Tag Archives: cautionary tale

Fall guy

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I’m not super-extensively well-travelled. I’ve been to portions of Europe several times, but in a touristy capacity. I’ve never been to the ‘stans or that region. But..I can say that I’ve seen varied living conditions to give me a pretty broad base of experience.

So, I ask with all sincerity, why…why…WHY,,would anyone live in Texas? I just spent a couple days in the Houston area and I have never, ever, EVER!!11!11111 seen a climate less hospitable to human life. There was heat, humidity, fire ants, scorpions, and unrelenting sun baking everything. People say “So what? You just go from one air-conditioned building to another.” Dude, if you want to live in an artificial environment because the natural one outside your door will freakin’ kill you then you may as well be living on Mars. SpaceX needs volunteers to colonize Mars? Send the Texans…theyre already living in a climate that will kill you just as soon as look at you. They actually went to war with Mexico for that place? You know that saying, “All my exes live in Texas?”…well, yeah..because most people tell their exes “go to hell”. Well, there you go!

So..why was I there? I was helping someone move. I volunteered. And since I had to fly, I mailed a Glock and S&W 642 to myself ‘just in case’. What I did not mail ahead, and I should have, was one of my IFAKs. I didn’t want to take one in my luggage because I didn’t feel like having the grepos at TSA rummaging through my QuickClot and Dermabond. Bad move. Why?

Well, after several hours of unloading a storage unit into a rental truck in 103 degree heat, being covered in dirt, bruises, scrapes, and sweating faster than I could powerload on Gatorade, it was time to wrestle a ginormous fridge up the ramp to the truck. And….at the top of the ramp, it went sideways. I jumped clear to avoid ‘death by Frigidaire’ and I rolled up to my feet. The fridge missed me but I was a tad bruised.

  • Them: are you okay?
  • Me: Yeah. The only thing that can kill me is me.
  • Them: are you sure you’re okay?
    Me: Yeah, my heel feels a bit weird though.

And I took off my shoe and beheld this:

A close look showed a hole in the bottom of my shoe. When I leapt clear of the ramp, one foot landed in a bin of tools. Something drove right through my shoe and tore a hole in the bottom of my foot.

So, NSTIW, sitting on the curb by the storage unit wondering why I stupidly sent ahead my pistols and not my first aid kit. I had to scrounge through the storage unit…found some ancient Bactine, an elastic bandage, and a clean paper towel. Well, you do what you can, where youre at, with what you have.

SO..bandaged it up as best I could and carried on until I could send someone into a Walgreens and, like some scene in a gangster movie, have them go to the checkout clerk while carrying an armload of gauze, pads, tape etc, and trying not to be suspicious.

After that, it was..better. But it needs to be..ah..trimmed..in a few places. Hence, the doc in the box. (also some tetanus shot and keflex.)

So, other than wearing a more resilient pair of shoes, what could I have done differently? I should have been smart enough to realize that doing something like loading/unloading a truck could lead to this sort of thing and I should have mailed one of my first aid kits ahead. Failing that, I should have gone to Walgreens before I started the job and purchased materials to be prepared ‘just in case’. Honestly, I shoulda sucked up the $60 to ship and just mailed my Bag O’ Tricks to myself. That woulda covered me for bloody near anything that might go wrong.

Moral of the story: ‘remote’ preps don’t start and stop at guns.

And I shoulda just swung by Home Depot and grabbed a few Mexicans to unload /load the stupid truck.

Also, Texas might as well be the surface of Mars.

Signs of the times

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I don’t really need anything but, like the idiots that head to the beach after an earthquake to see the tsunami, I decided to go look and see what was available.

Two and a half years ago I posted about this place opening up and I took a picture of their rice and bean aisle:

And here is what it looks like today:

Whats interesting is that there’s even a bit of a run on…canning supplies. I stopped by WalMart to snag a dozen half-pint for making relish and……:

I already have hundreds of jars and lids, but I was curious to see how far the panic buying had gone. Answer: pretty far.

Shelf-stable Parmalat whole and 2% milk bricks? Yeah…gone.

I returned back to my abode and, to calm my nerves, took a walk through my stockpiles of LDS canned rice, oats, and macaroni…my 5-gallon buckets of rice, corn, sugar, and salt….my plastic bins of pasta….and my wall of Mountain House…..my 15-gallon drums of rice..and I am calm once more.

 

Link – Veteran shoots, kills robbery suspect at Kam’s Market in Bay Point

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Store clerk gets thumped by bad guy, retrieves gun, gives bad guy new belly button.


A happy ending, but… rather graphic evidence that having a gun nearby or at hand is no substitute for having a pistol on you. The guy manages to pull the gun out of the drawer next to the register and the bad guy promptly wrestles with the clerk for it and pistol whips the clerk harshly.

I’m guilty of this from time to time myself. I’ll have a gun in my bag, or under the seat, that sorta thing…. and it’s not nearly as effective as having it on my person.

Many people, myself included, stash a pistol or five around the house. I know people that actually have dedicated ‘bathroom guns’. I know a lot of folks who keep a pistol in the drawer by the entryway to the house. The idea being that the 3am knock on the door can be responded to with a pistol discreetly tucked behind your back. But, again, not a substitute for actually having it on your person or in hand.

After my appendix exploded back in ’16, it was painful to wear a belt for any period of time. I got out of the habit of carrying a gun everyday, everywhere. And….nothing bad happened. So I got lax. Some days I had a pistol on me, some days I did not. Then some event happened,, I can’t recall what it was, that reminded me that I needed to get back into the practice (not habit, a practice…because habit implies no conscious thought and I think you should always be conscious of anything involving a gun) of being armed whenever outside the confines of my abode.

Anyway, interesting video and worth discussing, I thought.

 

 

Pearl Harbor Day

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A quiet Sunday morning…you’re listening to the radio, maybe getting ready for church, and you woke up in a world where your biggest worry was the oil leak in your car. And by the end of that same day the nation is marching to war and no one’s lives are untouched. Imagine what that must have been like…you woke up to orange juice and eggs and went to bed with a global war. The lesson there is that your whole life can change in just a moment. So..we prepare.

Tying one on

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As I’d mentioned last year, it seems like tourniquets are sort of a ‘newest and coolest’ sorta thing for the ‘serious’ first aid kit. I’ve been into survivalism for a long time and any references in fiction and non-fiction to tourniquets was almost always of the ‘loop a belt around it’ sort of variety. There were no ‘dedicated’ or purpose-built tourniquets that were readily available for Joe Sixpack survivalist…or if there were, you seldom read about them or came across them.

Cut to today’s episode. I’m talking with a fella I know and ask what’s up in his world. Turns out, his adult son had to go to the emergency room last night. Why? He was home, had a deer hung up and was cutting it up when he came to a frozen part of it. He put some extra oomph into his cut to get through it and the knife went into his wrist and severed a radial artery. Being alone and not precisely sure of how much damage he’d just inflicted on himself, he wrapped a towel around it and applied pressure. And applied. And applied. And the puddle at his feet just grew larger. So, he walks over to his neighbors house where the neighbor takes one look at him and calls 911. Medics arrive and….they apply a tourniquet …since at this point he’s about a quart low. They hustle him to the hospital and stitch up the leak. How close was he to cashing in his chips? Hard to say, I wasn’t there. But I am told that the amount of blood loss was rather significant and without something stopping it he probably would have been in some big trouble.

So, apparently there is a reasonable chance of need for a tourniquet outside of the apocalypse. Its not something I ever really thought to add to the first aid gear I keep around here because…well…it never seemed terribly likely to be needed. That mindset has now, of course, been kicked to the wayside. I’ll be finding a reputable vendor (to avoid Chinese fakes) and ordering a couple up for myself and one for a friend.

In talking to a few other people, it seems that severe cutting injuries resulting from deer processing/skinning/butchering are not that uncommon. Makes sense. Some guy standing alone in his garage with a hanged deer or elk slips and cuts himself deeply…I can totally see finding him the next day or two later laying DRT on the floor. Never thought about it before, but I can see it happening.

This is how you learn.

Leaking money

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You know how sometimes when your car is acting up and you take it to the mechanic you consider yourself ‘lucky’ if you get out of there without spending $xxx? Yeah. Another adventure in plumbing today.

I was going down to the basement to put away some ammo and right off the bat I knew something was wrong. I could smell water. Sure enough, theres a puddle on the floor. I hate plumbing problems. Hate them. An ancient gate valve had decided now was a good time to go ahead and give up the ghost. Trouble is, it could never be in an easy-to-access area. Nope. There’s ductwork hanging from the ceiling and, of course, the valve in question is right behind the duct. And, not just any duct. A duct that has another duct coming into it form the side. So thats a three-point F.U. to deal with.

Now, it wasn’t all bad. I managed to find a plumber who could show up today, rather than next Tuesday (looking at you Garden City Plumbing & Heating), and the kid did the job pretty well it appears, and so far everythign seems to be holding together. Replaced the ancient valve with a nice new ball valve (why, oh why, would anyone use anything else???) and now life can go on. I was expecting to drop between $500-$1000 because there’s always something that keeps it from being a straightforward and simple fix. But, knock on wood, it looks like escaped with only $175 left behind.

Fortunately, part of my preps include an emergency fund. So, it was just a matter of paying the man and life goes back to somewhat normal. Except…I have to try and put the ductwork back together.

The emergency fund, however, turned a potential Big Deal into an inconvenience. I deprive myself of some luxuries in life… new car, fancy clothes, latest electronics, basic medical care…just so I can have something in the bank for when these sorts of events happen. For those keeping track, this was another case where the crisis required greenbacks and not an AR and plates. Oh, someday the crisis will happen that does require M855 and that sort of thing, but by the time that happens there will have been a hundred crises that required the greenbacks.

So…prepare for The End Of The World, but also prepare for the smaller, more mundane and localized end-of-the-worlds…and that is almost always remedied with cash.

ETA: I was right. Complications. :::sigh::: Plumber is on his way back.

Link – Wise Food Storage Turns Over Purchase Records To Government As Part Of Shocking Class-Action Lawsuit

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A class action lawsuit against Wise Company, a survival and emergency food storage company, was filed on February 15, 2017 for “unlawful, unfair, and deceptive advertising and business practices.” Last year, the company agreed to settle the suit, and is expected to announce the settlement on its website by the end of business today.

The class action, known as Miller v. Wise Company Inc., U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Case No. 5:17-cv-00616-JAK-PLA, alleges that on its website and packaging, Wise made misrepresentations and omitted material information about how long its Long-Term Food Kits would last and how many people they would feed. Customers who brought the case (the “Plaintiffs”) allege that as a result, “customers were induced to pay more for those products than  they otherwise would have.”

What is fascinating here is the argument that since it is most likely no one has eaten this stuff, they cannot claim to have suffered damages. Kinda like saying its okay that your airbags are defective since you haven’t used them yet.

Any goober with a modicum of Google Fu can tell you that the usual 2000-calorie benchmark was nowhere near being met by these products. Or, really, anyone elses. And the ones that do have the high calorie counts usually get it by loading you up on potatoes or similar fare.

The biggest lesson here is that if you really want to do a long-term food solution you need to design your own package. You can use these guy’s products, sure… but YOU are the one who needs to calculate how much of that product you need…not them.

As for them divulging customer info. Well, its a class-action suit… without the names and addresses they have no idea who (or how many) are involved and where to send the legal paperwork. But, youre smart, right? You use other forms of payment and shipping info, right?

Although the idea that the .gov keeps a list of who ordered ten cases of Hormel seems rather tin foil-ish.

I’ll point out that if you go pay cash at the Mormon Cannery they don’t ask for ID. They may ask for a name but thats pro forma and no one cares to check if its legit.

 

 

 

Article – 40% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense

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Four in ten Americans can’t, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Board. Those who don’t have the cash on hand say they’d have to cover it by borrowing or selling something.

The bright side? That’s an improvement from half of adults being unable to cover such an expense in 2013. The number has been ticking down each year since.

Speaking as someone who just had an unexpected vehicle expense pop up, I can tell you that I ain’t in that 40%. Are you?

It’s not nearly as sexy, but it is true: you are far more likely to experience an emergency calling for your stash of US greenbacks than you are for an emergency that requires your plate carrier and NVD’s.

Part of preparedness is being prepared for the unsexy stuff: water heater failures, alternators, dead refrigerators, broken pipes, exploding appendixes, and other sundry crises.

It’s no secret that I try to follow the Dave Ramsey stuff….and I’ll be accused of drinking his particular Kool-Aid but..it’s worked well for me. The alternator died and what might have otherwise been an emergency was downgraded to an inconvenience. I just took the money from the emergency fund and threw it at the mechanic. Next day…functioning vehicle. No muss, no fuss.

Now I drop everything and work on topping off my emergency fund back to its normal level.

If you set back food, ammo, fuel, and meds ‘just in case’ then you really shouldn’t have trouble understanding that adding ‘money’ to that list is just as good an idea as the other items. The trick is having the discipline to do it and then forget that the money is there.

My financial goal, in case anyone is interested, is a years worth of money to cover my basic expenses – food, utilities, taxes, etc. It won’t be a huge amount since I can live without luxuries, but having a years worth of expenses tucked away gives me options I might not otherwise have in case theres a job failure or other ‘personal’ end of the world.

No lie, man…get a couple grand tucked away as soon as possible and forget that it’s there. It’s the best thing you can do to give yourself some peace of mind that allows you to worry and work against bigger things.

An example of the ‘loaner’ or ‘disposable’ gun

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Tam very nicely linked back to this post and opined in her blog:

But say you wind up with a friend or family member who suddenly finds themselves in a life circumstance where they realize that they need a better way to protect themselves than 911? A crazy ex, a stalker, a neighbor making threats, or just one of those violent criminal incidents that happens close enough to home to be a wake-up call…

If you’re the “gun person” in your family or social circle, this has probably happened to you at least once already. Lately, seeing the occasional sub-$300 fire sale prices on Smith & Wesson Shields and SD9s, I’ve more than once thought about buying one to set aside for just this sort of occasion. “In case of crisis, remove unfired-in-box gat from safe.”

And no sooner had that post hit the light of day than my vehicle decided that it’s alternator had had enough of this mortal coil (get it? ‘Coil’?) and shuffled off to wherever dead car parts go. As a result, my vehicle very inconveniently puttered to a stop. In front of the homeless shelter.

Joy.

So, I called a buddy of mine to come help me push it off the road because I really didn’t want to ask the whiskey-for-breakfast crowd for a hand. My mood was already several orders of magnitude into the red zone and it wouldn’t have taken much to release some pressure in an unprofessional manner. So my buddy shows up and asks how long till the tow truck arrives. “Two hours”, I reply. He looks over at the homeless milling around aimlessly, goes back to his truck, and pulls a beater Beretta 96 out from under the seat. “Wanna borrow this until the tow truck gets here?”, he asks. I thanked him and told him me and my G19 were just fine. But…here’s the big takeaway from that: because he had what amounted to a ‘disposable’ or ‘beater’ or ‘truck gun’ available he was able to offer it to someone else. And a scenario like that is precisely why we have extras, and extras on top of extras – because someday a friend, family member, or other person you care about might be in a bad position and in this way you can offer them assistance. And thats not just guns, guys…. that could be food, ammo, batteries, money, or any host of other things that, when you don’t have it and really need it, are really important.

This is a big distinction from charity. Charity is generalized giving out of some sense of moral or religious imperative or duty. I generally don’t suffer from this particular quality, so my generosity is a bit more selfish – I give to those that add a value to my life, or I give for the satisfaction I get from the act of giving. It may seem like that’s a difference with no distinction, but I see a distinction. I suppose the greatest distinction, for me, is that charity often comes across as an obligation and I am extremely opposed to obligations being forced upon me rather than they being voluntarily assumed.

On a side note, I had my Bag Of Tricks with me as well as my mountain bike sitting in the back of the vehicle so I could very easily have left the area and made it back to base with minimal inconvenience…if I was willing to just abandon the vehicle, which was not called for at that point.

Some folks just Will Not Learn

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The world is populated by idiots.

Im in the bank this morning and the teller and the woman next to me are talking about the power outages that continue in many areas around here. This woman is saying how she hasn’t been able to charge her laptop, that she has no water (well pump), that she’s going to lose the food in her freezer, and how she hates being in the dark.

I gently steered the conversation to ask her if, when this is over, if it will change her behaviors and perhaps she’ll keep some battery-powered chargers around for her cell phone. “Oh, no..this almost never happens.”

You know, your house almost never burns down, you almost never have your car stolen, you almost never get cancer, and you almost never get disabled from your job….yet you have insurance in place for that, so why not this?

For these… clueless idiots…. it appears it truly is better to curse the darkness than buy generator.

My buddy on the other side of town is still without power after a transmission tower (not a power pole, mind you…a transmission tower) decided to go horizontal not far from him. Is he inconvenienced? Yes. He has no internet. Is he still in the game? Absolutely. He has not one but two of the Honda generators. He’s got his freezer, fridge, lights, cell phone charger, and all the other accoutrements of civilization up and running. And he has some stored gas on hand to keep it that way. As his neighbors live out the lifestyle of “Home & Garden: North Korea Edition”, my buddy drinks hot coffee, has lights, has communication, and can continue to run his business. (And also the means to keep it if someone decides his bit of civilization needs to become their bit of civilization.)

I still need to do some after action things… I need to top off the tank on the generator, get all the cords in one place, put some emergency lighting in that one place, log the run time for the generator, pick up some accessories for the extension cords, etc. But, all in all, the generator did the trick.

The EU2000 is too small to run the entire house, but Im thinking of picking one circuit in the house and seeing if I can’t have an electrician come in and set that one circuit up with a transfer switch. That way, I can have one room of the house with the outlets running. The alternative, which I’m also seriously considering, is an entirely new circuit throughout the house of emergency ‘red outlets’ that are completely independent of the house panel and would solely be connected to the generator.

The Honda EU2000 usually runs right around a grand. Worth it.