TEOTWAWKIAIFF

In order to keep my skills sharp I practiced with my pistol yesterday morning. If bad things are going to go down, I want to be ready to defend myself in an efficient and effective manner.

I think it’s best to draw as little attention to yourself as possible, but once your singled out, what do you do? I’m a big guy, so I have some innate intimidation that I can work off of. That has pretty much been my mode of operation, act like the Grey Man, but when confronted, puff out the chest and take charge of the situation.

So far, so good for me. The abrupt switch in demeanor and appearance is usually enough to cause enough confusion so that I’m left alone. At some point, I am going to be called out by some meatball who needs their attitude adjusted. Then things will get messy.

Back to the original idea for this post. When and if they come after you, whether it’s the zombie mutants, Obammy’s thought police, or the fedz. You got to make a stand. The might want to take your guns, or your food, or your freedom. Make them pay dearly for it. Also spread the word so they don’t have easy pickings somewhere else.

There comes a time in everyones life when they need to draw a line, and stand tall. It’s different for everyone, and it changes as events happen in our world. These are big decisions. To be honest I don’t know what I am going to do if I get a knock on my door and it’s Obammy’s thought police looking for my guns. Surender and live on to fight another day? Is it worth living in a world of fear, barely scraping by?

If “they” told you to go to a FEMA camp “for your own safety” would you comply if you have food, water, and shelter? Would you go if they asked a second time with your house about to be assaulted by the SWAT team?

With hard times you need to make hard decisions. Prep the mind, the body and the soul to give you and those who depend on you the best chance for survival.

As a kid, I loved them. I’d get a grilled cheese on rye and dunk it in the Spaghetti-Oh’s and eat it, while scooping out the oh’s with salt and vinegar chips. Yummy.

So what’s this have to do with The End of the World? Well I made sure that I had a few cans in my preps for boosting morale. Depending on why your digging into your preps, either from a slow slide or from a sudden event like a hurricane, you need to keep your spirits up. That is what this post is about.

The human spirit can take a lot of shots, and keep getting up for more, but let’s face facts: It’s not a pleasant experience. So to cushion our spirit, we need to stock some supplies ahead of time. So we nourish the body, we need to nourish the soul. Kinda weird coming from and agnostic I know, but Just because I haven’t “found God(s)(ess)(es), etc. doesn’t mean I’ don’t believe we have something after this world.

Anyway, be sure to pack some “soul food” away. If you have a female within 1000 miles of your retreat, I cannot stress enough the importance of chocolate. I’m not sure the best way to store it, but I’ve got some vacuum packed and frozen. Obviously, canned goods are the way to go for durability. They are heavy but the idea is to have some, not a lot. If you love hamburger helper for whatever reason, grab some, and rotate it out. The trick is to have fatty, comfort foods to help you cope in the first 72 hours of trouble.

Also I feel it is very important to have whatever you need for your faith. If you have a religious book, a separate copy should be with your preps, preferably in your BOB waterproofed. Any items like rosary beads or prayer rugs, etc should have backups stored with your preps. Anything that brings serenity and a peaceful frame of mind should be with your preps. I, for example, love the cranberry chutney scented candle from Yankee Candle, so I have half a one stored with my preps. Light + comfort.

So kick back and take inventory of the things that bring peace and serenity and make sure some of those items are with your preps. It’d be a shame to have all the firearms and food for a year, if you go nucking futs after a month.

A bit of a philosophical post before going on vacation. I firmly believe that every human being has the willingness to commit murder in their hearts. Scrub away the Saab, the Cardigan sweater, the espresso enemas and you essentially have a wild beast, held in check by a thin layer of morality and social customs. Granted, most social customs are an extension of morality, but not all. For example, is it a violation of morals to eat with your hands instead of silverware?

Obviously the social customs would be the first to go in a societal collapse. Things like polygamy and polyamory would rise in acceptance quickly. Especially if the female to male ratio is out of balance in either direction. I know for the Christian segment of my readership is not going to be too happy with me lumping marriage with “social customs.” I just would like to point out that Christians have affairs, just like everybody else. Although that is a poor example, as breaking an Oath is a moral issue.

Back to my original point, as I try to avoind the slippery slope of religion, everyone is capable of murder. If you had a child who was sick with some horrible disease, and some corp offered you a cure if you killed a death-row inmate for his stem cells? If you were starving, and you saw a group of thugs kill someone for food, would you kill the thugs for the food?

I could go on and on with these thought exercises. What does that mean to us?

If the poop hits the fan in a bad way, then I fully expect to have to kill for my survival. Let’s face it, I work in a densely populated urban environment, surrounded by a lot of people with questionable moral standards. How bad an incident has to be criminals take advantage of the reduced law enforcement presence? What did that study find? After 3 days the average human would steal to eat, after 7 they would kill.

I don’t mean to dwell on such negative aspects of our preparedness. It is a situation I never want to face, I hope all the prepping we do is in vain. But if something really bad does happen, the woman in the pantsuit might try to kill you for the MRE you are eating. My plan is to avoid as much humanity as possible, so I won’t be forced into such a situation. But I prepare for the situation, in case it presents itself.

I am currently reading “Dies the Fire” by S.M. Stirling. I’m only half way through and I think it’s an excellent book, well written and entertaining. I will be buying the remainder of the series and passing them to friends once I am done. This is what got me to thinking. Any book that makes you use your noggin is a sound time investment.