Author Archives: Commander Zero

Gas pains

Posted on by

Friend Of The Blog ™, Harry Flashman, over at Self-Sufficient Mountain Living woke up to find the gas pumps dry and no one knowing when the fuel will be back.

Listening to the CB radio on SSB , I heard two fellows talking about gasoline shortages up here in North Georgia. One of them had gone to Cornelia , and on trying to get back, he found there was no gas to be had at the Ingles in Cornelia, nor in Cleveland. I assumed Ingles, which is a big grocery chain here, had simply messed up their order or had some kind of dispute with their supplier

When we went into town today, our own Ingles had no gas. I didn’t think much of it, until the next station down the road had no gasoline either. It turned out there was not a drop of gasoline to be had at any stations in our county.

Since my kids were here, I haven’t followed the news with anything like the attention to detail that has been my habit. That’s why I didn’t know that the pipeline that brings gasoline to Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama had “gone down.”  In town people were saying the pipeline was out of service and might not be up until next week.

What is the natural consequence of a good’s level of scarcity increasing as demand stay constant? Shortages and price increases.

Gasoline is something that you really do need. You can talk about how you’re going to be grid-free, ride your solar-powered golf cart around, run your life on propane, etc, etc, but in the real world gasoline is right up there with money, ammo, and food.

148848_slideI try to keep enough gas on hand for a) generator usage, b) barter/aid, and c) GTFO. All told, about 60 gallons. It’s all in 5-gal. NATO cans and treated with PRI-G.. I routinely use, in my vehicle, gas that is two years old and I’ve never had a hiccup. If you treat your gas, seal it up in a good metal can, and tuck it somewhere shady, it’ll last a good long time. There is a school of thought that says that you don’t even really need to use the additives..the gas will keep just fine. Maybe. But I’m willing to pay a couple extra bucks for snake oil to make damn sure that when I need to throw my gear in the vehicle and go, go, go, the engine goes ‘vroooom’ instead of ‘whirwhirwhirwhir…’.

Don’t cheap out and get plastic gas cans. Don’t cheap out and get bargain “NATO-style’ cans made in China. Don’t cheap out and get metal Blitz cans. Spend $50-75 per can and get the real deal. Here’s why:

When you show me any other can that can handle that sort of action, then I’ll consider it. until then..I’ll pay the money for the peace of mind.

When i bought my first motorcycle helmet, I complained to my buddy how expensive they were. he said, “What’s your life worth?”. Same thing for the gas can. What’s it worth to have 5-gallons of perfect gasoline on hand when the lights are out, the storms are raging, the hordes are coming, the waters are rising, the kids are crying, and the city is dying?
 

 

Fear The Walking Dead – S2

Posted on by

I was pretty much ready to write off “Fear The Walking Dead” as just too stupidly annoying for me to watch. There were virtually no characters I liked, the characters were beyond clueless, and there just wasn’t any sense of caring what happened to these people.

Season Two, it appears, must have been made by people who spent the off-season reading the internet and learning what people disliked about the show. First, things are a tad grittier. I like that. It’s the end of the world, not Comic-con. The main characters have broken off into three distinctly separate storylines, so I can have episodes with minimal annoyance from some of those amazingly weak female characters.

And, speaking of female characters, we get introduced to new ones. Specifically, this one:

lucianaNormally, I’m not into ethnic chicks, and I’m not a fan of brunettes. What I am a fan of, though, are strong chicks with guns. (What can I say? I like what I like. Too many chicks are victims [or like to see themselves as victims], so ones that aren’t are pretty attractive.) So, yes, eye candy…but my kinda eye candy.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that this season the principal characters are much more realistic or fatalistic in their dealings with other people. Gone is Season One’s we-must-help-them mindset that drove me nuts. Now it seems the reality has hit home – other survivors are most likely bad news.

And to wrap it up, here’s an interesting article noticing the more realistic/fatalistic trend in FTWD.

When the apocalypse begins, the smartest thing you can do (besides raid Modell’s for combat boots) is monopolize essentials. Food, water, and shelter are in short supply. If you want easy living in the end of days, providing what people need is a golden ticket. Unfortunately, you’re going to compete with drug lords who already have the muscle and arsenal to take them first.

Fear the Walking Dead continues to one-up its older sibling series The Walking Dead by detailing a world where logic and plausibility are the most dominant forces in the zombie apocalypse. In “Sacrifice,” Nick (Frank Dillane) is assigned to accompany Luciana (Danay Garcia) on a dangerous task: Grocery shopping.

So there are stil characters on this show that I’m really eager to see leave, but overall I like the direction this particular part of the storyline is headed. I am, however, still extremely disappointed that they apparently(!) killed of my favorite character, Reuben Blades’ “Daniel”.

Grocery bargains

Posted on by

Some things just bring me joy….free ammo (it happens), porn sites with easily hacked passwords, puppies, watching liberals discover the world isn’t what they thought it was, etc, etc. But two things that always soothe my soul are a) bargains and b) food. And sometimes, if the gods are smiling, a & b combine in one glorious moment.

Today? Apparently breakfast cereal was on sale. The real stuff, not the store-brand ‘almost as goods’. (Generic frosted flakes? “They’rrrrrrrrrrrrre…okay!”) So, with regular price being knocked down about 50% who wouldn’t stock up?

20160915_191416I know from experience that they’ll stay fresh in their sealed bags well into next year. And I’m the kind guy who, when he feels lazy and hungry, will just have a giant bowl of breakfast cereal  for dinner.

More importantly, its part of the Alpha strategy – buy it cheap and stock it deep when prices are low. Way I reckon it, I’m good on breakfast cereal for the rest of the year.

Need more milk though……..

Paratus this Friday

Posted on by

As i just said in the subject line, Paratus is this Friday. This is a great opportunity to take the moral high ground and buy yourself that little geegaw that you’ve been wanting…a new LED flashlight, a spare magazine, your own nuclear power plant, whatever.

It’s also a great opportunity to pick up an item or two as a gift for those who aren’t quite on the wavelength as the rest of us. The post about multitools got some comments about how people are always coming to us to borrow our flashlights or multitools because we’re known as the McGyvers of the office/production floor. Well, Paratus is your opportunity to get them a $10 LED pocket flashlight and maybe make converts.

What does the ol’ Zero want for Paratus? Hmm…well, the things I want most are the things I apparently can’t have, so I  need to stick to what seems more attainable… I’d like a lovingly restored FJ40, a chunk of land with a nice house on it, Jennifer Lawrence with a brain disease that makes her an incurable, but monogamous,  nymphomaniac…t’know, the usual stuff.

Paratus is as good a reason to prepare for the election as anything else. For a reminder of what life can look like for us Ballistic-Americans when a Clinton is in the White House you can view this post.

Regardless, Paratus is your holiday. live it up!

The morons that blogging attracts

Posted on by

I just had to delete several comments that someone shotgunned to several different posts. All the comments were the same and ended with a link to this retard’s webpage where he is trying top promote his Ultimate Survival Book That Will Save Your Family In Times Of Crisis! ..or some similar horsecrap. Here’s the thing, on a whim I went to his website and, I am not making this up, these are the ‘words’ (well, they’re kinda like words) that he has describing his SuperMegaAwesome book:

  • “survival phisical / e-book”
  • “and any other desaster”
  • “survive any coming catastrofe…”

Oh, there’s a “catastrofe” alright….I think I’m reading it.

I’ve actually met a couple of survival book authors. They can spell. I would guess that reading this guy’s book (or as he might call it, ‘buuk’) would be about as painful as watching a chimpanzee try to operate a chainsaw.

Here’s the thing…if this illiterate* goober wanted to hype his self-promotion website, he could have left a comment that at least had some relation to the post…and his link would have been there. But, no, he had to be tacky and classless (and illiterate)…thus, the public mockery.

Blogging….it ain’t what it used to be.

* = Given this special snowflake’s grasp of language and spelling, I fully expect him to send me an email loudly declaring that he is not illiterate because his parents were married a full seven months before he was born.

Article – Multitools Make the Man

Posted on by

Everyday carry (or E.D.C.) denotes what you carry wherever you go. It is a niche preparedness culture that is lately becoming mainstream; amid the groundswell, it has been called a ‘‘movement,’’ a ‘‘mindset’’ and even a ‘‘philosophy,’’ for it also connotes a heightened consciousness about what you carry and why. The objects in an individual’s E.D.C. may be as unremarkable as keys, a cell phone and a wallet, but might be as various as a brass marine shackle or a tourniquet, a seatbelt cutter or a small multipurpose tool that looks like a seahorse, a reclining monkey or a gaping tyrannosaur. E.D.C. sites are awash in lovingly curated still lifes of all this — a murse dump with occasional Glocks.

A little something from the NY Times (“Pravda On The Hudson”) about the ‘trend’ towards EDC gear. Nothing really substantive or new in the article, but the fact that it is even there is whats newsworthy.

Link – Operational rations

Posted on by

Interesting link to a very slick and professional looking examination of the various military rations in the US military.

I’m especially interested in the Unitized Group Ration – Express. I’m rather fascinated by the concept of a cardboard box of rations where you open it up, pull the rip cord, and a half hour later you and your squaddies have a hot meal.

Anyway, interesting link and worth a read.

Schedule, Paratus, election

Posted on by

Been busy these last weeks. A small portion of it is the usual Zero stuff…stocking away magazines, food, etc, but I’ve also got a buncha stuff in my ‘civilian life’ that I need to keep up with and, sadly, that’s cutting into blogging time.

======

Paratus is a week from tomorrow. Feel free to tell your friends about it. Don’t we all need an excuse to legitimize the purchase of more gear, hanging out with like-minded friends, and going to the range?

======

The election approaches. Not to sound like a broken record or anything but whoever wins the election isn’t necessarily our friend..oh, one may be friendlier than the other, but I’m not willing to chance it. Magazines, receivers, armour, ammo, components…..not necessarily in that order, but pretty close.

======

Don’t feel ripped off…I have some more substantive blog posts coming up. Theyre sitting in the Drafts folder now and I’m just waiting to get some images to go along with them.