Mundane things

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Economic turmoil, invasions in Europe, a handicapped American president…it’s like LARPing the late 1930’s.

I’ve been doing mostly ‘normal’ stuff as of late, although I’ve been keeping a close eye on things when I go grocery shopping. Prices seem to be rising on some things and on the things that aren’t showing a price increase there is, instead, a reduction in size/quantity. The old ‘shrinkflation’ stunt of keeping the price the same but reducing the amount of product…and hoping the consumer doesn’t pay attention to details on the packaging like quantity or size.

Interestingly, after the quick rise in gas prices, they seem to have stabilized locally at around $3.99/gal. This is…unfortunate….because I’d like to go to a gun show in Kalispell next weekend and even if I don’t buy a darn thing it’s still gonna be close to a hundred bucks just for gas.

I may be heading up to the LDS cannery next week. I need to confirm their hours and, most importantly, that they will still admit non-members. In previous times of ‘heightened demand’ they have closed the place to non-LDS, which makes perfect sense to me. Before I head out that way I’d like to make sure theyre a) open, b)not out of stock, and c) taking all comers.

I don’t really need much from them, I’m going with a friend who wants to get some things for themself. I pretty much pegged the needle on LDS cannery goodies years ago…although it doesn’t do any harm to have a couple extra cases of more recently produced foodstuffs.

All in all, it’s pretty quiet around here. For now. Mostly because I’ve spent the last thirty years or so gradually increasing my resilience against this sort of thing. I’m gonna suffer the ravages of inflation just like everyone else, difference is that unlike 90% of the population my life is at a level of resilience where the effects will cause me magnitudes of pain less than it will to the unprepared.

But..can’t get cocky. Tomorrow is another day of inflationary government spending, international intrigue, pandemic nonsense, and whatever else can possibly go wrong on this planet. Just because I made it through today with no hiccups doesn’t mean tomorrow won’t throw a curve ball that will knock me for a loop. So…gotta stay vigilant.

Evolving from Fenix 12 to 12 v2.0

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So the term “EDC”, as you know, has become the handy prepper acronym for ‘Everyday Carry”. It’s also used as a noun in interrogatives, such as “Hey man, show us your EDC” which is an invitation for every swingin’ johnson to dump his pockets on the bunk and display magazines, ammo, knives, watches, multitools, pens, flux capicators, or whatever they think they need to have on them at every moment of every day.

Theres only a handful of things that I keep in my pockets – wallet, flashlight, pocketknife. And, surprisingly, the flashlight gets quite a bit of use. So, imagine my annoyance when I discovered that I somehow lost my Fenix E11. Not a big problem since they now make the E12 which is virtually identical. Put when I went to Amazon to replace the E12 I pulled out of storage, I discovered that the E12 is also now history. Instead it has been replaced with the E12 V2.0. So..I hit the buy button.

Here’s the skinny on the E11 and E12 line of little AA-batt flashlights. For the money, I like these a lot. I’d like a SureFire even more but given that I just lost my last E11 I’m reluctant to spend $200 on a flashlight that has a higher than 50% probablity of winding up lost and rolling around  on the floor at CostCo.

I got the new E12 V2.0 yesterday and it is as handy as my older ones, but has some differences. It is slightly narrower in diameter than the older ones, although the emitter section is of the same diameter. It is also noticeably shorter, which Im not sure I like. The shorter length makes it hard to hold in your fist and operate with the thumb. But, the more compact design is welcomed by my pockets. Biggest difference is that the tailcap switch has three modes…low, med, high..which means if you want a small task light for reading menu’s in a restaurant of finding your dropped wallet in a darkened theater you can do so without lighting up the area like a movie set. Also, theres a very welcome and remarkably clever belt clip that allows you to orient the light up or down when you carry it.

Price is about the same..$27~ so no real change there. My experience has been that these are excellent little flashlights for everyday pocket carry. Pretty unobtrusive, puts out a good amount of light, pretty bombproof, run on easily acquired AA batts, and have features that make them more useful than 3-for-$5 pocket lights you find at Horror Fraught..I mean, Harbor Freight.

YMMV, of course, but if you’re looking for a solid performing little pocket life that can withstand alot of abuse and won’t break thebank, this might be worth looking at for you.

May as well just grab a Magic 8 Ball

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Times like these always cause a little war between the two halves of my brain. One side says “This isn’t the big deal it appears to be. Stop overreacting.” The other half says “A year from now youre going to look back and say how did I not see this coming..all the signs were there.”

Such is the dichotomy and curse of being a survivalist.

Disappearing act

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So this was the bulk grains section at Winco two days ago:
This was it today:

Make of it what you will.

Because there’s no point in not erring on the side of caution, I’ve been gilding the lily a bit in terms of adding to the already large amount of things packed away. In today’s case: meat. Bought some of those two foot long pork loins at CostCo, cut them to length, vacuum sealed them, and set them off for a cryo-nap. Animal protein at $1.98/#. A pork loin roast outta the freezer, some insant potatoes, a can of corn, some butter and salt, and you’ve got a relatively cheap dinner while the rest of the world has to choose between paying the electric bill or letting the kids eat meat at dinner.

I swung (Swinged? Swang? Swung?) by the restaurant supply place today to check out their prices and availability on a few things as well. They were pretty good on 10# torpedos of 80/20 ground beef at $3.09/#, and they had some decent prices on other cuts as well. But, sadly, I am out of room in the freezer and I really don’t want to have to buy another one.

Between the freezer, whats in the freezer in the refrigerator, canned meats, and the freeze drieds, I feel like I’ve a good chunk of the protein angle nailed down for the better part of a year. Rice and chicken, beef with noodles, spaghetti with bolognese, etc, etc, will all be on the menu. And I genuinely don’t believe that anyone in this country is going to starve, but I do believe a lot of people are going to have to make some choices…..plebian milk instead of organic, fair trade, free range milk, generic mac and cheese instead of the Trader joe’s stuff, store brand crushed tomatoes rather than the Hunt’s or Contadina, the generic ‘puffed rice cereal’ instead of Rice Krispies, etc, etc. Fortunately, I’m a snob only when it comes to ice cream, cola beverages, corn flakes. I can adjust to the rest. But…thats the beauty about stockpiling. I won’t have to…at least not to the extent the sheeple will. And, more importantly, if ‘supply chain issues’ become an even bigger thing I’ll be in an even better position since I’ll have it stacked on wire shelves in my basement while they’re standing in line at Walmart for rationed Spaghetti-O’s.

And, in an even greater Sign O’ The Times, I topped off the tank while I was at CostCo….even though the gauge was 7/8th full. Why? Because the three gallons of gas I put it in at almost $12 is gonna cost more by the time my tank was down to 1/4. So…try to stay ahead by keeping it topped off. Thanks Brandon!

 

I feel so dirty….

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In my defense…it’s chambered in .45 AARP, has three mags, and had no paperwork. So, yeah ,for $100 I’ll take it. Maybe sell it to someone who just wants something to keep under the seat of the truck for euthanizing deer or something.

Still…I feel so…sleazy….

Flour power

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I was up at Winco last night and, as is my habit, I took a pass through the food storage section they have in the back corner of the building. And…….

Whats missing? Wheat and flour. Also a large amount of rice was missing. So…more signs of the times.

I checked the Preponomicon just to make sure that I’m in the green on most things, but because I’m easily influenced by media I went ahead and went a little past 100% on a few things. I mean, it isn’t going to get cheaper anytime soon..and availability isn’t as certain as it used to be…so why not pick up extra detergent, meat, canned goods, etc.

It’s interesting to stand in line at the checkout and look at other people’s carts. You can kinda read their life’s story by whats in the cart. It was a fun game to figure out who was simply buying their normal quantity of groceries and who was stocking up ‘just in case’. Having been doing this sort of thing for many years, I can get away with just picking up a few ‘onesies’ or ‘twosies’ of something here and there and still be wildly well-supplied.

You know you’re heading for a bumpy ride when the White House has completely given up on denying things and is now saying “Yeah, we have inflation…and you should expect it to get worse.” And, all those price increases? Thats “Putin’s price increases”, “Putin’s oil hikes”, and “Putins market volatility.” Uhm..yeah…because no one apparently has a calendar. This nonsense has been going on since before Putin sent the tanks. But…now there’s a convenient bad guy to hang all the economic pain on.

:::shrug:::

At this point I really have trouble working up care for anyone who isn’t part of the tribe. It’s a savage and uncaring world out there and I am amazed at the outrage exhibited by people who are just now discovering that in wars people shoot civilians, bomb hospitals, control media, starve people, etc, etc. Thats actually business as usual on a large part of this planet. Heck, anyone who has even the slightest interest in history can easily point out that humans have been unbelievably cruel and hateful to other humans for the entire existence of the race. Oh, sure, be outraged…just don’t be surprised.

In the meantime, as far as Im concerned, worrying less about abroad and worrying more about your own house is the order of the day.

 

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………….

Up, up, and away

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Between lunch and getting off work, the local gas station raised it’s price another ten cents. Thats almost a fifty cent increase from this time last week.

And when fuel prices go up, the cost of everything delivered by fuel-consuming vehicles goes up. And electric vehicles are not the answer that the lefties would have you think it is. After all, where is that electricity coming from? Why, fossil-fuel power plants in most places. Either in your tank or in a generating station somewhere, you’re still burning hydrocarbons.

For those of you on fixed incomes…..ouch.