I don’t watch a lot of television. I simply don’t have the time. There’s always something else i should be doing so sitting in front of the tv for an hour or two is a massive guilt-inducing time waster. But, sometimes I like to run it for background noise while I’m doing stuff. I turned it on today and was welcomes by the EBS/EAS alert tones (they still use  both because dinosaurs like me grew up on the older sounds. Those sounds, by the way, have an interesting backstory .. being chosen specifically for their unpleasantness)

As it turned out, we were in the path of a major thunderstorm. You know, in an era of Bidenflation, pandemic, identity politics run amok, ‘supply chain issues’, and hints of war, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the EOTWAWKI that comes a-knocking is one brought to you by Mother Nature.

As the saying goes, everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. I can’t control the weather, but I can control my response to it. Made sure the backup power supplies were on standy by, just in case…and just stuck close to the house. Not much else to do.

We get so wrapped up in those big events that we overlook that the smaller ones are more likely to catch us before the big ones do.

I finally saw my first gasoline in MT at $4.999/gallon. Call it five bucks. That, my friends, is crossing the rubicon.

I saw the other day that the chair of the Fed said “Yeah, I was kinda wrong about that inflation thing.” When the powers that be are admitting that they mighta coulda shoulda been a little more on the ball regarding inflation, you know you’re boned.

Other than a war, the only thing, in my opinion, that is going to make the nation turn the corner on this economy is the next presidential election. The last election was “Anyone but Trump” and look what we go. (Thats what happens when you order a President through the mail.) This next presidential election will be “Anyone but Biden…or any of his cronies.” Kamala Harris, who makes Dan Quayle look like Enrico Fermi, can’t run…she has the stench of failure on her. In fact, the Democrats will have to reach deep into their organization to run someone who hasn’t been associated with this administration and it’s absurdities. If we can manage to keep the wheel on this thing until the next election, I think we’ll see some major economic improvements. Midterm elections will possible be a good gauge of whats in store for 2024.

And, speaking of absurdities, there’s a lot of demands for ‘reasonable gun control’ which is being re-branded as ‘gun safety’. I’ve been yammering for the last 17 years that there was another ban coming and, one of these days, I’ll be proven right. Then again, on a long enough timeline everyone is right.

Still, being the impulsive paranoiac that I am, I picked up another couple cases of Pmags…y’know…just in case.

My main concern these days is cash (and, in true accounting terms, cash means cash..but it also means cash-like instruments…so, checking account monies, gold, silver, valuable items, property…anything that can be converted in cash quickly is, in fact, cash. My big concern is keeping a reserve of cash to keep me in the current lifestyle if I lose my job. I recall reading that the average American can’t handle a $400 emergency without going into debt. I cannot imagine. Right now, I’ve got almost a years salary tucked away, just for that sort of thing. But…you never know what form TEOTWAWKI is going to come for you as. Could come dressed up like a job loss, could come dressed up as WW3.1… won’t know until it gets here and taps you in the gonads.

For me, for now, it’s cash, food, metals…that’s pretty much my focus. I’ve got most of the stuff nailed down, there’s very little I ‘need’ for the upcoming apocalypse, but there’s always something. However, even with just what I have now, I feel good about the level of resilience I’ve hit. Just gotta stick to the plan, though.

Just another day here in the interesting world that is America 2022. Sometimes I feel like a war photographer trying to chronicle battles and their aftermath so that future generations will know what happened. It seems like when I grocery shopping I spend about a third of my time examining the pricing and availability of items from the previous week so I can get some metrics.

There’s that old joke: “How did I go broke? Gradually and then all at once.” I suspect that will be the story of how the next Great Depression or World War or Black Plague starts…..gradually, and then all at once.

Not much I can do about it….I’m a flea on the back of a mammoth – I don’t steer it, I just ride it. As I’ve said before, there’s a point at which I stop working the pumps and instead start heading for the lifeboats. As of late, in the last couple years, I’ve narrowed my focus down to what I need to take care of myself and those I care about. My neighbors, distant family, and the total strangers around me…who make more money than me and have more resources…have had plenty of time to get to their lifeboats. I’m not setting a seat aside in my lifeboat for them. They saw the signs, same as me. They could have prepared, same as me. They’re going to have to live with their choices, same as me.

What does that mean, exactly? Am I envisioning starving neighbors begging for food in some Holodomor-like famine? No, I’m not. I’m of the opinion that it’s virtually impossible to starve in this country if you are reasonably intelligent and in generally good health. What I see happening to the unprepared and the head-in-the-sand-crowd is financial impacts that will destroy dreams of retirement, force the sale of homes and vehicles, put plans on hold, reduce a standard of living, and perhaps even drive people into homelessness or a wave of perpetual ‘couch surfing’. There will be a lot less Trader Joes and Whole Foods, and a lot more WalMart in some peoples lives.

Society is going to be remade over everything in the last couple years, and everything thats coming in the next few years. Much like how after 9/11 there was a ‘new normal’, I think by the time this current administration and its epic failures have run it’s course we will have a ‘new normal’. I like to think that the result will be a lot of people ‘coming over to our side’ but it’s entirely possible it may go in the other direction. Sure, the Great Depression set a generation of Americans on a path of being better prepared, but it also created a generation of Americans who believed that government entitlements were a solution.

I can’t really know whats going to happen. But, I’ve always known what could potentially happen, and as a result I tried to give myself some advantages that would improve my resilience. Paid for house and vehicle, heavy emergency fund, etc, etc. So far I haven’t had to use the .50 BMG but I have had to use the $50 bills.

So, I continue to live my life as close to what I’m used to. I’ve always kind of lived like it could fall apart at any moment so there’s not much change for me. But sometimes, like when I saw chicken jump sixty cents overnight, the hair on the back of my neck stands up and I wonder if maybe I’ve been right all along. Guess we’ll find out. In the meantime, I’ll continue to observe and note the interesting ‘signs of the times’ that seem to be all around us these days and that we will look back upon later and marvel at.