Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Seasons greetings as theologically appropriate. Best wishes for a quiet, uneventful, secure 2009. But I’m not holding my breath……..

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As always at this time of year, theres a few people who didnt get the memo: Two men die in bitter cold. Other than having the misfortune of being dead, what did these two poor souls have in common? Lets read the article for the answer:

One of the deputies returned to the area this morning and found Bobby Lewin’s body in a field northeast of his SUV. … Sheriff’s officials say Donald Blum of Monticello was found conscious outside his car after he apparently started to walk to town.

Both guys left the vehicle and started hoofing it. Both died, probably quite badly, after they left their vehicles. The moral is: be prepared and stay with the vehicle. Even a flipped over car is more protection from the elements than trudging through knee-deep snow hoping that some car will come along. It won’t. Know why? ‘Cause if its bad enough that it forced you into a ditch, its bad enough that everyone else is probably staying home. Buy a Rubbermaid tote, an old duffelbag, a huge ammo can or even just a heavy-duty cardboard box and put in a sleeping bag, some blankets, flashlights, batteries, candles, matches and that sorta thing. Secure the whole thing so it wont fall apart and shove it in the vehicle where you can get to it and leave it there. Personally, I’ve never actually frozen to death but I can imagine that its a very unpleasant experience…esp. the part where you realize youre about to actually die and that you brought it on yourself. Epic fail. Stay with the vehicle. Set it on fire if you have to, but stay with the vehicle.

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What would Commander Zero like for Christmas this year? Theres a lovely ‘77 Land Cruiser thats completely restored and tweaked out at one of the local used car dealers. That’d be nice. I have a box of fifty AR mags sitting here at my feet that I still have to pay for. Be nice to have those too. County Comm has all sortsa neat stuff I’d love to have. But, naturally, the things I really want are more complicated than that. I want security and peace of mind. Sure, theres plenty of tangible goodies that contribute to that but those are the means to an end. What I want is the ‘end’..I want the peaceful, unconcerned, satisfied feeling that ‘everything is going to be fine’ and actually have everything be just damn fine. I’ll let you know how that goes. Oh..and I want the same for my friends too.

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Tomorrow will be spent with some friends having a lovely Christmas dinner and exchanging a few gifts. I got my host an early gift at the last gun show…an autographed copy of a rather definitive guide to the SMLE by Skennerton. We ran into him at the Missoula gun show this fall and between the Aussie and New Zealand accents it was sort of amusing. Sort of. Kinda. Well, not really but it gave me something to make fun of later, which is really all that matters. Anyway, my point being that tomorrow will be spent with friends having a good time and I recommend that if you are able to, you should do likewise and spend some time with friends or, if you can tolerate them, family.