Thursday, March 21, 2019

penny a watt 2


PENNY A WATT 2
Yesterday, in our quest to plan ahead assuming insane per kilowatt electrical costs, we covered Earth Tubes and putting the fridge on to solar panel power.  If you are too poor to do any of that, or insulating for that matter, your only choice is to shrink the size of your house.  Invest in wool blankets and feather comforters for everyone’s bedroom, and don’t heat them.  Don’t heat the kitchen, since that will do so on its own.  In the summer, use a propane camp stove on the screened porch, to avoid heating the house.
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You need a propane stove anyway, for normal power outages.  Do NOT under pain of ostracizing ever even consider buying a Wal-Mart sheet metal camp stove.  They are vile crap now, only lasting one tenth the time they used to.  Get a cast iron camping stove.  They use a propane hose with a built in regulator, rather than having the regulator in the stove, designed to fail ( and always have a back-up of the regulator hose, as it is the one part that will likely fail ).  Here is the stove, click here .  ( steel frame, click here )
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Only heat the bathroom when it is time to shower.  If there are any complaints about having to drop a deuce in cold temperatures, offer to build the coneheads a true outdoor outhouse, if they would like to see how cold that can really get.  Just heat the living room, and make sure everyone has headphones so no one bothers anyone else with their choice of entertainment.  If you can’t insulate that one room, at least see about cloth tapestries and insulated shutters for the window.  Have sweaters and such for everyone.  Now, cut off the water.  Then you won’t have that excuse.
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Extreme?  Don’t want to install a facet in the basement ( cutting off the water to the upstairs ), fill up buckets and haul them upstairs to flush the toilets?  Okay, that might be a bit much.  But I am talking about folks too poor to install Earth Tubes, or insulate.  We are talking about planning and stocking for when electricity gets really expensive, not how to live now to really cut your bills, so you can prep ( although... J ).  So, past the fridge, what uses a lot of electricity?  That damn hot water heater.  There is a good target.
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Why do you need a hot water heater?  In the summer, you should be heating up water in a hot water solar arrangement ( as simple as Mason jars in a Styrofoam cooler with a glass pane.  Cover with tin foil to keep the UV damage down, spray paint on the inside with flat black paint.  Tilt towards the sun ).  In the winter, you can do one of two things.  When I had a hot water heater, I turned it on one hour before my afternoon shower.  Then I prepared dinner and by the time it was done there was enough hot-ish water to wash dishes.
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A Navy Shower was advised ( wet yourself, turn off water.  Soap, quickly rinse.  Ladies, wash your hair and shower on alternate nights.  Guys, crew cut, and electric razor https://amzn.to/2TBP7Jf ).  When I didn’t have a hot water heater ( have you priced replacing that sucker in an RV? ), I just heated water on the stove and took a whores bath.  Get a huge washcloth, which is really a small hand towel.  Make sure it is thick.  Get the towel wet enough it is dripping, but not pouring.  Rub, soap, rub to rinse.  Start at your head and work down, skipping your butt until last.  You don’t even need a gallon of water. 
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LED light bulbs have come a very long way in a rather short time.  My first 12v bulb was around $20 and while good enough, it wasn’t comfortably bright.  Now they are $5 and much brighter.  110 AC bulbs are even better, costing as little as a buck and using around 10 watts to nicely light up a room.  Buy a multipack from Home Despot and enjoy in every light in your house.  No, they won’t last 10,000 hours or whatever.  They will be cheaply made.  But they still last far longer than incandescent bulbs and use a quarter or less of the power.
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You would be rather retarded NOT going all LED.  Thank goodness those worthless compact fluorescents weren’t around all that long.  The point of LED bulbs is NOT to ever make back the investment while electric is 15 cents a kilowatt, although most likely it will.  The point is to use them as an investment against future rising electric rates.  And, duh, have plenty of replacements because as soon as rates rise, there will be instant shortages and bulb price hikes.
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A lot of electrical devices draw phantom loads nowadays.  This is due to non-existent attention spans, everything must be instant.   Place a power strip on everything.  Turn off when not using whatever is plugged into it.  If you aren’t concerned with surge protection but merely an easy on/off switch for an outlet, you could buy the power strips really cheap at the thrift store.  As a bonus, most crap being computerized, I like the powering down as it seems to reboot the computer which then runs less Windows-ish.
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I had to keep rebooting the Wi-Fi unit and the smart TV when they acted up.  Now that I have them on power stripes I get less problems.  I turn off the power to the TV, the Roku TV streamer and the DVD player for most of the day.  I can’t turn off the WiFi, since the cordless phone is on that, but it does at least make it easier to reboot.  I tried to talk the boss into a corded telephone when the last phone died ( stinking phone is cheaper than replacement batteries ), but she wasn’t going for it.
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I prefer a fifty foot cord on an old school phone.  When the power dies, your phone doesn’t.  But bitches be all spoiled with wireless now.  That would have been one less thing drawing power all day long.  I also like travel alarm clocks, rather than the wall plug kind.  Again, you don’t have to worry about the power going out.  Without using the alarm feature, mine lasted literally years on one set of AA batteries.  Even using the alarm five days a week you can go months between batteries.  Those will come in rather handy when electric rates skyrocket.
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Do you REALLY want me to get started on a clothes dryer?  You want to survive the end of western civilization, combating zombies and SkyNet, and you are too lazy to hang clothes on the line?  I’ll bet you insist on a FLIR scope on your AR.  Even though you KNOW a 223 is probably not going to penetrate the frame of a T800 ( have you noticed how Palmetto State isn’t offering the AR10 in 80% kit form?  What’s up with that? ).  Invest in that rigid steel wire for a clothesline, and you will NEVER go back to a dryer.
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You could always go off grid, even in the city ( yes, I’m aware of the problems with the law and leaving your kids in the dark ).  Right now is the perfect time to invest in solar power.  Just as 25 cent steel cased 7.62x54R ceased upon import bans, so too will $1 a watt solar panels.  Buy now, stack deep.  I started living on 50 watts, then splurged with a total of 75 when I started writing on the computer at home rather than at work on my lunch hour.  You can easily live off a few 100 watt panels, wallowing in electric luxury. 
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To allow this to be a contingency plan at low cost, I wouldn’t worry about wiring up the house in 12v.  I would instead charge the batteries and bring them in as needed.  Have a little wheeled handtruck that easily goes over door sills and such.  Such as click here .  Use the smaller inverters https://amzn.to/2T2nG6s and the 600 cold amp marine batteries from Wal-Mart which are only $60 or so ( you need to keep them from the cold, and trickle charged ).
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Now you have an emergency power supply and you are on your way towards insuring against power cost increases in the future.  A two-fer. 
( .Y. )
( today's related Amazon link click here )
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note: free books.  EMP here.  Not sure about this one-Chinese invasion, but the author is a mystery writer so I can only imagine how this turns out here.
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39 comments:

  1. Fuck that shitty hand truck, it'll piss you off and waste money. My brother bought one cause it would fold up. The handle joints fucked up and landed in the dump.

    Get this one, like I did, 20 years ago and it's still going strong. My bro has even borrowed it a couple times. Don't leave it out in the rain. In fact, never leave anything out in the rain, hand trucks, gas grills, nothing. Here it is: https://www.harborfreight.com/700-lbs-capacity-bigfoot-hand-truck-62900.html

    One of the best things I ever bought at Horror Fright.

    Solar?
    Buy em cheap, stack em deep.

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    1. Don't you think that dolly is a bit overkill for a 35 pound battery? I'm just thinking, on your junk land with tiny underground hovel, wouldn't a full size dolly be too big to navigate? I defer to your experience-I'm just going by theory here.

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    2. I agree with g.s. get the most robust dolly or cart possible even at a more outlay cost. This will hold up better to near or over capacity loads and frequent regular duty use. Big tires for rough terrain, etc. Consider having to use it outside the compound to sherpa gear to a new hideout, or get water cans filled at a river, etc. I was watching via t.v. the Venezualans at a water hole carrying jugs of all sorts. The smartest looking bastard there was a fellow rolling a two wheeler dolly with a few filled jugs onboard. (Knowing how that gets heavy quick after carrying jerry cans in the military for years) equipment and gear selection is more paramount now before the shipping stops as there are no factories to make that stuff in Merica no more.

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    3. Jim, for $20 more the one I linked completely blows away the other. You have to look at both in person to appreciate what I'm saying. Lemme preface by saying one of the 33 jobs I had before becoming self employed was about 9 months as a route driver for Coke in the late 70's. I know a good hand truck when I see one and this one is good. Plus, I've had mine for a long time and have used it hard hundreds of times. I'm from Florida and have used it in sugar sand those big air filled tired plowed thru with no problem with hundreds of pounds of floor tiles, and all sorts of construction materials. While the bottom plate is normal size it is small for some of the stuff I need to do. I bought some 2" angle iron and using a hacksaw and drill I created a bottom shelf that is robust and gives more room for carrying bigger stuff and can be taken back off with 4 wing nuts. Mine is blue and I never regretted the hundreds of times I have had to move it out of the way in the workshop. I need to put 2 hooks on the wall and hang it up out of the way. One of these days....

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    4. LOL - I used to run a courier business that morphed into small removals (Fridges etc). Plus I've been in the warehousing game for my whole life. Long story short - You want decent hand trolleys.

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    5. I get having a decent hand truck. I had two my last job. Rigid and thick with solid tires, and a tiny tacky low grade steel one. The tiny one was not worth using, even for the lightest loads, shimeying its ass like a $2 whore. Yet, the big one was so big I ended up never using it as the gate lift was too small. I don't really have long term professional experience with them, just minor exposure. None very good, at least in small areas.

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    6. He sed 2 dollah ho. lol
      I was a hand truck novice when I started at coke and did everything wrong, broke hundreds of bottle. GLASS bottles. Remember this was in 1979. I eventually got to where the truck was an extension of my right arm. Load 6 wooden flats of (24) 16oz glass soda waters and BAM, I'm gone. Bump up and over 2" curbs, pulling convenience store doors open with 1 hand and workin the truck with the other.

      I can see your point though about a small truck that folds up if you live in a small space. I'd try to arrange things so that the batts didn't need to move so much.

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    7. Even in Korea, the nastiest unauthorized whores working the ally went for at least $5. I was breaking glass bottles until almost the end of the millennium when they finally went completely to plastic, but I never did it wholesale like you. Not sure I want to move batts, but I might end up doing so for nightly lock-down if it becomes necessary.

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    8. You don't want to move batteries every day. Build them a shed under the solar panels. Put the inverter in the shed and beam 120v over to the pod, esp. if it's any real distance. 10x the voltage is much less power loss in the wire. You are still limited to the inverter ability to output, but the wire losses are lower than a long run of 12v. Assuming that you don't want to use stolen 1' conductor copper for the 12v which is low-loss(heavy and hard to bend).
      +1 on solar panels: pre-paid DC, much-discounted for how many rare earth metals, energy, and toxic manufacturing is used to make. Never cheaper.
      I heard a nice technique for dealing with broken solar panels: strip aluminum frame on a tarp to catch bits, dig a deep hole and pour a shallow concrete floor, pile broken cells/panels in pit until full, keep sheltered with tarp until full, pour concrete over broken panels to isolate them from groundwater. This is like DIY nuclear waste "entombment" and should work for a few decades and is much better than putting in municipal landfill.

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    9. I'm thinking I need to secure both batts and panels. Not sure if attached to roof is secure enough. Still thinking through.

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  2. Good series Jim. As part of my own program of cutting to the bone on all outlay costs I have also been on a defacto self deprivation path as a result. Yes, it is actually beneficial in self training for collapse. I cancelled land line phone, saving 26.00 a month for the most basic service, and eliminated an intrusion disturbance into the house from telemarketers or wrongly numbers. No cable or satelite. No internet into dwelling. Only use grid electric for security and street water for sanitation standards requirements. I use smart phone with full features for my tech linkage to the world and bison prepper command headquarters. This means it is mobile, and goes along during evac or evasion. By adapting now to not using, and really not missing out on those comfy conveniences during these gravy days, it will make the depression and follow on collapse easier to swallow. If my power blinks out, etc. I don't even get miffed and just go into camping mode during the situation assessment period. I try to be that island of stoic resistance, even though (currently as an interim) located in a Las Vegas sea of gluttonous, gorging sodom and gomorrah. It can be done.

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    1. You know, much ado is made of the vice and villainy of Nevada, but I look around and see no different behavior here than anywhere else. If anything, not hiding or slinking from the law means folks are more relaxed. Not to ignore the downside, of course, but that is civilization wide, even in the supposed Bible Belt. Which of course is the fault of those Gott Damned Yankees.

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    2. Just a follow up on the above comment about landline phones and cell phones. After hurricanes, the first thing rebuilt is the cell phone towers and last is hardwired phone lines. This was my experience in hurricane michael in Florida.

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    3. Good to know, I had no idea. I was thinking more of a regular power outage, and needing comms during. Not so much after.

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    4. However, I lived in southwest Florida for 40 years, hurricanes in that area are rare but power outages are frequent but phone lines still run when the power is out. Where we're at now ice takes out all the tines so we haven't had landlines since we moved here 13 years ago. Just cells. Tracfones, with little use. Purchased for $89 on HSN and included 1350mins, 1350mb txt, 1350mb data. I fill it maybe once a year for $100. Thats less than $10/mth. I can do almost everything on it that I can do on my desktops, notebooks and tablets, even look at AutoCad drawings.

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    5. Not sure why I still think one thing is better than another when everything is falling apart. Maybe I'm grasping at straws. Well, you know that Hell froze over when I admitted an AR is about as good as you are going to get on a budget now :D

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    6. Here's where I get to contribute something positive to the Bison Community. I used to work in emergency services. Mobile phone towers generally run at 95% capacity. Guess what gets over loaded during a disaster?

      When Christchurch had it's last big earthquake, the nz gov asked people to not call, rather send text messages in order to not overload the network.

      Singapore has the best network, cheap also. Except there's a catch. There's always a catch. The Singapore military owns the network and if they need it you don't get to use it. In the meantime it's great or so I was told.

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  3. Minions when planning or implementing these various alternate or resource supporting systems (off grid power /storage, water / sanitation, heat / cooking, etc) should also pencil in some opsec and stealth feature to the plans and consideration. Whether in use in city, suburbs, or rurals these brainiac designs and kits that allow minions to function in the midst of deprivations or collapsing periods will draw attention from others if not stealthy about it. During the last piss ant sized recession, the scavengers were stripping and looting anything of assumed value not secured or guarded like locusts. Even your outhouse will be carted off as come collapse everything will have a newly defined valuation that cannot be easily thought of now during good and plenty. Trust no one, leave nothing to just chance.

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    1. Good point. Reading you, I flashed back to the reports on copper salvagers getting too enthusiastic and electrocuting themselves. You are also correct-this "recession" will make the last look like a Sunday picnic with a Playboy Bunny.

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    2. They build and install steel cages to go over and surround roof top a/c heat units residentially and commercially to deter the scavengers from going up there like sci fi zombies chopping the copper out of the unit. Friggin wild wild west out there, and we really ain't seen nothing yet.

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    3. And now you know why Africa has no phone lines.

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    4. I lived and worked in Africa during the 1970s. Africans have no power lines because the wires are stripped to make jewelry, the poles chopped into firewood.

      One look at pictures of the neck-stretch gals gives an indication of African priorities. That, and hacking away at girly-bits with broken bottles and rusty soup cans.

      In Sacramento, the capitol of California, a couple years ago, we were looking at foreclosed homes. Yuge holes in exterior walls indicated the former locations of central heating and air conditioning units.

      Peak Petroleum-based Societies leads into Peak Respect, Peak Civility.

      On a lighter note, I truly enjoyed the videos on the rehearsals for 'Massacre 2019'. Those New Zealand crisis actors are hilarious!

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    5. It isn't that priorities are off, per se. When you are tribal, resource conservation and long term planning are liabilities the other tribe can use against you.

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    6. I downloaded the NZ vid too and it is embarrassing. They aren't even trying any more. Are people really conned by that thing? Dig your hidey hole deep folks, cause when this thing goes down it'll be like the Titanic, sucking down everything it can. Down at the bottom of the hole you should screw in a few of them 72" long mobile home augers.....

      As far as marauders stealing your stuff, 12ga #4 shell, trip wire, 4" conduit barrel, mousetrap trigger. Set it and forget it. Also, solar powered motion detection IR/UV video cams the size of a large spool of thread.

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    7. I was thinking False Flag without even seeing the video. But I'm just paranoid.

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    8. When I read that NZ Police were running a training session about a mass shooting in Christchurch at the same time it occurred, and were all kitted up ready to go. Well.

      Kinda like 911 with NORAD running an exercise where multiple got hijacked or in London where an exercise was being run where terrorists detonate multiple bombs at tube stations and what would you know?

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  4. I have one of the heavy duty hand carts as mentioned above. I got mine at Tractor Supply however. The pneumatic tires furnished lasted about 1 year, why is it that the chinese can not (will not) make a good tire and tube, I then purchased solid rubber tires from TS again. They cost more than the whole cart originally but that was about 3 years ago and they still work!

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    1. And Green Goop is highly overrated in its effectiveness. The Chinese will conquer us one tire at a time.

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    2. Everything is getting cheaper I guess. Mine, purchased more than 15 years ago, still has the original tires and I've wheeled that thing over highly suspect terrain including Florida sand spurs many times. One tire has a very slow leak and I air it up each spring though it has never been completely flat. I like lots of pressure in the tires cause that makes them easier to roll. Low air pressure is hard to push. Careful, my brother was airing up a tire on a wheelbarrow while yappin on the phone and not paying attention. The tire popped and blew the little finger completely off his right hand and fucked up 2 more. It was nasty. Pay the fuck attention!

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    3. Those cordless phones-radiation to the brain making everyone stoopid.

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  5. What about the Coleman Sportster stove ? The one burner round footprint model. I have a pair of those, the oldest early 1980's and still going strong. Also have a pair of even older Optimus, the 8R and I don't recall the other. Both in working condition.

    Steel pots - 1960's U.S. mountain cook pot kit. Its been bomb proof so far and I think still has plenty of life left in it. I wouldn't mind finding another, though the skillet top is a bit too shallow unless pure grilling single pieces is the food. Cut up pieces tend to fall off the edge and into the fire. Not a part of the plan !

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    1. I bought the duel fuel stove for Y2K. Still haven't used it. Unable to comment.

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    2. I've got the single burner duel fuel, works great !
      Also have two of the 2 burner duel fuel. One of them I've had since the mid seventies, still works fine. Replaced the air pump once.
      Broke open a new can this year of Coleman fuel that is ten years old, still burns clean after ten years stored.
      Also have two of the duel fuel lanterns.

      If you want to use propane, then just salvage a stove out of an RV. I've got a four burner with oven !
      It will last a lifetime...spare regulaters would be prudent. PLus you can run your digested methane in this type stove easily.

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  6. Somewhat off-topic: A older (60+) co-worker who grew up around Omaha, Nebraska just returned here (Denver) today after going out there to visit family for a week. He said that the damage to farms from last week's record breaking blizzard/rain/ice storm was the worst that he and his family had ever seen. The damage is projected to increase food prices as well as drive lots of farmers out of business. More details here: https://newfoodeconomy.org/nebraska-south-dakota-wisconsin-flooding-historic-loss-farmers-emergency/

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    1. As always, panic now and beat the rush. After the last crop failure ( a year ago? Two? ), I warned everyone. And then, wheat prices came down. Not saying we will get as lucky this time, just use it as a warning to ALREADY be fully stocked on food. Food First.

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  7. Bison,
    Somebody recommended the writing of Philip M. Williams.
    Last evening after supper, I started his AGAINST THE GRAIN... and completed it around 3am.

    I am a Perfessional Edtior (you that read right), so I am amazed during those extremely-rare times I enjoy a tale.

    The characters in AGAINST THE GRAIN are developed as completely as any by the classical writers such as Mark Twain or Robert Heinlein.

    Literarily, each sentence leads into the next.
    Linguistically, the structure is clean and non-obstructive.

    As few chapters into AGAINST THE GRAIN, the story initiated feelings of character-driven frustration with the fictional situations and the fictional story... as though the situation was happening to me. I rarely read past 10pm, however I set AGAINST THE GRAIN aside at my usual then was too involved with the story to sleep.

    Folks, this is good writing!

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    1. Glad to hear my intuitive conclusion is backed by professional/experienced type personages. He just came out with his new one. Hurry, before his threatened price hike kicks in:
      https://amzn.to/2FjhG4w

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  8. Got Water?

    http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/supermarkets-run-out-of-water-as-cyclone-veronica-heads-to-wa/ar-BBV2WOp?ocid=ientp

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