some of you, this is nothing. For us, it is extremely unusual. I’ve lived within a 25 mile radius of where I am now my entire life and to the best of my recollection we’ve never gone more than 24 hours without power. Outages are usually resolved within 12 hours, most in less than 8. So yes, we’ve historically been a little spoiled.
But that was then… Our utilities company (Pacific Gas & Electric) has been really dropping the ball the last couple years. One of my colleagues that lives close by, but in a more rural section, has routinely gone without power for 4-5 day stretches half a dozen times a year since 2019.
Around 5:00am today – 27 hours into the failure we got an update from the Utilities stating the “expected” restoration is by 10pm TOMORROW. This is unprecedented in our area. We’ve lived in the same apartment for 16 years and have never, ever gone 3 days without power.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been a big believer in preparedness since my days as a Boy Scout back in the 70’s and 80’s. Emergency preparedness has been part of my job for the last 20+ years. I’ve been an active member of my Town’s Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.), I’ve trained with County Fire Depts. in two different counties, and done FEMA emergency response training. In short, I know this stuff, and have a knack for imagining a “worst case” for any scenario.
I’ve spent years and countless dollars preparing for emergencies and this minor blip caught me with my pants down…
Don’t get me wrong. We’re not suffering or in any kind of danger, but I have never felt so unprepared in my life.
I’ll start at the beginning…
When I woke up Tuesday morning, I just went to the gym expecting that by the time I got home the power would be back on, but stopped off at a 7-11 on the way home to get coffee for the Mrs. and I, just in case. Which turned out to be a good thing, ‘cuz the power was still out when I got home.
I showered and dressed for work by battery operated lantern and got ready for a day at the office. The Mrs. happened to have the day off and was going to be home, so before I left I pulled out our “solar generator” and hooked up the TV and our modem so she wouldn’t be bored and also have the capability to recharge her phone if necessary. I left for work fully expecting the power would come back on at some point during the day. So far, so good.
By mid-afternoon, still no power and no update from PG&E on restoration. By this time, we’re getting concerned about the food in the fridge and freezer.
I left work a little early so I could stop by our mini-storage unit and pick up our “big” cooler, then detoured to the nearest Quickie-mart and grabbed 20 lbs. of ice.
I got home to find the Mrs. had distributed candles throughout the apartment and had a couple battery lanterns running as well. She’d turned the solar generator off to conserve energy – it was down to about 70% capacity by that time.
I got busy loading the contents of the fridge into the cooler, only to discover we only had cooler capacity for about 2/3 of the refer, using 2 coolers and an insulated cooler bag. Not good.
The freezer was packed pretty solid, so it acted as sort of a cold-battery. Everything was still pretty much frozen solid, but I hooked it up the to generator for a couple hours to recharge the cold, and put the small insulated bag into the fridge for extra insulation.
After all that, I ran up the road where they had power for some takeout tacos and burritos. Then we unplugged the fridge, and hooked up the modem and TV, watched a little TV for a distraction and then got ready for bed.
Again, I was expecting a resolution overnight. Turned out to be wishful thinking.
I got up this morning and went to make some coffee. First problem, I cannot find (in the dark) our kettle. We ordinarily use an electric kettle, but I bought a “camping” kettle for situations such as this. Well, I couldn’t find the darn thing anywhere. (FAIL!) No worries, says I, I’ll just boil the water in a regular pot. Now for the stove. I purchsed a single burner propane stove for emergencies several years ago. Nice little unit, never had to use it. I’ve got a dozen bottles of propane for it, which I found immediately, but again could NOT, for the life of me, find the stove. (FAIL!) No worries, says I, I’ll just grab the Esbit stove out of the go-bag. So I went to the wife’s go bag, and NO DANG STOVE!! (FAIL!) I know I got one for her, and was sure I put it in there, but I emptied the bag and it was not to be found. Then I had to dig out my go-bag, and turned one up.
I set up the stove, put the pot of water on and let it start heating. Unbeknownst to me, this little stove would NOT bring the water to a boil. Why was it unbeknownst to me? ‘Cuz I never trained with it! (FAIL!) I got impatient after the second fuel tab, and made the coffee (in a French press) with water that maxed out at 161 degrees. It wasn’t gross, but it wasn’t good either.
Another shower and shave by lantern light, then thought I should run the fridge a bit more before I left. At this point the generator is down to 12%. I was able to run the unit for about 30 minutes and then it died out at 0%.
Now I’m back at work, thinking about all the food that will likely be spoiled by the time the power comes back on.
So, a lot of lessons learned here.
I had a good solar generator BUT I had only one extension cord to plug things into it. (FAIL!)
Once the battery was dead, I had no way to recharge it since there is NO sun for the solar panels. (FAIL!)
I had a little backup battery for charging cell phones, but I’d let it die by not keeping it on the charger, so it was useless. Using that for charging phones could’ve given us a little more capacity on the generator. (FAIL!)
I wasted time and added stress looking for the propane stove, which I never found. (FAIL!)
Have you seen me?
We were both having issues with our cell phones – they were barely working without wifi. We realized we no longer have an old fashioned “land line phone”. We have the line, we just didn’t replace the last phone when it broke. And the last one was a cordless phone, which needs electricity so it wouldn’t have served us well anyway. (FAIL!)
Our “big” cooler is wholly insufficient for emergencies. Way too small. It’s fine for cookouts or weekend camping trips, not preserving the contents of a whole fridge/freezer. (FAIL!)
Also, it occurred to me that had the power been out at our storage place, I wouldn’t have been able to get to our cooler at all…
Having go-bags is GREAT, but clearly just throwing stuff into a backpack without a clear inventory is a rookie move. (FAIL!)
Having a bunch of emergency supplies is also great, but having said supplies so disorganized you can’t find what you need, when you need it, is plain dumb. (FAIL!)
We did have a couple fortunate things, our hot water is still working and we had heat in the apartment. That was especially lucky, as our furnace hasn’t worked for about 3 years, and we just got a new one a few days before Christmas. Up til then we were relying on electric heat. We’d have been sunk if that were still the case…
All things considered, this has just been embarrassing. But I have learned a great deal from this excersize and can guarantee that the next time will NOT be like this.
Most importantly I’ve learned there is a HUGE difference between “knowing” and “doing”. I know a lot about survival and preparedness but I’ve never really had to put that knowledge to the test before. Now that I have, at best a very kind instructor might give me a C-. Test your gear folks. You don’t want the first time use to be during an emergency situation, trust me on this one.
The Boring Old Man 