Hot and humid today, same as yesterday. Maybe some rain to make it interesting.
It was certainly hot and humid yesterday. Kids got in the pool for a couple hours but I was out running errands. What little breeze there was made it tolerable, until that stopped around 6pm. Then I sweated through my shirt just getting stuff from the fridge in the garage.
Since I spent the day running around I didn’t get much done. Today will likely be the same. I did get 4 big bins to the auctioneer, and I’m hoping to take several bins to my other local auction when I go there later today to pickup some items. Stuff is leaving, just not as quickly as hoped. That hope was misguided. Even if I just loaded everything and took it to a local auction (not the best way to get good money for some of it), it would be too much to just add to an existing auction, and too weird a mix for a stand alone auction. I’m going to continue as I have been lately, and keep sending it out the door. I’ll get there eventually.
Talking to my wife about school in the fall, we’ve decided to take the remote learning option. We’re letting the other guys see if the flame is still hot. If it turns out the schools are a big bucket of disease, it should be obvious in 9 weeks. If their protocols are too onerous or if they can’t actually be applied, we’ll know that too. Heck, even though we have to declare now, by the time school gets going, the whole situation could be changed again, with no in-person instruction option at all. The likelihood of the reverse happening is near zero.
Seems crazy that we’re already thinking about school in the fall. Time is zooming by.
Dinner was pulled pork from the freezer, cooked in the slow cooker with a crockpot sauce pack (apple smoked bbq), with assorted veg tray, and canned corn. Pulled pork is a staple here in Casa De Nick.
Cracks are starting to appear in the economy. Bankruptcies are trending up dramatically. Storefronts are vacant. LOTS of For Lease signs locally, and I think we’re probably doing better than most of the country. I’m hearing anecdotally that people are starting to sell off their ‘toys’, ie. the extra things they probably shouldn’t have spent money on in the first place. Guns and ammo are still brisk sellers. So much ammo has sold that there is very little available at the retail level. What is left is either very expensive, or very weird. Gold and silver are selling in the auctions I watch for serious premiums over spot pricing. I don’t know what the retail environment for silver and gold looks like in terms of stock, but I’d guess pickins are slim…
I’ve also heard about shortages in what would normally be ‘prepper supplies.’ Big Berkey water filters, and parts seem to be in short supply. Freeze dried foods are just becoming available again with normal delivery times. Freezers have long delivery times. Canning supplies are getting scarce according to some online commentors. Seeds and garden stuff are short according to other commentors. I haven’t been in a store in 4 months so I can’t really say from personal experience, but the trends are starting to appear and seem pretty compelling to me.
People are stocking up and getting ready for some really hard times.
Others are getting ready to treat you and yours as a storehouse and mobile resupply pod, and likely sex toy.
Consider also what happens when there is a power vacuum. If the cops retreat, who or what will step up to fill the vacuum? Warlords? Committees of Vigilance? Lone wolves? Think they’ll be more or less likely to use deadly force than the cops were… or maybe the cops go full jackboot, and when you do invoke them you get it like a rock dropped from orbit.
Think about those things and consider what you want to do, or think you’d like to do in 3 months or 6 months. If stuff is hard to get or expensive now, what will it be like then? Make some plans. Act on them. Seriously.
And keep stacking.
nick