Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Not fun being sick

I am not sick very often.  In fact, except for yesterday, I have not been sick all year (sound of me knocking on wood).

But yesterday, I contracted a stomach virus that hit me pretty hard and got me thinking.  Yesterday, I left work early, went home, poked up the fire, and laid down on the sofa and watched my big screen and recouped.   It's really gonna suck getting sick during a WROL scenario.  There won't be any downtime.  Up-time will need to be very near 100%, at least in the short term and intermediate term.

This is one of the reasons where a medium to large group will be best.  If I am down, someone else can step up to fill in the gap and vice versa.  If its only a single family, there is no one else since everyone else will be utilized at close to 100% anyway. 

Would be best to get your group squared away early.  

Monday, November 28, 2011

PARADIGM SHIFT

I don't know if anyone reading this is into the hit TV series "The Walking Dead", but it is quite a popular show and invokes quite a bit of discussion at my place of employment and almost everyone in my back office, from the owner of my company, the VP, all the way down to little old me is eager to discuss the latest episode each week.

Last night's episode which was the mid-season finale, had one of the main characters (Shane) basically have a mini-meltdown when it was revealed that there were "walkers" in the old man's barn.

Some of my co-workers felt that Shane should have been dealt with since he was causing a significant level of anxiety in the small survival group. 

However the owner of my company had a different take.  He said that Shane was one of the few that had made a paradigm shift into the new reality. 

Rules had changed, the old "morality" was no longer in effect.  For better or worse, as a survivor, you had to make choices that you would never make in the "old world". 

As the owner was talking about this, this struck me particularly hard.  I tried to step out of my soft, cushy office chair, out of  the heated, air-conditioned completely pacified office environment and put myself into a state of mind where I and my family's survival were dependent on the choices that I made.

Would I be like Rick, the Sheriff, and be willing to give up some measure of my families safety to appease and pacify someone who was clearly delusional and not able to accept reality? 

Or would I be more like Shane, and be willing to change my paradigm and make the decision to do what was necessary to secure the safety as much as possible?

I still don't have the answer to these questions.

Take a bit of time out today and think about what you might do in a similar circumstance.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

My wife and I were watching a bit of news on the TV when they did a spot on Black Friday.  The news spot showed people running, screaming, shoving, slamming into other people etc just to save a few bucks on something that they didn't need anyway.

Sometimes I weep for my society.

Whatever happened to enjoying a nice quiet day of rest surrounded by your friends, family and neighbors? 

Consumerism has destroyed our society. 

Now don't get me wrong, I love to look for stuff that I need that will add quality to my life, and I have more that I need or deserve.  But the simple act of acquiring has pushed our society to the edge.  Its not the having that folks are eaten up with, its the getting.

It seems that once a person has something, that it no longer generates joy in their life and they feel the need to go acquire something new to feel happy again.

There is a TV shows that is out that I have watched a few times called "Hoarders: buried alive".  It is about people that have an inordinate desire to have stuff.  Whether the "stuff" makes their lives richer, or more meaningful, that is beside the point.  They need more and more.

I dare say that most of our great, grandparents would put all of us in the category of a hoarder. 

With this said, I think this quote sums it up nicely.

THE PARADOX OF OUR TIME.

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we have more food, but less appeasement; we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill. 



I know this is not the time of the year yet to make resolutions, but maybe it should be.

Monday, November 21, 2011

I am back!

My blog has been hit and miss for a long while now, but I have made a commitment to posting at least once per week regarding what is happening in my life and around me.  I will give my own limited view of what I see, what I feel is coming and what I and my group are doing to help ourselves.

One preparation item that we just did to our homestead was having a wood stove installed.  We had an outside wood furnace before, but it required electricity to operate.  For a while I was contemplating solar and wind along with a battery bank to use in case of power outages, but even with all that, we still wouldn't be able to cook off of it, so we decided to make the move to an internal wood stove.

I am going to have to get used to the much smaller wood box.  I can only burn 21 inch logs in it now, but with our old outside wood furnace, I could put 3 foot + logs. 

Good thing about the internal fireplace is that we are capturing a lot more heat out off of the flue that was going to waste outside, so it should be much more efficient.  I have little problem in heating our house up to 75 degree's in a very short amount of time. 

This winter there will be a pot of stew or chili up on top almost at all times.  Throwback from when I was growing up.