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!
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.
We’ve been getting some real rain in the Bay Area over the last week, which is very welcome but good grief! The forecasting has been so outta whack.
The first burst hit us on New Year’s Eve, and we knew we had rain coming, but as it turned out the resulting rainfall was 3 TIMES the amount forecast! Oops. Surprise!!
I spent most of that day stressing about the creek that forms the property line for the facility I work at. When I left Friday night, the creek had 25-30 feet to go before it breached the bank (and flooded the building I’m responsible for!), and by 4pm the next day it only had about 10′ capacity left. By 10pm it was between 5 and 7 feet.
Sunday we got a respite from the rain, the creek dropped considerably and we thought we were in the clear…
Then Monday we get flood warnings and high wind advisories from the National Weather Service. Then the “news” is non-stop with coverage on the impending horror storm coming Wednesday. “It’s going to be the storm of the century!” “Expect massive damages!” There WILL be LOSS OF LIFE!”…
I spent Monday and Tuesday battening down the hatches, clearing all storm drains and rain gutters, prepping response carts with necessary equipment, alerting all other departments, getting stacks of sand bags ready, staging our giant water barriers that will (hopefully) save our basement from flooding and keeping a vigilant watch on the creek. I put my entire staff “on call” for Wednesday night.
When Wednesday rolled around, we were as ready as we could be for this Biblical storm, everyone on high alert.
And then…not much of anything.
Sure, it rained. For a bit. There were a few pretty good gusts of wind. I may even go as far as to say is was the biggest storm we’ve had in the last 2, maybe 3 years. You know, the years California has been in a massive drought?!? Overall, it was pretty much a nothing burger.
I don’t know which is worse, the utter incompetence of the National Weather Service and our local meteorologists or the repulsive fear mongering of the “news” media.
The silver lining in all this is that we didn’t sustain any damage and it was a good drill for my team.
I’m a firm believer in preparedness, so I don’t look at this as wasted time. That being said, I could have done without the added stress that was induced by the over-hyped “news” being churned out nonstop.
We’ve got rain in the forecast on 8 of the next 10 days, so maybe something will happen but now my blood pressure should stay a little more normal, since we’re well prepared.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to diminish the adverse situations some folks have experienced during these storms – there has been some flooding, there have been some power outages, there have been some folks trapped in cars and whatnot. Mostly, we’ve lost a LOT of trees.
No, my issues is with the fools that got it all wrong. There was more distress and more problems on NYE than there should have been because they underestimated the situation, and city/county/state resources weren’t ready for what we got. Then they OVERestimated significantly, causing much undue stress and anxiety for much of the population.
In the end, we got what we desperately needed, some good steady rain and some preparedness training. I guess it wasn’t all bad…
This past Monday afternoon, I underwent a pretty significant oral surgery. As of this morning, it still feels like I was hit in the face with a baseball bat… Good times.
This mouth rebuild was supposed to take place prior to the Plague, but as with everything it was pushed out by a couple years…
So consider this a Public Service Announcement…in light of how terribly sideways things seem to be going these days, if you have medical/dental/wellness needs, take care of them now. While you can. I was lazy and more than a little fearful facing what I needed to do, so I kept putting it off. Then the Plague hit and I couldn’t do what I needed to do, even if I wanted to.
Now, I’m two years older, healing more slowly than I would have two years ago and it cost me a lot more financially than it would’ve two years ago. Luckily, things didn’t get (much) worse before I was finally able to get treatment. Live and learn!
Take care of yourselves. I should be back shortly, with something a little more fun to read.
Today it was time to get my recertification for CPD/AED and First Aid. Good times…
I did my first CPR certification back in 1982 or so, and have been through more of the classes than I can count, as the certification expires every two years. And in spite of having been trained over and over and over again, I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve never had to put these skills to the test. Well, I’ve done first aid about a thousand times, but fortunately have never (knock on wood!) had to administer CPR or use an AED machine on anyone in duress.
Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to brush up on these skills if you’re rusty. If you’ve never been trained in First Aid or CPR, what are you waiting for?
The entire course was just shy of four hours. Just about anyone can find four hours to make themselves a more prepared and useful citizen…
M.D. Creekmore's survival blog provides essential prepping information to fortify your resilience. Equip yourself for any scenario and gain peace of mind in an unpredictable world.
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it – no matter if I have said it! – except it agree with your own reason and your own common sense.” – Siddhartha Gautama, a.k.a. the Buddha
The Boring Old Man 