09:40 – Barbara is down in Winston today, running errands and having lunch with a friend. As usual when she’s gone, it’s wild women and parties for Colin and me.
Most people really are stupid. I was just reading an article about Hurricane Matthew, the strongest storm to affect Florida in more than a decade. As usual, everyone panics and heads for the supermarkets and hardware stores to lay in supplies. One stupid woman who was interviewed had gone to her local Publix supermarket, in search of bottled water. She was upset to find that they were sold out of the store brand stuff and had only the more expensive name-brand bottled water left in stock. The article wasn’t clear about her actions, other than that for some reason she lay down on the empty shelf where the cheaper bottled water had been. Presumably, she left without any bottled water because it cost a few cents a bottle more than the house-brand stuff. Jesus wept.
As is usual this time of year, my component inventory system has completely broken down. The problem, as always, is that we’re doing so many things at once, and updating component inventory is often overlooked. For example, we’ll be running short of biology kits and are out of chemical bags for them. So I check inventory and find out that we have only eighteen bottles in stock of the limiting chemical. So we build 18 of the chemical bags and start assembling more biology kits. Meanwhile, we get a bulk order for chemistry kits. We ship those and realize that we’re now short on chemical bags for those kits. So we check our inventory and see that it shows that we should have 27 of the limiting chemical for those kits. But it turns out that another chemical is really the limiting chemical because I hadn’t updated the inventory records after we used 18 bottles of it to make up biology chemical bags. It turns out that instead of having enough to make up 27 chemistry kit chemical bags, we actually have only 11 of that second chemical. So we make up 11 chemistry chemical bags and start building kits. As Barbara is assembling those, I make up the solution for the chemical bottles we’d run out of. So it’s really a matter of us having so many things going on at the same time that stuff slips through the cracks. Multiply that confusion by the scores of different chemicals included in the various kits, with significant overlap between types of kits, and things quickly turn chaotic. Fortunately, things have now settled down to a dull roar, so we’ll have time to rectify the inventory count again by physically counting all of our component inventory SKUs.
With Barbara away for the day, I’m going to spend some time washing and sanitizing bottles that will contain bulk staples. I wish Coke were still sold in 3-liter bottles, because their wider mouths mean they’re immensely better than 2-liter bottles for repackaging LTS bulk foods. Someone mentioned that dollar stores still carry off-brand soft drinks in 3-liter bottles. I may pick up a couple of those to try, because I’d really like to have more 3-liter bottles. I much prefer them to foil-laminate Mylar bags for LTS food storage.
In fact, nearly all of our repackaged LTS food is in PET bottles. We use them for just about everything other than bulk storage of oxygen absorbers, for which we use glass canning jars.
11:32 – Ooh. Almost a prepper fail.
I just started a load of laundry, darks and towels. We use Chlorox II rather than chlorine bleach. When we moved up here, we knew nothing at all about septic tank care, and I decided not to risk killing the beneficial bacteria in the septic tank by using chlorine bleach. Granted, I’d only be using a cup (250 mL) or so a week, but chlorine bleach is an extremely effective bacteria killer. In retrospect, I suppose I should have run the numbers. Assuming a 1,500 gallon septic tank, I’d be adding 1/16 of a gallon of bleach, or one part 5% hypochlorite bleach to 24,000 parts water, assuming the tank is full. Call it maybe 2 ppm. Not enough to kill many bacteria, but probably enough to make them feel unwell.
I have another load of laundry queued up. All of our whites, none of which have been washed with chlorine bleach since last November. Chlorine-free bleach just doesn’t cut it for whites. All of our white underwear, socks, t-shirts, etc. are starting to have a faint yellow cast, which is what happens when you don’t use real bleach on them. So, since I was going to use a mixture of dishwashing liquid and chlorine bleach in the kitchen sinks to wash and sanitize 3-liter bottles, I went off in search of the chlorine bleach. I couldn’t find it anywhere. It wasn’t on the laundry room shelves. It wasn’t under the kitchen sink, where Barbara used to keep a supply of it for sanitizing work surfaces. It wasn’t under the sinks in any of the bathrooms. It wasn’t downstairs anywhere, including in the unfinished area.
I have enough calcium hypochlorite (pool shock) stored with the prepping supplies to make up about 30 gallons of bleach, but I didn’t want to open it. I was actually considering walking down to the convenience store across the road to buy some, but I thought to look in the cabinet under the laundry room sink. Sure enough, there was an unopened gallon of chlorine bleach nestled behind a bunch of 2-liter bottles filled with water.
The takeaway here is that if you don’t know where something is stored, you don’t have actually have it even if it’s listed in your inventory records.
Good Point ” if you don’t know where something is stored, you don’t have actually have it ”
Last night I needed a magnetic backed flashlight. I buy these cheap on every visit to Harbor Freight. I remembered I had 4 or 5 stuck to the fridge. Popped into the kitchen to grab one … none !! Then I remembered that when our power went out a couple weeks ago the wife took a couple back to the bedroom and daughter took a couple to who-knows-where, leaving me with ZERO in the “Usual Place”. My solution … run by Harbor Freight and buy a few more.
Last night I needed a magnetic backed flashlight.
Microaggression for not typing FLASHLIGHTS in all-caps.
A further microaggression for failing to make FLASHLIGHTS bold.
My solution … run by Harbor Freight and buy a few more.
I like your thinking ! Many, if not most, guys would lecture the wife and kids.
“Many, if not most, guys would lecture the wife and kids.”
Young guys, maybe; us old guys know it’s futile. And they resent us for it and get back at us later. And think we’re bastards.
But once SHTF, we won’t be running out to buy more stuff anywhere. It will be whatever we brung to the party/dance.
Hats off to these great Texans:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/10/dean-weingarten/defensive-gun-use-of-the-day-gunfight-at-jeffs-jewelry-in-conroe-texas/
Boy, that would be a cool video on the Toob! Four Afrikan goblins waltz into the store, guns blazing immediately, and not only the store owner but a couple of other citizens respond immediately. One goblin dead and the rest lit out for the territory but will likely be picked up sooner rather than later.
And per usual, the comments are even more entertaining than the story, including one BLM parody of the reportage.
Texas may be the testbed to EMP harden the electrical grid.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a23196/texas-emp-defense/
About half the Post-Apocalypse novels Amazon offers via Book Gorilla seem to be post-EMP attacks.
FAILURE
More thoughts on the current “election:”
http://coldfury.com/2016/10/05/trumps-support-explained/
It’s a real shame that we’re now at the point where we have little choice but to vote for the lesser evil, because the alternative greater evil is so MUCH greater. My main criteria is that Cheeto-Head is not nearly as likely to kick off more wars around the world; he likes to blather and bloviate and negotiate with people and make DEALS. The other issue is 2A, of course, and the guy does CCW himself and doesn’t seem likely to gut the Bill of Rights, either.
Again, even if he gets in, we’ll still have the MSM shitting on him 7×24 and the vast Fed and state bureaucracies, permanently entrenched, and they’ve had a very successful Long March through all our cultural institutions.
So things are gonna get worse anyway, but under the bitch from Hell they’ll get a LOT worse a LOT faster. Which there’s an argument for, but I don’t wanna make it.
Ok, two videos of actual attacks, the kind that are becoming more prevalent as the economy circles the drain and the bad guys are emboldened.
6AM who thinks they’re gonna get jacked at 6AM?
And broad daylight, after being followed.
Situational awareness for before, get some. Video for after, get some!
nick
About half the Post-Apocalypse novels Amazon offers via Book Gorilla seem to be post-EMP attacks.
I don’t know about Book Gorilla but 1/2 seems to be overly high. Definitely somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3rd though as EMP is definitely the most popular literary trigger event for the apocalypse. I am leisurely reading the 299 Days series right now which is the financial failure of the USA and States. I have books four and five on order and may stop there (it is a ten book series). I have read many other books over the years with viral, nuclear, meteor, hurricane, alien invasion, etc trigger events.
It’s a real shame that we’re now at the point where we have little choice but to vote for the lesser evil, because the alternative greater evil is so MUCH greater. My main criteria is that Cheeto-Head is not nearly as likely to kick off more wars around the world; he likes to blather and bloviate and negotiate with people and make DEALS. The other issue is 2A, of course, and the guy does CCW himself and doesn’t seem likely to gut the Bill of Rights, either.
Trump will either be the next President or the newest resident of the SuperMax in Colorado. I respect him quite a bit for laying it all on the line. It has become fairly obvious that Hillary will come after him if she wins, I highly suspect that he knew this at the beginning.
I also expect Trump will go after her and Bill for the Clinton Crime Family Foundation. I can’t be the only person whom it is obvious to that she is taking bribes for past and future events.
If she loses and is prosecuted, expect to suddenly hear about how sick she is… only a short time to live, what’s the point of prosecution, reward her service to the nation by letting her live the remaining years free………….
n
“6AM who thinks they’re gonna get jacked at 6AM?”
Not me. But yeah, situational awareness ESPECIALLY during hours of darkness or semi-darkness when creeps and orcs and goblins might still be out and about after a night of criminal scumbag activities. I’d be in Condition Orange when exiting a vehicle, getting into one, arriving home at my front or back doors, etc.
“If she loses and is prosecuted, expect to suddenly hear about how sick she is… ”
I seriously doubt that one will go after the other whichever one wins; they’re Cloud People and it wasn’t that long ago that they were all good pals; Larry Klinton and his lovely wife Bruno sat in seats that would normally have been the groom’s deceased parents’s, at the Donald’s last wedding. And there are plenty of pics of the two lovely couples hobnobbing and be-bopping around Mordor and NYC high-life environs.
My prediction is that Trump will let her slide and figure both of them ain’t long for this world anyway; he might go after the Foundation, though, and certain other criminal activities but in general he’ll leave her alone. She is likely to be more vindictive, usually, but she recognizes that this guy is a major wealth resource and has connections all over the world; why screw him over? Why not go back to being social butterflies together once all the media hoopla dies down? Hell, fucking commie Sanders IMMEDIATELY dropped to his knees at the convention and then IMMEDIATELY scarfed up that lakeside mansion just a few short maritime miles from here. All just a timing coincidence, of course, after the deceased parents’s house in Maine went up for sale, supposedly.
Back from the PD; the fingerprint machines are high-tech now, but amusingly, running off Winblows XP. Me and the cop had a chuckle over that. I guess that’s all they need to run that chit, so whatever. The PD building, he told me, used to be a grain shed; it’s right near the main rail tracks that run through the “city.” They’d just brought in a local idiot skell and put him in one of their closet-sized cells, where he proceeded to run his gob. The cop opened the door and told him to please keep his mouth shut for a few minutes and then he could “have at it.” No more chatter; I told Officer Friendly that in the old days we’d hammer on the guy or squirt some CS tear gas in there, or MACE. Also told him I don’t envy them these days. Glad I got the fuck out thirty years ago; that is at least one good decision I made in life.
“FREE SPEECH CRACKDOWN: EU orders British press NOT to reveal when terrorists are Muslims”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/717627/free-speech-crackdown-EU-report-British-press-hate-crime-violence-terror
Europe is gone.
“Trump: I will appoint special prosecutor to investigate Clinton Foundation if elected”
http://q13fox.com/2016/08/22/trump-i-will-appoint-special-prosecutor-to-investigate-clinton-foundation-if-elected/
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is pledging that as president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to probe the financial dealings of The Clinton Foundation.”
“Trump said Monday that the Department of Justice had “acted unethically” in probing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.”
“He also said the Justice Department and the FBI “can’t be trusted” to investigate the foundation after declining to prosecute Clinton over the email scandal. He criticized Attorney General Loretta Lynch for meeting privately with former President Bill Clinton as the department’s probe was underway.”
““I’ve become increasingly shocked by the vast scope of Hillary Clinton’s criminality,” Trump told a crowd in Akron, Ohio.”
That’s just red meat for the mobs; after the election he MIGHT do something, but in the end it will amount to less than a hill of beans; these people are all in cahoots.
I am just wondering if all of Hillary’s donors will want refunds if she does not win the election ? That could be interesting.
On the home front, I fixed my lawnmower. It’s a self propelled Craftsman, about 4 years old. I forget exactly and I’m too lazy to get the paperwork from the file cabinet five feet away. It has been a good mower. The deck seems too flexible, perhaps it’s ok, not a feature I care for. When I bought it, it was in a box. Opened it, straightened the handle, filled the oil, filled the gas, and pulled the rope. It started on the second pull. Impressed me.
A couple of years ago it wouldn’t start after sitting all winter. But would run with a shot of ether. Pulled the bowl off the carb and perhaps the float was stuck. Everything worked after putting it back together.
Mowed this past May, gave it a shot of Stablil and topped off the tank. Then into the shed until last week. It will run with a shot of ether. Ok, we have been here, right? No joy this time.
A few hours later, after supper, I realized that the bolt holding the bowl must be the jet into the carb. It has a hole in the end and as I was putting everything together yesterday I noticed a tiny hole in the side of the bolt.
Sometimes I are slow.
Today I pulled the bowl again, worked on the bolt/jet with a bread twister and blew out a chunk of something. Put it all back together. Turn the gas on and it started on the first pull.
Today took maybe 20 minutes from start to running, including cleaning up the tools. A 5/16 nut-driver and a half inch socket is all you need.
Oh, and a bread twister…..
“I am just wondering if all of Hillary’s donors will want refunds if she does not win the election ?”
Hahaha, good one! Whatever $ she is getting either lines her or Larry’s pockets, with some left over for various minions like Huma and the paid assassins, and other $ left over will end up in the “Foundation.” Meanwhile a Killary-friendly AG in the Vampire State is shutting down Trump’s foundation; pretty blatant shit going on now, like with the debates.
They’re shoving their big fat middle fingers right in our faces daily if not hourly and laughing at us.
Here is a known liar, criminal, chiseler, thief, drug and alcohol abuser, war criminal and traitor, running for the National Administrator job. And becoming CINC of an armed forces she loathes and despises except for her mad-dog murdering adventures overseas, as she cackles like the witches at Cawdor when someone dies miserably.
If that isn’t pure evil I don’t know what is. But half the voters will mark their ballots for her anyway, including fems up here. Call me mind-boggled and gobsmacked. And if she gets in and begins fucking up left and right worldwide, the MSM will have ready excuses and the derps out here will continue to swallow it all.
But half the voters will mark their ballots for her anyway, including fems up here.
Same here, but I have a plan!! The fems are basically lazy unless clothing or shoes are involved. I *know* they have lost or misplaced their voter reg cards (or I have them locked away muhaha!). If they have to do anything other than haul their carcass down and push a button, they won’t do it. A fem non-vote is a vote for tRump in my book. I’ll tell them, well, you’ll need two forms of ID if you lost your reg card. Have to wait to be looked up…etc. They won’t even get out the door! lol!
Have you considered locking yourself and all your women in the house on election day? That’d cost Trump only one vote and Clinton several.
They might get suspicious and loud if they’re locked in the house. Instead, MrAtoz should volunteer for an all-day shopping trip with them. To sweeten the deal, he can offer to hold their purses as they browse the merchandise.
Instead, MrAtoz should volunteer for an all-day shopping trip with them.
Yes, excellent idea! We can go to the Pahrump Winery for lunch to start with. Only an hour from Vegas. The Twins are 21, so we’ll have to check out the bingo halls. Probably stay the night at one of the casinos. I’m voting early, of course. They are already setting up my usual trailer for early voting (Oct 22 – Nov 4). Absentee ballots you ask? You have to actually *do* something to get one. Ha! Ha!
BTW, I’ve held MrsAtoz’s purse so many times while shopping, I’m thinking of getting one.
Pretty much the same deal up here; the womyn talk a great line but when it comes to actually taking the time to get an absentee ballot or physically drive/show up at voting site, they won’t bother. Thus, multiple lost votes for Killary. Whereas I’ll get my ass over there and vote as many times as I can, using disguises and phony IDs; why not? The Dems do it and also have dead peeps voting; I’ll pretend I’m dead; not a huge stretch some days.
I believe Mr. SteveF and MrAtoz have between them come up with a great solution. Mr. RBT obviously has not been locked inside a house with several women for any length of time or it was long, long ago and he’s forgotten what that’s like. (Hell on earth)
“BTW, I’ve held MrsAtoz’s purse so many times while shopping, I’m thinking of getting one.”
IIRC, you already had one; that thing you call a “murse” or something. Geez, I must be insecure in my own horrible and evil masculinity ’cause I won’t carry stuff like that, not even the fake gun carriers that look like purses or pocketbooks. I’ll have an actual bag, like a Timbuktu, or a gym bag (Adidas) with some toyz in them; money and cards are in a super-cool tactical wallet, also containing a small lockpick set to play with during down time and a credit card blade.
My *murse* is a Pacsafe, so not feminine. I’m getting a full fem purse to expunge that toxic masculinity from my psyche. Molon Labe, biotches.
I may have to start carrying my murse now with my S&W Shield 9mm. The coyotes were yipping last night as we walked our two miles at 1030pm. I bought this murse and have yet to try it out:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BSMEHKM/
“The coyotes were yipping last night as we walked our two miles at 1030pm.”
Personally, I’d be sure to carry an extra mag with that Shield (which I do here) and run high-power ammo in it, and between the coyotes, the two-footed coyotes, the snakes, and other goblins that might be in the vicinity, I’d actually rather have my CZ P09 w/20 rounds and two extra mags. Are you OCW or CCW? I’d also rather have the Shield on my hip at 4:30 PM and the extra mags on the other side at 7:30 PM, than in a fanny pack. I’d have a first aid/trauma kit in the fanny pack, a water bottle, FLASHLIGHT, and maybe a snack for those nightly walks.
Are you OCW or CCW?
Yes, both, but I prefer CCW in my truck console. I have never carried CCW. I used to carry OCW on my grandparents farm but that was many years ago. And I carried OCW when we went to Frontsight training a couple of years ago.
Carrying OCW in my neighborhood would probably freak out my neighbors. And we always see at least one patrol car on our two mile journey. Most people do not even remember that our subdivision is next to a very large ranch with at least a thousand cattle and other assorted wildlife.
And we just walk around the snakes. Not a big deal, not even that four foot coral snake we saw last year. “red and yellow kill a fellow, red and black friend of jack”.
Coyotes do worry me though. Especially when there are two packs hunting. I saw a dark red one on my office property the other day at 3pm which was weird. They are usually bedded down then. He saw me and took off at high speed. One of my neighbors took a picture of one in their backyard on the levee back in Jan.
Right now, I carry two extra AA batteries with me always in the left shorts pocket with my Fenix E25. And three doggie bags in the right pocket. Yup, condition white.
Rather than a firearm, I want a railgun. Mount it along my forearm. Include sensor so when my tendons show that I’m extending just my middle finger it bzaps a ball bearing at Mach 2. Power pack disguised as a backpack, make the whole thing look like a prosthesis so no one questions the heavy wires going to it or asks me to remove it for “security”. You know, I think I’m on to something here.
Unless I crunched the numbers wrong (entirely possible; I did it in my head and I’m — surprise! — tired what with Peewee Knucklehead waking up in the middle of the night) the impulse of accelerating up to 10g over 40cm shouldn’t break my arm. I’d want to shoot from the hip with a bent elbow and let it fly back, with effects on aim, but it should be good enough. I wouldn’t expect a ball bearing at that speed to be accurate at any great distance anyway.
I’d prefer my Colt Combat Commander in .45 ACP. That big, slow-moving bullet is unlikely to hurt anyone.
Someone here (I forget who, of course) posted a link to a page about the FN 5.7 and then I saw more stuff on it; they’re kinda pricey; seem to be in the $1,200 range new. But Hickock45 put ’em through a truck door, zippety-zip, and a kid ran ’em through “bulletproof” glass, no problemo. The other info was on the Fort Hood musloid murderer, and apparently any shots to the kill zones he did with it were fatal.
Maybe when I get my FFL I’ll look into it further, while also checking out gun shows in the greater AO up here.
I have a strange craving for french toast…
Camping pretty often (or even old camp experience) helps with the SHTF cooking scenarios, I figure.
Get used to cooking on a Coleman stove (I have a gas range at home), a little propane stove, or a gas grill (often used at home), or on a campfire.
Use assorted cast iron, of course, but don’t forget the advantages of having several stainless steel or aluminum pots and pans. Things that nest inside each other, like camp gear, save storage space. Additional camp cooking secret: If you have several pans, scrorching something on one can just be blown off for clean-up back at home (or when running water is restored), assuming the camp-out (or crisis) is relatively short-lived. I mean that multiple cook-ware options can be handy.
Another camping practice is to have a good supply of disposable dishes, paper plates, plastic utensils, and so on. You can even soak the plastics in a jug in a little soapy water, in case you need to clean and re-use them (for an extended camp-out or an extended crisis).
Yeah, eventually you gotta wash dishes, but keeping it quick and simple during the initial days of a crisis can give you time for other projects and some time to think… Same deal for having fun camping: save the clean-up for running water at home.
Just don’t short-cut and let sanitation failure make things worse!
“I have a strange craving for french toast…”
Let me advise you from my northern New England perspective:
You need to run out right now and get X-Large organic eggs; a quart of heavy cream; a loaf or two of stale French bread; a couple of oranges or lemons; and some nutmeg or cinnamon. A pound of bacon and/or a nice spiral-sliced ham. A quart of Vermont maple syrup. And you’re good to go!
If other pesky shoppers get in your viz and create issues, bitch-slap or body-slam them as you see fit. Maybe a solid kick to the ribs to make it stick.
Slide on out through the cashier station and thence to your ride in the parking lot and drive it like you stole it.
Once home, grate either the orange or lemon peel, mix up the eggs, cream, and spice real good and dump it all over the torn or sliced bread. Let it sit in the fridge overnight under tight plastic wrap. Next morning cook the bacon and/or ham and let the dish of French toast come to room temp and then slide it in the oven at around 350 for an hour. Test it then and if it looks good, dive in, kemosabe.
OFD, you might have missed my point.
I’m watching the Weather Channel and the rush in FL, GA, SC, NC
for milk, bread, and eggs.
I think our host might have originated the french toast last minute crisis prep observation.
Ah, but I’m printing out yer recipe!
A bit of news from my area. It seems that shots were fired outside a police station about 30 minutes from my house recently. There was an attempted robbery at a fast food joint foiled by a concealed carry permit holder a little closer than that. The local Sheriff’s office is investigating a homicide last month five miles from here. I’m starting to wish we were even farther from the big city.
“”A bit of news from my area. It seems that shots were fired outside a police station about 30 minutes from my house recently. There was an attempted robbery at a fast food joint foiled by a concealed carry permit holder a little closer than that. The local Sheriff’s office is investigating a homicide last month five miles from here. I’m starting to wish we were even farther from the big city.””
No sweat. You are out of 9 mm range, from these incidents, right?
Could be worse… You could be out in the country with deer rifle bullets comin’
over the ridge!
/ sarcasm off
Perversely, I’m thinking of the penetration through thick forest of whatever bullets versus through urban buildings and other infrastructure (to say nothing of fat bodies)…
Of course, it’s all about the odds of a round going off close to you, no matter the range or cover…
Hurricane is a slow moving train wreck that should be a lesson in prepping, but it never fails that the people who have the means to do something, they do nothing worthwhile until the last minute, if ever. I bleed for poor folks in a place like Haiti who have zero options, but for a middle income (whatever that is) family or single or group in a working class suburb of West Palm Beach or Orlando or Jacksonville, it’s pathetic that they can’t skip a latte for a few extra cans of beans and a tarp and some plywood… or, duh, just pay attention and just bug out.
[snip] misplaced their voter reg cards [snip]
Here in the Sunshine Sate (not necessarily so along the Atlantic coast for the next few days, though) a voter ID card is not accepted to vote. I’m all for stricter ID for voting, but it does seem a bit absurd. When I last voted, they nice folks were so accustomed to seeing driver’s licenses that they didn’t quite know how to handle it when I presented a genuine USA passport. Next time I might just try my CCW card.
[snip] just pay attention and just bug out. [snip]
I’ve got nieces in Sarasota, the Space Coast, and Gainseville (x2) and a sister & brother in law on the First Coast. The Space Coast niece’s fiance can’t leave (cop) but she’s out in the early AM, as are the sister and the UF nieces. All headed this way, AFAIK.
Concrete dorms in Gainesville might be OK, right?
Cop has infrastructure, buddies, training, right?
Otherwise…
Hoping for the best you and yourn !!
I don’t bear any particular ill will to anyone in the hurricane’s path, but I don’t have much sympathy, either. They chose to live there.
This is similar to what has been said repeatedly about us in the Northeast after a blizzard has shut down cities and killed power for areas. Except that I didn’t include “fuck them if they’re stupid enough to live there”. It was especially infuriating after a major hurricane clobbered Florida (I think) fifteen or twenty years ago and billions in emergency federal relief went there to help with the rebuilding, along with the usual Red Cross calls for donations of blood and money*. A few months later several major storms clobbered the NE and put tens of thousands in shelters because the power was out, and a politician from the hurricane-clobbered state orated against relief because we should have known to expect it. Much the same went for that big earthquake in California in the late 1980s, though the timing wasn’t quite as close. To their credit, when the Mississippi River flooded Missouri (?) some years ago, I don’t recall anyone in the flood area saying “Fuck the people in snow country! We need the money here!”
they didn’t quite know how to handle it when I presented a genuine USA passport
The poll workers really freak when I present my passport card. Had one poll worker say it was not acceptable. I had to point out to her supervisor that it was a government issued photo ID.
One thing I haven’t thought about enough when it comes to prepping is over the counter meds that we don’t routinely use. I’m just getting over a cold, and my recovery has been greatly aided by cold medicine at night. I have a cold that causes coughing that interferes with getting a good night’s sleep. I’m recovering, but last night I fell asleep without taking cold meds first and woke up coughing, and couldn’t get back to sleep without cold meds. I very rarely need them, but when I need them, I need them.
[snip] Concrete dorms in Gainesville might be OK, right?
Cop has infrastructure, buddies, training, right? [snip]
I have no idea about the construction of the dorms at UF. I assume that the PD’s buildings are fairly strong, there has been a surge of upgraded public buildings since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. And SteveF, you’re probably also thinking about Andrew. One of the real pieces of idiocy around that storm was the reluctance of our governor (the late, un-lamented Lawton Chiles) to ask for a federal disaster declaration. Chiles, you see, was a D, and the sitting President was an R. Politics above all. 🙁
“I’m just getting over a cold, and my recovery has been greatly aided by cold medicine at night.”
OTC cold medicine is generally paracetamol (acetaminophen) and maybe some codeine or (pseudo)ephedrine if you get the good stuff. RBT will doubtless chime in anon about how the therapeutic dose of paracetamol is so close to the lethal dose that it’s better avoided.
I suffer from recurring colds / sinus trouble, but I try to avoid antibiotics and paracetamol as much as practicable.
One thing that helps is nasal irrigation morning and evening with salt water (22 grams table salt dissolved in a litre of boiling tap water and left to cool). I bought one expensive can of seawater nasal irrigation spray from the pharmacy, and just took the nostril-shaped spout off it and put it on a 50cc syringe instead.
Short of Amoxicillin / Amoxiclav, the recipe below, originally prescribed by a wise old ENT doctor, is far and away the best stuff I have found so far for sinus problems. You can have it made up at a pharmacy, or the ingredients are available OTC from places that sell essential oils / aromatherapy oils, or on ebay, and you can mix it yourself.
Tincture of benzoin, 30 grams
Eucalyptus tincture, 30 grams
Balsam of Peru 0.5 gram
Gomenol (Niaouli oil), 1 gram
Using an eyedropper, you add a generous squirt of the mixture to boiling water in a basin, and inhale the steam with a towel over your head. Do it at least morning and evening, and more often if you can manage.
Congrats to Paul on his small engine repair.
Very satisfying to get something running that was buggered, and good practice for later.
n
Yeah, there’s no way that acetaminophen would be approved by the FDA for OTC under current standards. It hospitalizes more people than all other OTC meds combined, and is responsible for a ton of liver transplants. It’s hideously dangerous stuff. And it’s entirely unneeded, with other NSAIDs like ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, and other available.
Well unless you take blood thinners. There are many who do, myself included. I actually rarely need any.
https://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/aspirin-news-46/taking-blood-thinners-with-certain-painkillers-may-raise-bleeding-risk-686805.html
OH NOES!!!!1!!!! There’s a storm coming!!!11!!!!111
“GET OUT NOW” screams the headline. Get out yesterday would have been better. See also Nick’s axiom By the time you think it’s time to leave, it’s already too late. Go EARLY, you can always come back.
Watch the coverage, and learn from it. What’s run out? Gas. Simple food. Bottled water. Next is plywood and gennies.
Reaching way back to my advice from the last big scary one here….
If there is no plywood, look at alternatives like FENCING. More ghetto is PALLETS. Corrugated metal roofing or siding works too.
Water is still coming out of your tap, fill buckets with lids. Fill trash bags in cans (metal, plastic is gonna fail). Fill ziplok bags and stack in boxes or plastic crates. fill kiddie pools. fill the bathtubs. Fill water balloons. Lots of ways to put up water, lots of places to buy stuff other than Home Depot and Costco.
Bread- bake some if you are worried! Buy a big stack of tortillas, they keep well without refrigeration.
Milk and eggs- well, SOL here unless you have some alternatives prepped. Nido powdered tastes like milk. UHT milk tastes close enough for cooking and cereal. I freeze quart cartons of liquid eggs. If you can’t get whole, look at eggbeaters type substitutes or liquid egg whites.
Gas- again, SOL unless you prepped. Keep enough on hand to double your vehicle range, or run your gennie for a week (less than you think, you can get by running only a couple hours a day.)
Shopping- think outside the [big] box. Auto parts stores carry a huge variety of useful things, including screws and gas cans, clean up supplies, etc. Paint supply stores will have buckets, clean up stuff, tarps, plastic sheet, tape, maybe even some hardware. Toy stores will have kiddie pools, baby wipes, maybe formula. Garden centers will have bags of dirt to use in place of sandbags, fencing, and other useful stuff. Sporting goods stores will have packaged food, batteries, tarps, gas cans, Fix-a-flat, flashlights, lanterns, colman stoves and fuel, ammo, coolers, etc.
Take a deep breath, think of alternatives, DON’T waste precious time in lines.
nick
The risk of accidental or deliberate overdose with acetaminophen is too high for me to have the stuff in the house. (see Raconteur Report for a heartbreaking account of a teen who OD’d on it and then didn’t tell anyone until it was too late.)
Some of the NSAIDs are particularly poisonous when combined with alcohol use and esp. abuse. If you are a drinker, esp. a heavy drinker, leave the Aleve at the store.
I once read that aspirin has 13 primary effects, and only one is pain relief, so that has risks too, but compared to the others, it’s candy.
nick
Some useful things you might not have thought about…
Baby wipes- these are awesome for hygiene. I’ve got cases. Get the unscented ones. Put some in your car too.
Adult butt wipes- your diet and sanitary facilities are messed up. Some ‘task specific’ wipes come in handy.
Screws and battery powered screw gun. How you gonna put up that plywood without them? Or cheaper- nails and hammer. Gonna need a saw for the boarding up too.
ROPE. Lots of fairly light weight. Use to pull tarps up and over your roof. Use for clotheslines. Use to tie plastic sheet or tarp over and around stuff. Use to secure load to your vehicle.
Dozen 2×4’s Handy as hell, and worst case, can be burned.
Plastic sheet and duct tape-should go without saying.
Heavy gloves for cleanup.
Heavy trash bags for same. Also have myriad of other uses.
Battery powered ‘personal’ fan.
Disposable silverware, plates, cups. Save your water for drinking. (mentioned further up the thread too)
nick
“Well unless you take blood thinners.”
In which case, you should probably get a prescription for tramadol.
I still can’t understand why tramadol isn’t OTC. Yes, it’s an opioid, but it’s not abusable or addicting. It’s also much a more effective analgesic than any of the OTC stuff, and its therapeutic index is something like 1,000 (versus under 2 for acetaminophen).
IMHO, the gooberment is doing everything possible to make all prescription opioids illegal/unobtainable and thus drive more people to the street heroin where they can exercise even more control over us. It’s complicated. Adjusting my tinfoil hat.
As for gooberment essentially requiring all hydrocodone prescriptions contain acetaminophen, it really pisses my Doctor off. If he was to prescribe me just pure hydrocodone he would be even under more scrutiny from the Feds. He says the Feds want the acetaminophen in their so that you essentially OD on the acetaminophen before the hydrocodone.
BTW, tramadol doesn’t work for me and it has the same acetaminophen addition. And another BTW, WA State is getting more restrictive than the Feds. The left Coast is trying its best to out-suck the East Coast.
“If you are a drinker, esp. a heavy drinker, leave the Aleve at the store.”
Hahaha; if you’re a heavy drinker, taking Aleve is the least of your worries. That booze will kill your ass deader than shit if you keep it up, amigos. It almost did me.
Dave Hardy wrote:
“It’s a real shame that we’re now at the point where we have little choice but to vote for the lesser evil, because the alternative greater evil is so MUCH greater. My main criteria is that Cheeto-Head is not nearly as likely to kick off more wars around the world; he likes to blather and bloviate and negotiate with people and make DEALS. The other issue is 2A, of course, and the guy does CCW himself and doesn’t seem likely to gut the Bill of Rights, either. ”
Glad this has finally got through… Bill and I have only been saying it for 2-3 years.
Yes, but things had to get as bad as they are now for it to be true.
An Aussie friend lives in WPB, he’s making a run for Naples, on the west coast of Fla. (He’s a rusted on Dumbocrat – thinks Illary shits sunshine.)
We should all encourage progs to remain where they are to watch the hurricane.
A friend has a cousin in Florida. My friend thinks his cousin is crazy for not having left. His cousin thinks his neighbors going to the beach are crazy.
Well, we’ll see….
Anyone on Bolivar Peninsula in Houston during Ike washed away. It scrubbed the peninsula clean down to the soil. Kinda hard to “ride that out.”
n
It’s a bit like jumping feet first into a wood chipper. Maybe it will jamb on your legs, but either way, you’re in for a world of hurt.