Tag Archives: holiday

Personal Safety Day 2026

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holidayAs I mentioned last year, in addition to Paratus I have created a second holiday for myself – Personal Safety Day (aka “Threatmas”).

Personal Safety Day is my holiday where the day is dedicated to inspecting, maintaining, and updating everything that pertains to my safety and security. These are things that include but are not limited to – checking smoke detector batteries, weapon lights, flashlights, spare tires, door locks, security cameras, house guns, EDC items, the Bag O’ Tricks ™, and the like.

This year, Threatmas includes the factoring in of the Beta Site. I’ll be setting up my list of things to sock away up there on my next trip. At the moment, the Beta Site is just a chunk of wooded dirt, but until I get four walls, a roof, and a flush toilet up there I can still drop a Monovault full of Just In Case up there.

Personal Safety Day is no substitute for regular inspections/maintenance of that which keeps you safe and secure. PSD is, instead, the day dedicated to making sure it gets done. During the year, youre supposed to be doing these things and you blow it off with “When I have the time…”, or “This weekend, for sure…”, or some other excuse…….well, PSD is that day where you have no excuses because PSD is specifically time set aside for those exact things. You said youo’d do it when you had time? Well, PSD is that day where you have the time.

I find having a checklist is imperative for maximizing the results of PSD. You’ve set aside a day for checking out your systems, make the most of it and make a checklist. You’ve got 364 days to add to and modify that list….take advantage of that. And don’t forget, money is one of your most important pieces of safety equipment….count the gold, silver, cash, and other tangibles. Know what you have, exactly, so that you know where you stand when something bad happens.

Now, with that said, it’s back to crossing things off my list…………..

 

The closing of the year

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Limping to the finish line, 2025 comes to a close.

Let’s see, didnt have to use my AK this year,  so I’ve got that going for me…which is nice. Still have a truck, a house, a job, and reasonable health. I have a lot less money in the bank than I did at this time last year, but I also now have a lot more land holding than I did last year, so that seems a reasonable trade.

The big news, of course, is that I finally bought some property to work on Commander Zero’s Post-Nuclear Bunker O’ Love and Lingerie Proving Ground….something I’ve been wanting for as along as I’ve been writing this blog. In fact, here’s the receipts:

Do I have any goals for 2006? Sure. Some are more reasonable than others….I’d love to have Commander Zero’s Post nuclear Bunker Of Love And Lingerie Proving Ground up and running but thats fairly unlikely at this point….no, the more realistic goals….

And I’m pretty sure thats not the earliest mention of it, so this is something I’ve been wanting for over twenty years and only really developed the ability to make it real in the last five or so. Like a dog that caught the car and now has no idea what to do with the dang thing, I’ve been so focused on getting the land for the last twenty years that I never put a terrible amount of brainwork in what to do after I got it. No better time than the present to learn, I suppose.

My forecasts for 2025 were as follows:

Forecast for ’25: Ukraine winds up having to come to the table as war fatigue sets in. Inflation is above 2% but nothing like what it was under Biden. Bidenistas become the Japanese hold outs of the political world, staying behind in government to crap in Trumps punch bowl every chance they get. At least one more assassination attempt is made/thwarted. Gas prices drop to lowest prices in four years. Markets are shaky, but ultimately trend upward. Wall does not get built. China continues to be the biggest threat to…everything. Alec Baldwin does not move to France. Cubs don’t win Series.

Other than the additional assassination attempt (although perhaps they didnt tell us about any more) and the Ukes having to roll over, everything else was right…but, to be fair, that was low hanging fruit.

Forecast for 2026? I spend a metric buttload of money getting the Beta Site developed. Silver crosses $100. Putin challenges NATO harder and harder until someone loses a jet fighter…then both sides hurriedly retreat from each other. Ukraine-Russia resolves itself one way or another by the end of the year. China keeps doing what its been doing. Gavin Newsom becomes heir apparent as the Democrats start to rally around him as the only viable candidate. No new assault weapons ban in 2026. Political Balkanization continues. Cubs do not win Series.

Thats about it. 2025 sails into history with all sorts of historical footnotes attached to it.

The year closes, the year opens. It closes with my favorite version of my seasonal favorite:

Holiday AAR

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Well, I hope you guys had a good holiday, regardless of which one you do or do not observe. It’s a big enough boat that we can all have our own observances and still row to our common goal.

How’d your buddy Zero make out? Well, I’ve a pretty small friends group (that is to say, the group of friends is small, not the the friends within the group are small) so I don’t really get much in the way of gifts. However, people in the know about the Beta Site gave me some appropriate items including chainsaw sharpening tools and some trail cameras. Thoughtful!

And, against my better judgement, I wound up picking up a rifle from a coworker who wanted to get something else and needed to thin the herd. Its a Savage 10 GRS in .308. An interesting looking little gun that is New In Box. I already have a couple .308 bolt guns, so I may pass this one along to a friend who wanted a ‘tactical’ .308 bolt gun at a dont-break-the-bank-price.

Now comes that quiet week between Christmas and New Year where virtually nothing gets done. Then 2026 barges in like a homicidal KoolAid man. The year will be interesting, probably in the Chinese sense, but hopefully in the harmless sense as well. I plan on spending as much time as possible at the Beta Site and getting it up and running enough to at least be a viable fallback location by the end of the year. I don’t expect to have it at the sit-back-and-put-your-feet-up stage for about two years, but I think it’ll definitely be at the ‘primitive bugout location’ stage before the end of 2026. I guess we’ll find out. Should make for a lot of interesting blog posts.

Thanksgiving 2026

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Man, I love turkey and stuffing…..

Ostensibly, the reason for Thanksgiving was to give thanks for what you have. I try to be grateful and recognize that gratitude on more than just Thanksgiving.

I am very aware that when someone does something for me they had a choice – expend that resource (money, time, interest, property, concern, emotion, etc.) on me or keep it for themselves (or someone else). As a result, I always try to be grateful, express my gratitude, and make sure they know I recognize that they had a choice and they chose me. Seems kinda basic to me.

At the moment (and this can change in the blink of an eye), I have a place to live, a job, a vehicle, a couple close friends, some money in the bank, food in the cupboards, and a margin of safety from all the bad things that lurk out there. Sure, it can change in an instant…but right now Im sitting in my warm house with electricity, hot water, food, arms, communications, clean clothing, and toilets that flush….and I am grateful for all of it.

I don’t want to say I worked hard for it all…I am, by nature, a really lazy person..doing just enough is usually my standard….but there were a lot of times I did things I didn’t want to do, denied myself things I wanted, and put my instant gratification desires on hold. And thats why I can take a hot shower, cook up a cheeseburger, listen to Spotify while I clean guns, and lead a calmer life than what I probably deserve.

I think part of preparedness is always being quite cognizant of just how tenuous our lives can be. We know that theres a future where we’re huddled around a campfire of burning 2×4’s where the tornado took the house, where we look in the fridge and theres nothing but a box of baking soda and ketchup, where we spend hours a day looking for a job as we watch our bank accounts dwindle, where we feel unsafe, insecure, and hopeless. Thats why we prepare…to mitigate those events, to reduce our fragility, to increase our resilience. And when you’re aware of what the bad side of life could look like, it tends to make you more aware and grateful for the good side that you’re experiencing.

So I hope everyone enjoys the holiday. Have an awesome time with the family and friends, eat turkey, watch football, drink and be merry. But at some point, either alone or with your close ones, recognize what you have and appreciate it. Maybe it isn’t all you want, maybe life is on a rocky path, maybe you’re fighting a fight that you’d rather not have to….but it could always be worse. Take a moment and genuinely appreciate what youve got.

Have a good holiday, guys.

Independence Day 2025

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“The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

Independence Day and Patriots Day are pretty much the only two holidays I take seriously. And, in my opinion, both (esp Patriots Day) are best observed by exercising your right (and duty) to spend time with your favorite freedomstick and work on your skills. Its also a good time to ruminate on the liberties that we (in theory) have that separate us from those cucks in the UK and Commonwealth who get jail time for ‘disruptive’ Facebook posts or saying the quiet parts out loud.

 

The difference, to me, between the two holidays is that Patriots Day is about remembering the grim reality that sometimes the only solution to a problem comes from blood being spilled and unpleasant choices being made, whereas Independence Day celebrates the success that came from it. Kinda like the difference between Veterans Day and VJ/VE Day.

While you can defend your interests with dad’s .30 carbine or grrandma’s .32 Iver Johnson (which still puts you miles ahead of those metric-using cucks). why would you if you didn’t  have to? And you don’t have to. Don’t think for a minute that if AR-15s and Glock pistols were available 250 years ago that the guys in the field wouldn’t have been all over them like fat kids on ice cream. Most of the world can’t have access to these marvels of modernity..you do. If you don’t have a good semi-auto rifle and a quality pistol (or five), then get out there, show some respect to history, and buy them. The most patriotic thing in this world is an Independence Day sale at your local gun shop. Tell them George sent you.

 

Patriots Day

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Its that time of year again. Head to the range and work on your freedom-maintenance skills. This year is 250 years of BFYTW.

“The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

But…freedom means other things as well. Being prepared gives you another type of freedom…the freedom from worry, stress, and insecurity. You can starve to death as a perfectly free man. Guns and ammo, absolutely….but the instruments of freedom don’t stop there. Gold, food, land, fuel, information, friends…all are arrows in your quiver. Don’t get pigeonholed into thinking its all about the guns.

Personal Safety Day aka ‘Threatmas’

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I created Paratus as a holiday for myself and all the folks that think like me. A holiday based around and upon our interest in preparedness. I won’t say its been a roaring success, but I get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment out of it. But its not the only holiday I’ve made up.

Many people have ‘personal holidays’…days that mean nothing to the world at large but have meaning to them and, maybe, those closest to them. It could be your kids birthday, your wedding anniversary, the day you proposed to your wife, the day you won the Powerball, the day you finished your last tour, whatever…

I’ve designated February 5th as ‘Personal Safety Day’ for myself. (Jokingly referred to as Threatmas .) Although I practice shooting as often as I can, and try to make sure my gear is all up-to-date and in good repair it sometimes escapes my schedule. So..I have one day per year where, no matter what, it’s time to audit, review, update, and maintain the things that are meaningful to my personal safety. No excuses.

Whats that look like? Well, definitely some time at the range. Not target shooting, not plinking, not screwing around. Dead serious drills with a critical evaluation of my own performance and a measured plan to improve what needs improving. All the house guns get unloaded, inspected, cleaned. Batteries in lights get rotated out. Armour is checked for wear and tear. Cameras and video systems are inspected. Stashes of ammo and guns are inspected. Car stranding supplies are checked.  Smoke/CO detectors. That sort of thing. If its meant to keep me alive, safe, and secure…it gets vetted on this day.

Now, these are things I try to do during the year. But, we know how life sometimes makes it tough to do what youre supposed to do when your supposed to do it in the way youre supposed to. So..I gave myself a personal holiday in the year that is dedicated to nothing else but making sure the guns are ready, the fire extinguishers charged, the medications unexpired, the flashlights working, and that sort of thing. In fact, on my time-off request at work I label the reason as “Personal Safety Day”..I was asked about it the first time and although they looked at me a little funny, they approved it. I’d have made a big fuss about it if they hadn’t. Its the hill I’d die on to make sure I dont die on a hill.

Ideally, I try to do these sorts of tasks several times a year. Quarterly would be ideal. And sometimes I hit that mark, sometimes I don’t. But even if I completely drop the ball, PSD is the one guaranteed time it will occur. So, worst case scenario, at least it gets done once per year. (And Im not saying these things should be done once a year. I’m just saying I have this mechanism in place to make sure it does happen at least once per year.)

If I did get to do all these things during the year, on the schedule I’d prefer, then PSD is simply another layer of redundancy. But, for me, its the guarantee that at least the bare minimum will be done even if I completely blanked it out the rest of the year.

I’m not saying you need to have your own personal holiday like this. I’m only telling you what I do in my twisted little world. But…I will say that you should check your gear as often as you feel is necessary..at least several times a year. Maybe every daylight saving time changeover. Maybe every three-day weekend. Maybe on you and your spouses birthdays. Whenever. Assign some not-gonna-forget-it milestone days during the year to use as reminders. But do check your gear. A depressurized fire extinguisher, gun that goes click, empty gas can, dark flashlight, or dead radio battery is the last thing you want when you absolutely, positively need something in an emergency.

Other than the gear, PSD is also a day to wargame things. What else do I need to enhance my safety? To give me better odds? What risks am I exposed to that I wasn’t last year? What threats are in place that weren’t last year? Whats my plan in case this event happens?

And this isn’t just theory. PSD started for me when having the right piece of gear, at the right time, in a working and ready state, saved me from a potentially Very Bad Day. That made an impression and as a result….Personal Safety Day.

The closing of the year

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Ah 2024….we hardly knew ye.

Well, 2024 in revue..lets hit it.

World didn’t come to an end. Didn’t have to use my AK. Or Glock. Thats a victory.

Election went better than I had hoped, but its just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic at this point. Still have a job and even snagged a little raise. The people I care about are doing well. Still have a house. Did well in the market this year, especially in November, so I’m positioned to buy property far better than I was positioned at the beginning of the year…just gotta keep my eyes open.

About the only thing I can really complain about is that I didn’t find the property I want yet. Other than that, I really have nothing to complain about.

Forecast for ’25: Ukraine winds up having to come to the table as war fatigue sets in. Inflation is above 2% but nothing like what it was under Biden. Bidenistas become the Japanese hold outs of the political world, staying behind in government to crap in Trumps punch bowl every chance they get. At least one more assassination attempt is made/thwarted. Gas prices drop to lowest prices in four years. Markets are shaky, but ultimately trend upward. Wall does not get built. China continues to be the biggest threat to…everything. Alec Baldwin does not move to France. Cubs don’t win Series.

I want to think 2025 will be a better time under a better administration, but with the level of political balkanization out there…well, even the most well-intentioned executive will have trouble getting meaningful things done. Years that are divisible by five have always been rough ones for me so I’m going into this new year with my eyes open.

But, 2024 leaves, 2025 arrives, and I’m still here. Calling that a win. Good luck.