I never worried about starving. As a child we were blessed. I remember when I was a child playing in my neighbors basement on a huge pile of potatoes. I knew people who could not pay their bills but not anyone who could not put food on the table. That is rural living. I delivered the newspaper to people who had a hard time paying for the paper but they were not starving.
I can see how city living can lead to food deserts and food insecurity. As an adult I never worried about starving because I have always practiced food storage. We have hurricanes here and you know that it is wise to have weeks or months of food stored against that occasion. I also have 100 gallons of drinking water. Not the bottled water kind the two 55 gallon drums of tap water with a little chlorine added to keep it from going bad.
I am not a real prepper just sort of a Boy Scout. You say that people living paycheck to paycheck can’t afford to build food storage. I would say they can’t afford not too. Beans and rice and pasta or ramen don’t cost much and store well. You will certainly sleep better with a food stash.
Here a rifle with some ammo, a fishing pole and hooks and you have meat. It is almost blackberry season so fruit is coming soon. I have been watching for the blossoms so I know where to pick.
I am not sure we are going to be that desperate but I have always known it was a possibility. Hand sanitizer, we have always had on hand alcohol and aloe. The aloe is from the garden and the alcohol is in three flavors, Isopropyl that my wife uses for something, the denatured alcohol I use in the shop and the Everclear in the liquor cabinet.
I have always been blessed, lucky, advantaged, whatever. Yeah, kids don’t have a lot of control of their situation and that is scary but adults?
I will share what I have to a degree but I will be picking winners and losers. I can’t help everyone, triage.
I read this:
With the mass media driving everyone into a state of hysteria
In a response to your story. I have not seen much hysteria or even panic but I do see a fair amount of overreaction. I don’t blame the media, it is the people, they need to get a grip, take a deep breath, think twice. Don’t overreact.
My wife did have a panic attack this morning. I mean a full blown, hyperventilating panic attack waking up from a nightmare. I get it, if you have underlying issues this crisis can be triggering. It already trigger a recession in a market with underlying issues. The market is overreacting as well. Markets seem to do that.
Again being a boy scout. I had sold almost all my equity investments more than a year ago. You could call me risk adverse. Prepare, be prepared and get ready.
I have been blessed, lucky, advantaged so it is easy for me to write this, I am working from home but hope I don’t need a job. If I need a job it is because my 401k, pension and social security all get wiped out. If this lasts more than a few months I am going to wish I bought more seeds to plant a bigger garden.
I really worry about the people packed into places like Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New York, New York, Washington DC., Chicago, etc. I am not really the praying sort, God already knows, I can’t tell him anything new, but for them it is in God’s hands now.
I went to the post office today. It was the first time I have been within 6 feet of a person other than my wife in days. I took our homemade hand sanitizer with me and used it twice. Ah, the cool reassurance of alcohol, I opened the doors with my foot. I am not ready for masks yet. I have them, courtesy of Katrina. After the Hurricane we got masks to protect against black mold, we practically have Haz Mat suits. Masks, faceshields, coveralls.
I don’t look forward to eating my food storage and expired MRE’s but we won’t starve for months and after that I will get me a gator and some trout. At that point I doubt the game warden will care.
Toilet paper, now really, is that what people worry about. There are so many other solutions to the dirty butt problem that who cares if there is no toilet paper in the stores.
For the next few weeks I don’t care what is or is not in the stores I don’t plan on going in one. Talk to me in a month, I may feel differently.
Worried yes, panicked, no.
TEK
