personal prep plan 2

PERSONAL PREP PLAN 2

Researched this article, I was going back through my easily accessible checkbook ( from 2014-2016, not the earlier 2012-2014 which is SomeDamnWhere ) and I noticed I actually spent far less than I had assumed on preps.  It is true that I spent mad amounts of cash on wheat and buckets, so that wouldn’t show up in my checking account, but mainly it seemed I was just covering the BTN wife’s increasingly higher maintenance demands.  You might remember me complaining  how not even a few months after child support ended she “mysteriously” “coincidentally” started having heart issues that necessitated ambulance rides and hospital stays.  Right there were $200 monthly payments, half what child support was ( before I hear “that ain’t crap, my brother pays $800 per kid”, keep in mind that translated into 50-75% of my gross income when added to taxes and medical insurance.  Can you live on 25% of your wages? ).

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Now add beer ( alcoholic since before I met her.  Remember, this was the Better Than Nothing wife, the previous one-NOT the current New Old Lady ).  Renting a car to take her into town once a month to combat cabin fever way out in the B-POD, then gambling money while there.  Cigarettes.  With no refrigerator, two to three times the food budget as now.  It was a good thing I didn’t have the land payment anymore.  No rent, no car, no utilities and I’m STILL left with just a few hundred bucks at the end of the month.

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I think I remembered buying much more than I did simply because I had to pretty much buy everything up from near zero, except weapons and half my clothing.  When your stockpile doubles every year it can seem like a lot ( I had had a lot in Florida for Y2K but not much more than half the weapons stayed with me moving ).  So between trying to catch up to a minimal prepping level, living through a relationship that had gone south nine years previous and just kept sinking, trying to squeeze in some writing every day, lucky to get an hour a day in reading ( with bike commute and a lunch hour, it was a twelve hour work day ), it was only by extreme force of will that everything got done. 

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Oh, and let us not forget that in 2011 the boss bitch humped me after three years of an insane work load running the food bank by appointing the stupid pig girl from the soup kitchen as my boss ( the excuse was the health inspector required a food servers license, and I refused to study for that unpaid on my time ).  Every year after that my job grew more and more unpleasant.  She even tried to get rid of me by halving my hours ( well, reduced by 38%, rather than fifty, but close enough ) but I showed her by gum who was more stubborn! 

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Now, I was in really good shape.  A third of your calories in whole wheat and hours of exercise ( and lots of Vitamin C ) can do that for you.  Sure, there were a few minor issues such as pneumonia that almost killed me, from commuting in minus fifteen Fahrenheit for three weeks running, reduced lung capacity from breathing in too cold air, that sort of minor detail.  A growing stomach disorder from stress finally catching up.  But for age fifty, it was hard to complain.  But you know what they say about burning the candle at both ends too long.  I wasn’t going to die from that crappy little minimum wage job, and I had finally reached physical and mental overload. 

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But I think I had gone a few years too long before I quit.  Damage was done.  I still push myself, because I won’t be that fat guy who violates rule one in Zombieland ( well, cardio is compromised, but I still insist on being in the upper percentile for healthiness in my age bracket ).  But capacity is well diminished.  Performance is crap compared to just five years ago.  Even if I hadn’t damaged myself, old age alone would have kicked my ass eventually, but I still think deprivation and perseverance increase performance ( the mental toughness ) at any age.  Alas, you still must face reality regardless of necessity.  I could only deliver about 25% of near past performance.

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I’ve been saying for some time that Hermitage Is The Only Realistic Survival Strategy.  I have the land for that.  I just don’t think I have the endurance to start another homestead.  Sure, I can throw SOME money at it, more than I did before, but that is still no where near what I’d need to replace a good portion of the physical labor.  The best I could do was make a camping spot for a few months of occupancy.  And that should be done, as my B-POD is no longer a very good bugout location anymore. 

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What I had assumed was a decent-not great, not ideal, but decent-acre in the middle of nowhere turned into crackhead suburbs.  Sure, it was only six miles from town, but back then at least the town was a lot smaller.  Then everyone panicked and moved out to junk land.  But those junk land dwellers were working stiffs.  They were doing middle class, just cheaper ( because thanks to ONE friggin jag off puta neighbor-who just happened to be that dick boss from the Food Bank [ I think that clinched hiring me when she found out I just moved a few lots from her ]-paid big bucks to run out electric, dozens of folks then moved out there to piggyback on the lines without financial penalty ).

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A little while back I noticed a LOT of those middle class neighbors had moved back to whence they had come, as the town went from Gangbusters to Normal ( we have yet to crash ).  They had to have all lost their jobs, unable to pay the mobile home payments, loan for the well drilling ( starting around eight grand ) and the four wheel drive car payment.  So we had a nice period where is wasn’t quite so crowded.  Then…( insert dramatic orchestral music, probably some of those giant drums ).

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MORE people moved out there, but this time a lot were druggies.  You can usually tell as they live right next to the power line, in a beat to crap RV, don’t hook up power ( it takes a few grand in fees to do so-the only savings is you don’t need to pay extra on top of that to run out the actual line and poles ) and can’t be bothered to clear any of the high fire danger sagebrush away from their dwelling.   About the time the area started turning into a HillaryVille, that was when my property started getting vandalized.  Ya think that might be another indicator the neighborhood is going to hell?  Continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

( today's related link https://amzn.to/2NW7ime )

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note: free book.  Sorry, all I could come up with as it has been slim pickings https://amzn.to/2x7XkHk .
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