I don’t know what I ate last night that prompted it, but I had some majorly weird dreams.
The biggest catalyst was that I watched a couple DVR’d episodes of “Fear The Walking Dead”. I swear, the mom on that show is making me root for the zombies. In fact, in my head I refer to her as ‘Andrea 2’, after the loathed character from TWD. My biggest complaint is that her and her family are living comfortably on the boat of the mysterious Mr. Strand, and he really has no duty or obligation to her or her family at this point, and yet she feels she can order him to ‘stop the damn boat’ every time she wants to pick up squalling refugees…risking her family, his boat, and everything else to satisfy her imagined moral superiority.
For the love of Crom, can we please kill this woman off? Please??
But keep this guy..he’s, like, a dozen shades of cool. (Trivia: this man has a Harvard law degree)
Which, naturally, messed with my subconscious and I had a weird dream. I dreamt it was after some great disaster and I helped my neighbor. He was worried he and his family were going to starve and I gave him some food. When he remarked that he didnt want to put me at a disadvantage I said not to worry..I had plenty. And then he just magically assumed that he could have whatever he wanted…and started helping himself to my stores. For whatever reason, I didnt have a gun on me and after he helped himself to some food, a couple bicycles, and some other stuff, he left and I started worrying about if he was going to come back demanding more because, as he said, I ‘have so much’ and he had ‘ so little’. And I worried he was going to tell other people and I’d be overrun with demands for supplies. And then I thought “Well, if he comes back demanding more I’m just going to have to shoot him.” (Which is ungood because i really have no desire to shoot anybody..but I also have no desire to be stripped bare by locusts and left to starve. Grasshoppers are on their own.)
Definitely makes a case for ‘anonymous giving’, but also makes an even stronger case for keeping your dang mouth shut. And a really strong case for having a secondary location set up. And, finally, it’s a good starting point for deep thinking about just how charitable (or uncharitable) you feel comfortable being.
In this dream, did your neighbor look a little like Larry David and speak with a Brooklyn accent?
You’re spot on as usual! My better half about had a stroke yelling at the TV when they went ashore previous episode and saw that no one was carrying a weapon of any type. Seriously, you go onto a island/refuge and just walk up to a suspicious looking cabin unarmed? It really pissed me off once again hollyweird making those into self sufficient lifestyle as kooks. I’ve noticed I’m watching what I say to neighbors lately, especially the better half making a point of telling neighbors, co-workers and friends of what we have anymore due to the economy & we’re cutting back on a lot of stuff.
I went back & read your article on charity – you were right on. I’m a Christian, but I don’t see that I have an obligation to prepare for those who can’t or won’t prepare for themselves. We do give to the needy now – we’re not skinflints – but we’re not going use up money or space to store supplies for strangers.
One of the comments to the charity article was frightening – about the man who offered shelter to a friend, who then invited others. That’s what I’d be afraid of if it got out in bad times that we have food to “spare.” Most of our neighbors are nice, but a few have some strange relatives.
Now I’m thinking about the Twilight Zone episode, “The Shelter.” It should be required viewing. But I suppose there are plenty of people who would take away the wrong message, that the man should have built a larger shelter to accommodate his neighbors.
The inexplicable lack of realization that weapons might be useful to have in Fear of the Walking Dead defies even the thinking of a preschooler. “We’re good people and everyone should take our word for it, even the zombies”. It is an affront to humanity that these folks are still alive. I’m running out of hope that we’ll see any realistic adaptation to the world as it is in the show.
I will occasionally show a good friend a peak at my gun collection after they’ve been to my home two or three times. I enjoy sharing my hobbies, and while not all of my friends are “like-minded individuals,” I also enjoy introducing friends who have never fired a gun before to shooting sports.
Of course, I don’t show people all the canned goods and other preps I have for our family. Those are stored separately from my firearms.
Every now and then, after seeing some of my gun collection for the first time, a guy will remark to his wife “honey, we’re coming here if there’s ever an apocalypse.”
Generally, I just shrug it off, since I don’t think these guys actually believe there will ever be an “apocalypse”–if they did, they’d probably be preppers too. Also, I can remember making a similar comment the first time I saw an AR rifle in person for the first time many years ago. That comment was, for me, very innocent, and I also credit that moment of holding an AR for the first time as a major catalyst in my own budding love for guns and prepping.
Anyhow, my question is: What’s the best way to respond to an innocent “Im coming to your place, man!” comment? I don’t want to sound like a wacko or creep by taking it too seriously and telling them they had better rethink that plan. I also don’t want to miss the chance to convert a good person who happens to be a non-gun-owning person into a free-thinking, gun-owning, like-minding individual.
At the same time, I’m really going to be in trouble if, in a true long term emergency, five different families all converge on my home, actually making good on their promise to “come to my place.”
What do you think?
My reply to the standard “If the world ends we’re coming to your place” statement is to say “Why? Because of this stuff? Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to just get your own stuff so you don’t have to?”
Thats a good answer. I’m going to borrow that.
I refocus back to them. I would say why everyone knows your a prepper. I’m tell everyone to go to your house!!!!
My answer is, “no you are not”. I will stop you if you try, family or not.
That’s a little more direct, and way more awkward, than the tone I’m going for.
I’m curious: How do your friends normally react after you promise to shoot them in an emergency?
Noah received his warning & tried to share it with others. Some listened, others laughed.
There’s no obligation to sacrifice for those who refuse to help themselves.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/topfoodstoragereviews/6879530641
Must have been something in the ozone layer last night. I dreamed I was on my porch, it was night, and a throng of attackers was coming up the mountain along the jeep trail. I was blasting away with my Swedish Model 1936 and then I realized it was loaded with gallery ammo. Woke up and read a book the rest of the night…..
Andrea 2 needs to die gruesomely in a useful way, ie., as a speedbump so the others escape. Strand might be better off being a wee bit more open with his “crew” as he doesn’t seem to be able or willing to work on his boat. It’s wise to have a good relationship with the guy that can fix your engine.
As for charity, I haven’t told even my roomies about my preps; my money, my effort, my food. The landlord now knows I have a trailcam watching my “situation room” after I asked what he was looking for; he doesn’t come around anymore unless I’m there…
In re: the “brother can you spare a tin of beans” situation – I’ve started a couple of those storage tubs with misc. supplies – nothing major but wide ranging so that I can conceivably pull one out and say, “I haven’t much but can share a bit…” – if the tub is too tempting to the “guest” you will have learned their character cheaply without revealing all.
As for the “we’re coming to your place” comment…depending on the speaker, I will deliver the tempering “I’d love to advise you on how to set yourself up so you don’t need me! I may be gone, after all…” – which brings a different light to the matter for them. A pushy idiot gets the colder, “Nothing but heartache for ya here if things go badly. Sorry but that’s how it goes.” You can always turn it back again to advising them how to do it themselves. Rarely need the above, though, being quite solitary and discerning…