10:16 – Barbara left at 0900 to pick up Bonnie Tedder, our next-door neighbor, and take her to run errands. Bonnie is almost 90 years old, and doesn’t get out much. Barbara said she’d probably be gone most of the day, taking Bonnie to two doctor appointments and various other errands.
In the wake of Trump’s election, a lot of preppers seem to be slacking off a bit on their efforts. Part of that may be relief that Trump is a lot less likely to get us into a nuclear war than Clinton would have been. Part of it, too, may be that many people were working so feverishly to get prepared in the run-up to the election that they’re now reasonably happy with where they stand preparedness-wise and are just taking a breather.
Obviously, in one sense, preparedness is a way of life rather than a discrete activity, but in another sense it’s quite reasonable to set preparedness goals, meet them, and then put further preparedness activities on the back burner. That latter is pretty much our situation at present. Sure, there are additional things I want to do, but at this point we’re better-prepared for any emergency than 99.9% of the US public. Probably even 99.99%.
Comfort level vary widely. I’ve gotten email from people who have three months’ worth of food and little else stored, but consider themselves well-prepared. Conversely, I’ve gotten email from people who have spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on preparations, have literally five years’ or more of food, dozens of guns and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, enough medical supplies to start a clinic, and large-scale solar power and water systems installed, and still consider their preparations inadequate. I think the first group are much too optimistic and the latter group much too pessimistic, but that’s just my take. How and to what degree people decide to prepare is their decision, but I love talking to other preppers regardless of their level of preparation. The more people who are prepared and the more they are prepared, the better. When (not if) something bad happens, it’s much better to be surrounded by a bunch of preppers than not.