Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
‘Tis my birthday August 7th. I use my birthday and Christmas to get gear that I would otherwise not quite be willing to spend my own money on.
Case in point, my brass tumbler died a couple weeks ago. My dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I thought about it and sent him a link to this monstrosity. I am now happily tumbling 9mm brass, 2000 at a time. Sweet!
The missus is out of town for a week but a box has shown up here from the gang at Kifaru. I like to think its this little jewel. Kinda makes your eyes bug out when you look at the price tag, doesn’t it? This is why I reserve stuff like this for birthdays and Christmas.
I’d been wanting one of these for a year or so. I normally carry one of those little foil space blankets when I go hunting but have you ever actually draped one of those things over yourself in the cold? Theyre better than nothing, I suppose, but not by much. Now, the obvious thing to do with them would be to use them in conjunction with a lightweight sleeping bag or blanket to enhance heat retention. Trouble is, when I go hunting I really dont want to be hauling around a lot of weight. This thing compresses to about the size of a canteen and promises far better insulative ability than a mylar space blanket. In fact, if I wind up accompanying the missus on one of these ultralight backpacking endeavors I may wind up seeing if its a good substitute for a bulkier and heavier sleeping bag. (As a side note, Kifaru has some interesting looking compression sacks and Im going to have to pick up a couple to try out.)
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Man, what it is with the post-apocalyptic genre? Seems like the apocalypse is suddenly becoming trendy. We have yet another entertainment offering coming out – The Book Of Eli . Looking at the trailer, I can see some John Woo/Wachowski influence going on there. I’ll go see it…Im stupid that way, you put a movie in the period after a global apocalypse and I’ll be right there in line to see it. What I’d like to see, if theyre going to keep cranking out these end-of-the-world dramas, is one based on something a bit more realistic like a global economic meltdown…so far we’ve had comet strikes, zombie plagues, nuclear wars, weather changes, alien invasion, killer trees, etc, etc. Lets get something a little closer to home, shall we?
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Man, I’m really starting to get complacent. I need to do a massive WallyWorld/CostCo trip and restock some of the common usage items around here (AA batts, toilet paper, paper towels, soap, various foodstuffs, etc, etc.) I have to keep reminding myself that while things locally may not look outrageously bad, the bigger picture is much less forgiving and I need to stay aware of that. Fall and winter will be here soon and I need to get the hunting gear lined up, get the kerosene heaters set up, etc, etc. When the wheels fly off of western civilization, saying “but I was gonna get around to doing that next week!” ain’t gonna save your bacon.
