Tag Archives: cautionary tale

Door gunner

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Buddy of mine texted this picture to me last night:

Apparently, around 1030p or so, there was a heavy knocking on the door. My buddy checks the door and sees some Indian guy (thats Indian with the casino, not Indian with the 7-11) swaying on his front porch. Thinking this is a bad time of night for someone to be banging on doors, he discreetly grabs his 10mm and holds it behind his leg as he yells through the locked door to ask the guy what he wants. Our mystery man says that his car is stuck and can he please come in and use the phone. My buddy is a retired cop and he’s not the type to give someone the benefit of the doubt at his expense. Stuck car or not, the answer is no. Guy on the porch starts copping an attitude, but finally wanders to his car which is nose down in the barrow pit. My buddy calls the sheriff and says there’s some guy with his car in the ditch, banging on his door, and this guy is either drunk or having a medical situation. Must have been a slow night because three fire trucks and seven deputies show up.

My buddy watches as two guys get out of the car, the cops start their little talk, and then abruptly they scoop up one of them and stuff him in the back of a car. Other guy gets a gentler treatment, but still gets bracelets and a back seat. Turns out door guy gets popped for aggravated DUI. What makes it aggravated? Blowing more than twice the limit. Guy number two had warrants for aggravated burglary and failure to appear. He’s not going anywhere any time soon.

My buddy did everything pretty well. He didn’t open the door and he armed himself. Where he lost points was in not having a gun in a more readily accessible place but, unfortunately, his wife doesn’t like having guns laying about.

I always keep a gun by the front door because you never know whats gonna come to your doorstep. As many people have said, nothing good happens after 11pm. Sometimes, though, trouble doesn’t look at the clock and it can happen anytime. Moral of the story: it never hurts to be cautious.

This is only a test…

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My phone, when Im at work, is in ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode. That means that only calls/texts from people on my approved list (‘whitelist’) will get through. Unless, of course, youre the fedgov and you’re testing your nationwide emergency alert notifications. In short, every cell phone in my office erupted at 12:20 this afernoon.

I recognize that there may be a circumstance under which your benevolent and generous .gov wants to inform you of something. But if they’ve got the juice to ring every cellphone in North America and override your ringer settings to do it, you can bloody well believe they can do a few other neat tricks with your phone. Turn on the speaker remotely and eavesdrop? Cut off your incoming calls? Redo your Location setting so your phone pings your location? All that and more, my friend.

Remember, .gov almost never gives itself a power (or authority) and then never uses it. Heck, we’re the only nation that ever opened a can of sunshine on other human beings. You really think that technology was going to be developed and never used?

Look, I love me some smartphone. I have, literally, all the collected information of mankind in my pocket. I can communicate with anyone on the planet. I can watch gun videos. But I never forget that technology  like that can be used against me by the same folks that license and regulate it.

Be impressed with today’s demonstration of tech, but be concerned about what it implies.

Sunday outage(s)

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This paid off.

Yesterdays power outage was not an anomaly, it seems. Power was out for about an hour today but over a much broader area of town. I went ahead and ran the generator for that hour, mostly because it was just time to unlimber it and let it get some exercise. However, buying the new UPS’ yesterday for the security cams worked perfectly. Cams, monitor, and DVR stayed up quite a while as I fumbled around getting the generator out of it’s Hardigg case and out into the yard. Very pleased.

Just a few blocks away, a friend of mine is without power and has been for an unusually long time….several hours now. I brought over the desklamp/batterybox combo referenced at the beginning of this post and said to go ahead and not even worry about using up the battery...running it six hours a night it’ll last a freakin’ month.

And, should the power continue to be spotty, I also have this little gem I fabbed up on a whim.

Not sure what’s going on locally in regards to this two days of spotty blackouts…Im guessing its something fairly minor…but it does give me an opportunity to test out gear and theories, and it also points out some holes I need to fill. Most notably, a better base-unit-style police scanner…..with UPS, natch.

Saturday outage

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An interesting day. Was on the computer this morning, going through emails, when without warning I hear the noise of the computer backup power supply kick in and start beeping. A moment or two later it was joined by the UPS for the security system. That’s pretty much the song of a power failure.

Ok, not a big deal. Its the beginning of the day, so lighting isn’t really an issue. What is an issue is determining how big and widespread this thing is. There’s a big difference between a squirrel tap dancing on a transformer plunging my little neighborhood into a blackout and someone EMP’ing my local power generation facility.

Pulled my Icom R6 out of my Bag O’ Tricks and dialed up the local police/fire scene. No chatter indicating a town-wide outage but lets go take a look ourselves. Slipped the Glock into its holster, grabbed an MP5 ‘just in case’ and headed to the truck. A quick drive around the neighborhood showed that, indeed, the power was out. However, when I got to the busy main street I could see far enough down the street in either direction to see active traffic signals. SO..its a localized outage, not the opening act for something more sinister.

Returned back to the house and listened to the scanner some more. Cops reported various traffic signals as inoperative and were directing traffic where necessary. All in all, it was something that didn’t require any real escalation of alert status. So, since we have an actual-but-well-in-hand ’emergency’ going on lets see how ready we are.

Biggest issue: the UPS for my security cameras faded almost instantly. After a couple minutes the cameras all went dark. This was a bit surprising. While there are about a dozen cameras, their draw shouldnt have been enough to wipe out a constantly-charged battery in less than a few minutes. However, this UPS is close to ten years old so perhaps it’s simply time to replace it. Replaced it with two UPS’ later that day.

The Icom R6 performed quite well within its design parameters…and those parameters are for a compact radio scanner. Since I was not constrained by size requirements, due to being at the house, I really should have had a larger, more eay-to-use unit available. I have a few handheld Bearcats of varying vintage laying around but this reinforced that I need to have a more modern full-size unit around. So, there’ll be some research on that and then a quick trip to Amazon.

As has been typical in 90% of the blackouts I’ve experienced here, power was restored within an hour or so. No need to break out the Honda EU2000 to top off the freezer or anything like that. But, of course, it’s there if I need it.

Of all the systems here in the house, the security cams are the ones that have the least amount of reasonable alternatives for a period of power disruption. I have alternatives for heating, cooking, and lighting, but there is only one option for keeping a video security camera system operational and that’s electricity..either stored or generated.

In practice, the UPS for the security system only has to run the system long enough for me to get the generator up and the system plugged into it. Setting up the generator from storage and getting it running is, at most, a fifteen minute job. Closer to ten in the warmer months. Any UPS only really has to last long enough for that period of time. But, no one ever really complained that their batteries had too much capacity. I suppose it might be worth investigating just building a larger capacity backup system with a few AGM batts, a charger, and inverter dedicated to just the security cams.

That was, thus far, the most interesting thing to happen here today. A learning experience for sure. If it had gone on more than a few hours it would have been a bit more interesting but those kinds of failures a few and far between here in town. But, of course, that doesnt mean they won’t happen or that I shouldnt be prepared for them.

Ford F-150 surprise

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Someone pointed something out to me the other day that was utterly fascinating.

This person has a Ford F-150 of relatively recent vintage. Having had the needle on ‘E’, they rolled into a gas station just as the fumes finally gave out and the engine sputtered to a stop. As they were about to refill the truck they figured that this seemed like a good time to rotate the gas from the cans in the bed of the truck. So..dismount the can, put your nozzle on the can, and…..fuel up, right?

Not so fast.

Apparently the newer Ford F-150 (and other ‘capless’ gas tank vehicles) are designed in such a manner that you cannot fill them from a gas can without using a special nozzle. Or, put another way, you cannot just grab a jerry can and fill your rig without the magic nozzle. Did you know this? I didn’t. The person who told me about it didn’t. Guarantee you, though…he knows now.

I am amazed at this. I understand that the folks who design vehicles are, perhaps, not thinking about the times where you’re next fuel fillup is coming from a 5-gallon can someone carried to your base location on a cargo-shelf’ed ALICE pack. But…as survivalists, it would be nice to know that we need a special geegaw to fill the bloody truck from a gas can.

Apparently the vehicle comes with one of these magic funnels but, as you know, one is none and, really, for something as critical as filling your escape vehicle, why wouldn’t you have three or four? Or one paracorded to every other gas can. Fortunately, extras are available.

Moral of the story – if you think the vehicle you currently drive may someday need to be filled from a man-portable gas container of some kind…..actually try doing it. This way you know for sure that it’ll work. The las thing you want is that nasty surprise when you’re by the side of the highway at 2am and you’ve got plenty of extra fuel and no way to get it into your rig.

CostCo price change refund

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A while back I purchased some LifeStraws from CostCo. The next week the price dropped by ten bucks. Oh well, thought I, thats life. Until this arrived in the mail:

(Don’t be an idiot…the knife is there to cover the address the letter was sent to.)

Mind you, I didn’t go to CostCo and complain and demand a refund for the difference. Nope. They went through their records, all on their own, looking for folks who purchased this product within that window of time.

So the obvious thing is that a person would see this as a good thing. And, it is. But it’s also an excellent example of the fact (as proven here) that CostCo tracks and keeps records of everything you purchase. Your first inclination might be to think you could beat the system by using a Gift Card..but someone has to buy that gift card, and that card is recorded as a purchase by them…so youre kinda back to square one.

Now, CostCo is not usually my first choice for preps….about all I get that might raise an eyebrow are large amounts of toilet paper and batteries. But, they do sell long-term storage food online and I’ve no doubt that that is something you really don’t need to have people keeping tabs on.

So..yeah, buy from CostCo…just don’t buy stuff in a manner that someone could look at last weekends shopping trip and say “Hmm…looks like someone is hoarding against the apocalypse. Better notify the authorities.”

 

Water water everywhere

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Sitting on the couch watching TV at 10pm and there’s an odd noise in the background. Hmmm. I mute the television and hear a sound of….water? The hairs on my neck stand up and that little adrenaline rush bumps me from ready-for-bed to red-alert mode.

When you live in the same house for a number of years you become very attuned to the sounds of your surroundings. You know what noises are supposed to occur (or not occur) and when. This was a ‘something is not right noise’. It took about six seconds for me to run through the possibilities and then I was bolting down the stairs to the basement where, even before I saw it and heard it I could smell it…water.

We had snow during the week and the temperatures dropped abruptly. I wasnt ready for it and didnt turn off the water to the outside spigots. One of them cracked and a high-pressure jet of water was doing its thing.

I immediately grabbed the main shutoff lever and swung it closed. That solved the immediate problem. It also turned off the water to the entire house. But…with the immediate problem taken care of, now was the time to look closer.

The outside spigot branches off from the main water line and has it’s own shutoff as well. I closed that off and re-opened the main. Water was back to the rest of the house and the outside spigot line was isolated and shut off. I’ll deal with it in the spring. In the meantime, damage control.

I had always been concerned about pipe breakage in the basement so I shielded all my stored preps that were near any pipes. I also never put anything that was susceptible to water damage anywhere lower than a foot and a half off the floor. So, yeah, a few cardboard boxes of Pmags got soaked but while the boxes are a soggy mess, the mags are fine. I’ve a fan running down there now to dry out things but the bigger issue is: if I had gone to bed early, this thing would have run all night. How can I be alerted to such a failure in the future.

Well, first step, is I should have shut off the outside water two weeks ago. That was the biggest fail. But after that, unless I’m taking a stroll through my basement once a day, I need some alert systems. So..off to Amazon to pick up water alarms. Additionally, since I have plenty of unused ‘channels’ on the security cams, I’m going to dedicate a camera or two to keeping an eye on the basement.

All in all, it could have been a lot worse. But it could have been a lot better too.

Cascade of fail

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“Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.” – B. Franklin

Buddy of mine gets a call from his 30-year old son. Son shot an elk 6.5 miles off the road in the backcountry and needs help hauling it out.

Turns out, the young man and his buddy were out bowhunting and shot this elk 6.5 miles off the road…at the end of the day. No way they were going to get it out in the dark, so they gutted it and prepared to spend the night outdoors. They built a fire and had their cheesy little space blankets so all was…ok. Next day, both their phones are at 2% from constantly looking for a signal. Neither guy thought to bring a small charger with them. And, most critically, after starting to haul the elk out, they had no water to drink. The place was lousy with creeks but they wouldnt drink from the creeks unfiltered.

Dad shows up, finally, after playing Marco Polo with handgun fire to locate each other. When he finds them, theyre both exhausted, theyve stopped sweating, and son is shaking from dehydration.

It was at this point I interjected that I had given dad one of these as a Paratus gift, and he needs to hustel junior and his buddy up to CostCo and buy a few for their hunting packs. If theyd had one of these things they could have drunk their fill from any of the creeks they were crossing. I always carry one of these in my bag anytime I’m out in the field.

Same thing for whistles. I always have at least two loud-as-funk whistles…one in my bag and one on my person. Thats the easiest and most efficient way to do that Marco Polo where-the-heck-are-you dance short of having a radio.

And speaking of electronics, I also carry a small battery pack to recharge my phone off of. Sometimes theres no signal when youre out in the sticks, but more often than not you can get a signal these days.

I would have thought his kid knew better, but I guess not. Moral of the story: even if youre not planning on spending the night afield, have some gear with you just in case.

 

When PerSec fails in a big way

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So, you have a very expensive but lovely home with a hidden doomsday bunker. And…you list it on online brokerages. What could possibly go wrong? Well, someone might think they want your bunker and they want it now.

Detective Allen testified that in the interview, Gilday confirmed that the bunker in the family’s home was his target, and that he had surveilled the property multiple times, even trying to access the bunker from a tunnel, prior to February 22nd.

So this guy thinks that WW3 is about to cut loose and decides he needs this bunker and doesn’t want to deal with realtors fees, I guess. So, he goes in, guns blazing, and decides to just…take the place.

We talk about PerSec all the time in the sense that when things get ‘spicy’ the people who know about your goodies might come a-calling and they may be less than polite. Heck, its the foundation of one of the Twilight Zone’s most famous episodes.

Moral of the story: the first rule of bunker club………….

I know better…I really, really do…..

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It never fails. Every time I leave the house to run an errand and forget to take a pistol I always wind up getting some whiskey-for-breakfast-brushed-his-teeth-with-a-hammer homeless wretch approaching me and asking/demanding something. Every time.

This message brought to you by the sinking feeling when you casually move your hand to your hip and realize your holster is empty because you were ‘only going to be gone five minutes’.

Stupid, stupid.