Workday EDC

Monday through Friday I play the part of the urban professional, and I have had to adjust my everyday carry in consideration of the office environment and the likelihood of going through metal detectors and being subject to security restrictions several times a day.

The above photo shows my everyday carry items during the workweek, from left to right:

My keys, with my travel/motor club registration and a P38 can opener.

My trusty pen, mightier than the sword during the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

MXDL AAA LED twisty flashlight.

BIC lighter.  For my smokes, burning off stray threads, many other uses.

Large and small paperclips that I keep in my wallet, handy for a lot of uses including opening a stuck CD-ROM drive.

Small sewing kit that I keep in my wallet for sewing on buttons, mending tears in clothing.

Zenolite 2x2016 LED flashlight.

Minichamp Swiss Army knife.

Thumbdrive (will vary depending upon what cases I'm working on).

Pocket flosser/toothpick.  Not just for teeth.  The pick end is handy for cleaning small items.

Not shown:  I invariably have a paper towel wadded up in my pocket.

On the weekends and other days off I add a few more items, such as a larger knife, a multi-tool, my pistol, and a spare magazine.

A Little Prep Shopping Yesterday

I make a point of buying some prep items a couple of times a month. Mostly long term food storage. I have purchased from Emergency Essentials and Honeyville Grain on a semi-regular basis, but I try to limit those purchases to things that are not readily available in my area.

For example, I have not found an economical source for freeze-dried foods. So I have purchased freeze dried fruits and vegetables from Emergency Essentials and Honeyville. Same with flavored textured vegetable protein.

Some dehydrated foods and dry foods I have been able to find locally. Split peas, beans, and rice are the obvious dry foods available locally. I have also noticed that some supermarkets are expanding their bulk foods areas, and that some of the bulk foods are dehydrated and dry foods ideal for prep storage.

I was at Fred Meyer (division of Kroger) the other day and looked at the bulk foods. Normally I only go near this area to get a bag of mixed nuts or macadamias. I noticed that Freddy's had hard red wheat berries for 92 cents a pound. This compared favorably to the price from some online sources, which is $1.00 a pound, and up. 92 cents a pound for wheat berries still seemed a little much to me, especially when compared to the price of flour at less than 50 cents a pound.

The Spokane area has at least half a dozen grocery store chains, including Safeway, Albertsons, Yoke's, Rosauers, Super One, Fred Meyer, Walmart, and Winco. Winco is a relative newcomer to our area, and has stores in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and California. It is like grocery shopping in a warehouse. The prices are usually better than other stores, but one must suffer the inconvenience of the cattle-call mentality and bagging one's own groceries. I limit myself to one trip or so per month to avoid the aggravation.

Winco has a large bulk foods section. I found hard red wheat berries for 42 cents a pound. Thirty pounds plus the bucket and mylar bag runs about 19 dollars. Yellow popcorn was 64 cents a pound, so thirty pounds and the bucket/bag runs about 26 dollars. Winco also has about three kinds of dehydrated potatoes, five or more kinds of rice, a variety of other grains, and peas, beans, and pastas. They also have bulk sauce mixes, seasonings, and spices, for which my smaller mylar bags and plastic coffee cans will be ideal.

One interesting find was dried tomatoes. These are not dried in the sense of dehydrated to a near crisp, but are more like sun dried tomatoes. I figure that they are too gooey to put into long-term storage, but are treated for spoilage with sulfur dioxide. I bought a pound (at $3.90 a pound) to try drying out in the dehydrator and putting into storage. If this works I will buy more, as tomatoes are a necessity for pasta sauces, chili, and soups.

If the tomatoes are successful I may try this with dried fruits like pineapple, apples, strawberries, and cherries.

Slowly but steadily I am working towards having my year supply of food for the family, with enough variety to eat decently and avoid appetite fatigue.

Calm Before the Storm?

Things seem to be too quiet out in the world right now, given what is going on. Could this period in time be the calm before the storm?

War between Israel and Iran/Syria/Hezbollah-Lebanon/Turkey has not erupted over the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran, despite predictions that Israel's window of opportunity closed on August 21. The Obama administration has supposedly assured Israel that Iran would need 12 months to actually fuel and arm a nuke, but who actually believes anything that comes out of the Obama administration? All parties to this in the middle east are still preparing for the possibility of war. The only wild card in my mind is what our apostate president does or does not do. The announcement that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are imminent is nothing but a diversion.

The Fed has committed to another round of quantitative easing, or monetization of federal debt. That the Fed continues to play its last weapon against economic collapse tells me that they are only buying time until the collapse. They know it is coming, we know it is coming, they are only buying enough time for their friends on Wall Street to take their money and head for the exits.

The DJIA, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 have essentially been flat all summer long. The close today is right about where it was on June 10. Sure, there have been minor ups and downs, but there is not any real movement. Not that there would be "real" movement anyways, as I have read that the stock market is pretty much driven by high frequency trading at big investment banks and that individual investors and a lot of institutional investors have fled the market. And not that the stock market is a reliable indicator of the economy in general. It might be when it finally takes the big dump, but that will be when the big boys are taking their money and checking their passports, which will be too late for any preparedness measures.

Unemployment continues to be bad news. I read that big business is essentially refusing to add employees until consumers start spending again. In a nutshell, there is nothing left to spend. Small businesses are afraid to hire, even if they could, due to uncertainty over Obamacare provisions and uncertainty in the tax code. The "Bush tax cuts" are likely to expire and a tax-hungry collectivist/redistributionist central government is hungrily eyeing the only remaining productive consitituency without representation in the White House: small business owners. No small business owner in his right mind would add to the payroll now. Looks like 10%+ official unemployment may be with us for quite a while.

Food shortages are rumored to be on the horizon. The Russians will reportedly not have sufficient harvest to feed their people. The Ugandan wheat rust has not been reported on lately, but at last report there was no known immune wheat strain and the fungus was on the move. The U.S. has no strategic wheat reserve anymore. There have also been rumors of reduced wheat harvests in parts of the U.S. and South America, and of coming rice shortages in Asia. Add to this the unknown effects of the chemicals used in the GoM oil spill upon crops in the gulf states, and the natural and government-imposed droughts in California.

There are already reports of food inflation. Jim Rawles has added a new feature on SurvivalBlog to monitor inflation, and the anectdotal reports indicate a rise in food prices. Could be inflation, could be increasing scarcity, same effect to the consumer. GrandPappy, at grandpappy.info, has kept track of inflation on food preps since early 2008, based on WalMart prices. He reports on a month-to-month basis.

Diversions are everywhere. The Obamas are on vacation number six. There may still be oil in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Gay marriage will be legal again in California. Muslims plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero. Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters are crooks. Nancy Pelosi wants to investigate us. Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and any number of celebrities have diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. Two of these are worth paying attention to, but should not distract us from our preparations.

I don't know if the end is near, a few months away, or years away. I don't even know if "the end" as in TEOTWAWKI will result in a Mad Max existence or just a permanently reduced standard of living. Will there be revolution or continued subservience to the central government? Don't know. M.D. Creekmore has a great debate going on regarding the meaning of TEOTWAWKI. The comments are closed, but run the gamut and are well worth reading for what others are thinking.

Despite all the signs of impending doom, there is a strange calm that pervades. If my father or grandfather were still alive, I would ask them how it felt in late summer 1939, or around Thanksgiving in 1941. Did they feel then as I do now? I wish I knew.

Mo'flappuh

Sorry, couldn't think of a good title. My significant other uses "mo'flappuh" as a punctuation word like some use "motherf****r". Keeps floating around in my head, so I thought I would use it. More or less just post-mini-vacation random thoughts.

I got back last night from a four day camping trip into the wilds of the Panhandle National Forest in North Idaho. Beautiful area. Not pristine, but somewhat removed from civilization. The only amenity at the campsite area is a concrete outhouse. I love the serenity of the place, and the fact that there is no cell phone reception for miles around.

I have been out of the loop for the better part of a week, as I quit keeping up on things a few days before we left on our trip. The preparation for a family camping trip is something else. I do most of the packing and preparation for the family. I tend to overpack, as I will not leave the campsite and drive back to the nearest town just because I forgot something. I also prepare for the possibility that we may be there for a couple of extra days in case something happens.

I took the opportunity to test a couple of new pieces of equipment. A lot of my preps consist of camping-type gear, stuff that can be used when there is no power, running water, etc. I will post my own reviews of these things in the next few days.

Scanning some of the news and blogs this morning, I see that the s**t keeps gradually getting deeper, while King Soetoro and the royal family keep mugging for the camera while mugging the populace. My friend in the intelligence community says that something is likely to happen prior to the "election". Looks like he may be right.

Time to get back to work. Stuff piles up around here when I am gone.

2010 Obama Stimulus Package Arrived

Just got an email from my mother-in-law:

"Check Your Mail

Just wanted to let you know - today I received my 2010 Obama Stimulus Package. It contained two watermelon seeds, cornbread mix, two dozen "Get Out of Jail Free" cards and 10 coupons to KFC. The directions were in Spanish.

Hope you get yours soon."

R.I.P. Ted Stevens (1923-2010)

The Lord has taken Ted Stevens home. The Honorable Senator Stevens represented the great State of Alaska for the vast majority of my lifetime. He died in a small plane crash in southwest Alaska while on a fishing trip. He will be sorely missed by Alaskans.

Second Fat Marxist Sow Appointed to Supreme Court

Another sad chapter in history as another Marxist obtains a lifetime license to shred the Constitution. This fat, marxist sow, Elena Kagan, can't even name the God-given rights recognized by the Declaration of Independence. Figures, since marxists are large(ly) Godless statist whores.

The following Republican senaturds should be tied to stakes and set afire with the same Constitution that they set fire to today:

Senaturd Susan Collins, R(ino)-Maine
Senaturd Lindsey "Grahamnesty" Graham, R(ino)-South Carolina
Senaturd Judd Gregg, R(ino)-New Hampshire
Senaturd Richard Lugar, R(ino)-Indiana
Senaturd Olympia Snowe(flake), R(ino)-Maine

The following Democrat senaturd should be ashamed of himself for betraying the freedom-loving, gun-toting citizens of his state:

Senaturd Mark Begich, Marxist Pig Democrat-Alaska

I mention this particular Democrat as a particularly disappointing waste of skin because my home state is Alaska. Alaskans should boil his traitorous ass in oil before lighting him up with the Constitution he set fire to. Former Senator Ted Stevens may have been corrupt, but he NEVER would have voted for a marxist sow like Kagan or the retarded Latina.

My own Senaturds, Patty "Moron in Tennis Shoes" Murray and Maria Cant(do anything)well, voted as expected, as they are stupid marxist sows themselves and are too busy giving Obama rimjobs to actually think about anything they are voting on. They don't have too much to worry about, either, since the majority of their voters are dead, undocumented, fictional, retarded, or AFSCME members (sorry, I repeated myself).

Kudos to:

Senator Scott Brown, R-MA, who managed to exorcise the demon spirit of Ted Kennedy long enough to vote "NO" on Kagan.

Senator Ben Nelson, D-NE, for taking a field trip from his special education class long enough to be the only Democrat able to pour the excrement out of his head and vote "NO" on Kagan.

To Supreme Court Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and, conditionally, Kennedy: Live long and prosper. This country needs you now more than ever.