10:44 – It’s to be a mite chilly here in Sparta this week, culminating on Saturday with a high in the teens and a low near zero F (-16C), and that with sustained winds of about 20 MPH (32 KPH). We had 1 to 3 inches of snow forecast for overnight, but got only an inch or less. More snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. We’re very happy that we have a woodstove for backup heat if the power fails.
Even with everything else going on, I’ve been able to get a bit of work done on the prepping book and a start on an outline for a PA novel. That novel, if I ever have time to write it, will be set chiefly in Sparta and its environs. It’ll document the effects of a slow slide into dystopia on a small rural community that after a catastrophic event gradually comes together to defend itself from outsiders and care for its own people. The government at all levels will not be the enemy, but will merely be overwhelmed by events. There may even be some federal government employees who are actually good guys. I haven’t decided on the type of catastrophe other than that it will have widespread effects on the population and it won’t kill the grid and all the vehicles and other electronics, let alone pacemakers and watches. Right now, the leading candidates are a cyberattack that severely impacts the grid but leaves parts of the electrical distribution system still functioning; an airborne bacterial plague; and the New Madrid fault letting go, cutting off the US east of the Mississippi from the food producing regions to the west.
15:10 – We’ve gotten a lot done today: built non-regulated chemical bags for biology kits, inventoried chemical bins, and built another set of steel shelves in my office to get general prepping supplies stored and organized in one place. Barbara’s friend Bonnie is coming up to Sparta next week for a visit, and Barbara wants to have most of the clutter cleared away by then. We’re gradually getting things the way we want them. Neither Barbara nor I has the endurance we used to, but I figure that slow but steady wins this race.