Guns in Get Home Bags and Long guns in Vehicles

I caught part of a discussion on guns in get home bags the other day. In general for the purposes of getting home I think whatever your normal carry piece [you do carry a gun right? I do not mean some ultra compact .32 but a decent fighting handgun you can hit stuff with, right?] is sufficient and a couple extra reloads are a sound idea. If you do not carry a gun then having one in your kit is a good idea because it is difficult to shoot somebody without a gun. In a scenario where you are headed home in a unorganized fashion, possibly on foot due to who knows what being able to shoot somebody could come in handy.

To me the ideal gun for this situation is a compact or full sized pistol, whichever you prefer and have anyway. Glock 19/17, a 4” .357 or a 1911 or whatever else suits your fancy it doesn’t matter. Personally I would have a Glock 19 because I like them. The point of this handgun is to let you defend yourself from an immediate personal threat while you are driving, walking or whatever home if things get wonky.
Unless you work/ travel so far from home that you can’t make it on an MRE and a handful of granola bars, and that area is rural I don’t see a need to have a .22 or something to hunt small game with. On the other hand if I lived and traveled long distances in rural Alaska or the real isolated parts of the West I would have a rifle capable of taking large game, a .22 and whatever pistol I was carrying in addition to my other supplies. In my opinion with the exception for long distances (say 100 miles plus) in seriously rural areas a get home kit doesn’t need anything except your normal carry pistol.

Now we will move on to the topic of guns in vehicles. For pistols I can sum it up in one sentence, better than the nightstand but nowhere near as good as the waistband. There is one exception. A friend of mine carried a Walther PPK/S and kept a Browning High power in his car just in case. Not a bad way to go all things considered, especially if you won’t carry the bigger gun.

For long guns it is not as simple. Long guns in vehicles can have two good roles: rural work tasks and opportunity hunting or disasters\ civil disorder. Rural work tasks and hunting is pretty much self explanatory. A rancher with a coyote problem keeping his .22-250 in the truck to take a shot when he gets a chance or a guy putting his rifle in the truck during hunting season in case he has a slow afternoon at work and can skip out, etc.

Disasters that are bad enough that (or happen in a way especially unlucky for you where) they will prevent you from immediately going home are where these long guns come to shine in my opinion. If you happened to be visiting a cousin at the start of the LA Riots or Katrina an AK or a pump shotgun with a few hundred rounds in the car would be awful handy. Also it would be good for a Zombie apocalypse.

The biggest issue of this plan is if you have to move on foot. The places where it is socially acceptable to walk down the side of the road with a rifle are not ones likely to have traffic which would impede vehicular traffic.  Walking out of the nearest town with a mall carrying a rifle is going to lead to interaction with the cops and quite possibly incarceration. For laymen that is really bad. Zombie apocalypse excluded all the situations which would require you to move home on foot that I can think of offhand are not ones where a rifle at low ready would work.

That would leave you with two options. Have a long gun you can conceal somehow or leave it behind. I don’t know about you but leave it behind is not a great option to me. For concealing it an SBR would be perfect but that has its own issues. Something with a folding stock also has a lot of promise. An AK with a folding stock gets pretty small as does Mini 14 or really anything else with a 16-18 in barrel and no stupid AR buffer tube. It wouldn’t be the fastest to bring to bear but you shouldn’t need it and you’ve got a pistol for that anyway.

I would bear in mind that this long gun (a shotgun could do fine too if you are so inclined) stands a higher than normal likelihood of being stolen as it will live in your vehicle. Along those lines if you can’t afford to lose it then don’t keep it in the car. I had one rifle it would not pull full time trunk duty but that is just me. This is a great place for a backup rifle or a second or third of a kind weapon.

Personally I do not see a reason at this point to keep a long gun in my vehicle all the time. I bring one if I am going far from home or out into the woods. Needless to say guns need bullets so bring plenty of those too. 4-5 magazines and 200-300 rounds seems reasonable to me. In writing this I realize I should add a decent system to carry those magazines on me and a small cleaning kit.

Thoughts?

Best Is The Enemy Of Good Enough

This post is sort of a progression of my recent post “The Economy of Everything” where I talk about making choices about how to use time and money. Most of us have probably heard the phrase I used as the title to this post ‘best is the enemy of good enough.’ What it means is that we can, in our search for the perfect answer or solution get a sort of paralysis and miss out on an answer that is completely sufficient. Another way to say it is, better a good answer right now than a perfect one in the future.

Like most things this is a trade off. The trick is to know if you are making a good trade or not. That is what I want to talk about today.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what best is. Best would be the perfect plan or gadget or completely mastering a skill or craft. Now figuring out what good enough is can be more problematic.  This is going to make the bulk of today’s post.

To me good enough would typically have most of the traits of best but be significantly easier to execute or obtain. Meaning it takes less time, money or effort to execute than the best solution but has most of its characteristics. Typically I would move towards the best solution incrementally until I was close to it in characteristics then go until I hit a noticeable point of diminished returns. At some point the increased payout stops being worth the return.  Example, one might decide that a Daniels Defense rifle is the best solution out there but a Bushmaster will do most of what the DD rifle does for much less money.

I think the combination of characteristics and cost which is used to informally figure when that point of diminished returns is hit can vary by individual. Mostly the cost, characteristics are more objective. The time and energy one person needs to acquire or maintain a capability may vary significantly from another. Some folks can work out 3 times a week and be in good shape and others can’t.

 Also the relative cost is different. One of my single co workers might be able to spend 2 hours every evening at the gym learning boxing or just getting into stupidly good shape. I have a wife and kid so I plan three 45 minute gym sessions and try to do them at lunch. Would I be in better shape if I worked out for 2 hours every evening, sure (overtraining and efficiency are another post) but the cost is too high for me so I make do with less time.

I do think it is worth remembering that characteristics are a significant part of this trade off and not just cost. Otherwise it can get silly and you miss the point. This has been used to justify definitely sub optimal equipment, bad training plans, lack of physical fitness and probably some other stuff. A Mosin Nagant is a good rifle for what it (not a good rifle 80 years ago) is but it is not a semi automatic rifle with detachable magazines. Even though it is cheap there is a definite limit to what dinking around with your buddies at the public range will do for your skill development. Doing a few pushups and sit-ups now and then will not give you the strength that lifting free weights will and walking is at best a sub optimal substitute for running or rucking. When cost is your only consideration the answers usually suck.  I think common sense needs to be present to keep these tradeoffs realistic.

Thoughts?

Picture of the Day

Happy Thanksgiving

Well it is Turkey Day. This is the second time I have spent Thanksgiving in a war zone. The first was a lot easier, maybe in part because of the rose colored glasses of time but mostly because missing my wife and kid is very different from the rents, siblings, extended family and friends.It was as good of a day as it could be. The dining hall did a bang up job. They had everything I wanted and it was all great. Things were pretty quiet and I got to do some reading which was nice.

I have been thinking about what I am thankful for. I am thankful that we aren't worried about keeping a roof over our heads, buying groceries and other basic things. I am thankful that we are able to have Wifey stay at home with Walker. I am also thankful that they are home with family. She gets a bit of help with kiddo when she needs it and if anything happens I know they are in the best place they can be. That is a huge thing off my mind while I am over here. I am also thankful for preparedness books in kindle format, gymnastics rings, bumper plates, crocks, lightweight boots that you can run in, one point adjustable slings, pmag's and my snuggie. Yes, you heard that right I have a snuggie in Afghanistan and it is great.

Well I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Enjoy great food and drink and time with family. Who knows what can happen by this time next year.

The Family Unit

I've been reading a lot over the past month and a half or so. The way things have worked out I have started and gotten well into 3 books. I will finish them up in no particular order and then write about them. However that is not the point so to be honest I am not sure why I'm talking about it. Anyway I have been thinking a lot about the family unit lately. Mostly as a financial and decision making unit. The family unit means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To most of America and Western Europe the typical family is a couple and their youthful offspring, the nuclear family if you will. In some cultures (Hispanic, South Asian and some others) a 3 generation household is the norm. In Africa as well as some other areas it is quite normal for what we westerners would consider a successful family reunion living under the same roof or in immediate proximity. I am going to use the term family to describe a group of people, generally related to each other in some fashion that lives together and at least in some respects makes economic decisions together. It could be a pair of lesbians, two adopted children, a lifetime bachelor brother and a monkey (beware, monkeys do not have souls and are NOT TO BE TRUSTED); the point is that is more about self identification than outside viewpoints. The family is so incredibly powerful yet we often fail to recognize it's potential, let alone capitalize fully on it. It is powerful for so many reasons I don't think I could list let alone discuss them all. The ones that immediately come to mind are cultural, lifestyle and financial. In terms of culture the family is probably the lowest practical level where culture is imparted upon children. It is also in many ways the most significant method of transmitting culture because young children spend (or should spend) most of their most key developmental time with their family. Even once kids go to school or otherwise get further out into the world they go there with the framework taught by their family. From religion to the way we treat others to financial habits. We reinforce the values we consider important through lessons and first hand observations. Want a family member to have good habits, teach and then model them. Lifestyle is a huge one. Probably bigger than values because while values are largely at least regional in character and it is just a question of how successfully they are passed on and 'stick'. Lifestyle is however more mucky. Things like where the family lives, what kind of residence they live in, who works and how they work, how they recreate and such. Come to think of it lifestyle and financial blend so much together that they are difficult to discuss separately. This is I think the area where many people and their families have issues.

Not much significant stuff happens in terms of lifestyle without everybody, or at least every contributing member on board. That is just the cold hard truth and there is really no way around it. To those who have problems in this area I wish I had some more positive stuff to tell people who are having issues. Probably the biggest thing I have to offer is a reminder that you need to remember to get THE FAMILY on the same page not to get the family onto your page. Yeah I am talking to you big macho man or all powerful priestess woman. I am saying that while you are thinking about how to get everyone to do exactly what you want you need to be thinking about finding a plan that everyone truly supports. This might be a tough pill to swallow. However I urge you to remember that if there is no consensus NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN! So it isn't that you are missing out on everything you want but that you are getting some of what you want. Also this is a great place to bring up that at the end of the day family, at least in the context I am talking about is a voluntary organization. Hopefully you are prudent and choose a partner (or partners) who have a big picture vision that is similar to yours. Be it having children, choosing where and how to live or whatever if everyone isn't on the same page there is going to be trouble. It is easy enough to buy both grape and strawberry jelly but you can't simultaneously live in an apartment uptown and a rural cabin. Some visions are mutually incompatible and well, that is a tough nut to crack. However once you find a vision that everybody is on board with it is easy to work towards and achieve that goal. Doing what is necessary to meet big goals is certainly possible and relatively easy when the family works together. Taking the hard steps like slashing living expenses, living below your means, aggressively paying down debt, moving to a single income family and moving to an area which better suits your desires (more conservative, more rural, whatever) are possible in a climate where the whole family is working together. Instead of working at cross purposes or muddling the waters everyone is working hard, saving and doing everything necessary to meet the goal.

Money is just an easy area to apply this to. Storing what you eat and eating what you store is another one, quadruply so if the spouse is the primary cook.

I can not emphasize highly enough that you need to get the whole family on board.

Student Loan Repayment Forgiveness

Ever have one of those moments where you think “if this passes I may buy a hoodie and a bandana and  start a firebombing campaign?” Well I just had one. 

The topic of student loan repayment forgiveness came up on the TV. I was immediately filled with rage.  Why was I filled with rage you might ask? I was filled with rage because I busted my butt to pay off my student loan. I ended up borrowing about the average amount because, despite coming in with a wad of cash and producing some income while I was there the numbers didn’t work. I could have lived cheaper (I’m substantially better with money now) but didn’t do anything completely crazy. We made the normal payments for a couple years as we got our stuff together financially.

Establishing our emergency fund happened to occur roughly when I got a promotion. We started making big (like 1/3rd of my take home pay) payments and over about a year got it paid off. That really sucked. We lived really cheap and could not do some things we wanted to do. It was a big sacrifice for us to pay it off that fast but we wanted to be done, partially to save on interest but mostly so we could finally be debt free and able to aim a lot of money towards our next goal, home ownership.

Did getting student loans work out for me? Yes it did. I have a college degree and a good job. I could have borrowed a bit less and lived cheaper but there is nobody to blame but my own self for that one.
As for student loans on the whole; It is worth noting that my generation are receiving far fewer grants and costs are much higher than when previous generations pursued higher education. Forcing colleges to get their costs under control would be worthwhile though it might mean *gasp* cutting needless admin positions, making being a professor a bit less cushy, not constantly building new stuff to then tear down perfectly functional old stuff, etc. We are really getting a raw deal but I definitely do not let the 22-30 year old age group get off blame free.

Despite their intelligence and behavior on pretty much every front, legally speaking 18 year olds are adults.  That means they can make adult choices, almost always stupid ones. College is a great experience in a lot of ways but at the end you need to be able to get a job. Getting a degree in underwater basket weaving is stupid.  Going to an expensive private college to get a degree in education or communications or some social science is not necessary, and if you are financing it via student loans it is downright stupid. A beginning teacher making 32k a year or so can’t afford big student loan payments.

Student loan forgiveness is a big gripe of the “99%” crowd. I have absolutely no sympathy that the choices they made did not work out well. Mostly I think we will find the ones who are in real trouble made stupid choices. While I do think that structural changes (controlling costs mostly, along with schools helping kids not being pimps for the loan industry) should occur they do not absolve individuals of responsibility.

Leveraging Experts

One thing that has worked very well for me in life is seeking out and taking the advice of experts in various fields. I would not be where I am in numerous areas without these folks. I have been able to get new ideas, bounce my plans and ideas off of them and generally leverage their experience in a certain field to my benefit.  There are folks I talk to about money, folks I talk to about tools or home repair or computer stuff or taxes. Some are friends, family or neighbors and others are in a more professional capacity.

It goes without saying that these folks excel, at least relatively, in the area in which I seek their guidance. The person I consult on financial stuff is loaded (despite never having a massive salary), and the guy I listen to on strength stuff is really strong, the guys I listen to on defensive stuff are folks I really would not want to fight. Get the idea?

It never ceases to amaze me when people look to someone else who is not good (or great) at something for advice. How some somebody going to help you get good at something when they are not excelling in that area? Maybe more significantly why in heavens name would you listen to them? A friend of mine used to always try and give me financial advice. His history read much more like a cautionary tale than a financial success, I wasn’t rude but I certainly didn’t follow it! When fat people try to give me diet advice I have to bite my tongue or leave to avoid openly mocking them.

In recent years the internet was really democratized information. Instead of just being able to talk to people you personally know or buying a book you can (via blogs and websites and forums) hear the opinions of all sorts of people. Want to hear a 40 year old mom from Peduke, Iowa’s opinions on finances or a 23 year old guy from California’s thoughts on weight training? You can do that.

The big issue with this wealth of information is that there are a bunch of totally unqualified people giving advice which is often wrong or misleading or even dangerous. (Yeah it is ironic that I write this on my blog) Total beginners giving other beginners advice is a huge problem, particularly in forums. All sorts of massive problems stem from this.

So how do we sift the wheat from the chaff? The first thing I can say is to really listen to people, especially when they talk about themselves. I have found that most people are generally honest online (at least on forums and blogs that are based around specific things like fitness, self defense, guns, finances, etc) and the ones who aren’t are so stupid it is easy to tell. It isn’t beginners portraying their selves as something else and other beginners following their lead; it is self described beginners giving their opinion and other beginners taking it. It is worth noting that I do frequent numerous blogs and am on a couple forums now and then. I find them useful. I tend to lean toward paying more attention to concrete individual reviews, reports or experiences than people’s broad ideas. How easy is it to make this modification or does this product suck sort of things. A guy who has put this pouch onto that chest rig and had issues is talking about something he personally experienced. I don’t care what he thinks is a perfect load out rig or zombie killing gun.  Often I will find someone else has already asked a question and gotten it answered or I can find something similar. The best is when I find something a few months old where one person gave another advice and they had time to try it and come back and say how it worked.

Also educating yourself on a topic through a variety of resources which you know are legitimate. I have found that with some basic knowledge in an area I can smell bad ideas and BS in a given area easily. Certainly long before I fully understand the topic or have mastered it. Do however beware of confirmation bias which is where we seek out experts whose ideas totally mesh with the ones we have which makes them validate our original beliefs, sort of “yes experts” if you will.

Do you leverage experts in your life? If not I would consider it.

Appendix Carry Two

After some more time carrying appendix I agree with my initial assessment that I like it. It is a wicked fast draw, especially from realistic un tucked shirt concealment and the security/ awareness is great also. On the couple occasions I found it to be getting uncomfortable it was because my belt was a little bit too loose, which is my own fault.

I did find that when I bend over to pick something up I need to bend down more instead of at the waist because there is a gun there. Not a big thing though and I got used to it easy enough. I found it reasonably comfortable when seated and drawing effectively would not be an issue which can’t be said of strong side hip or SOB.

Carrying a spare mag in the cargo pocket of my weak side worked fine. I meant to order a concealable single mag pouch to try out while I was home but it did not happen. No biggie though.

I was initially worried that I wasn’t quite skinny enough for AIWB carry but that proved to be a non issue. I would say that if you are of a reasonably healthy weight it is a realistic method of carry. Worst case it could be a good motivation to get down to a reasonable weight which you should be doing anyway.
This will be my method of concealed carry for the foreseeable future.

A Mans Got To Know His Limitations

To steal the classic line from Inspector Callahan, a man has got to know his limitations. This would be the sum of his capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and intelligence. Today I want to talk about the mental side of this. Most specifically two questions I think we all need to get at least partially answered in our heads.

-What are you capable of?
Under what conditions are you capable of it?
For me the question of what would I am capable of is easy. Just about anything.  I wouldn’t sacrifice somebody close to me to save my life, I know that. I don’t think I would eat people. However in the right (probably better termed wrong but you know what I mean) scenario nothing else comes to mind that I would totally rule out.

Under what condition I would do these things is a significantly more complicated topic.
The immediate security and survival of my family and tribe is an easy one. I would lie, cheat, steal, injure, or kill my fellow man if I had to. I’ve seen the pictures of those poor starving African kids and that is not happening to Walker or anybody else I love as long as I am alive and able to do something. I would do terrible things to protect them.
 (Of course I put a lot of time, energy and money into avoiding a scenario where I would need to steal from or otherwise impose on or harm my fellow man. I try to keep what we would need on hand and probably have something to trade for unexpected needs.)

Begin Tangent- This is worth noting because I do not think I am alone here. Most folks will do about whatever it takes to survive. It is just that some like me are a bit more aware of it. There are lots of these folks in America and just by the numbers a good chunk of them will have guns. If things get real bad a good chunk of the others will get guns. You had better be darn ready to fight to keep whatever you have. End Tangent.
Beyond that fairly narrow set of circumstances it gets a lot more complicated and my answers are less certain. I have read or heard about some scenarios other talking heads think may come to pass. What I would do in some of these situations is something I think about every once in awhile. My only conciliation is that the scenarios which give me trouble are not the sort where immediate action would be required. Thus I could take my time (certainly days and probably weeks) and think it over and come to a conclusion if they actually do come to pass. 

Knowing what you are capable of is important for numerous reasons. The first that comes to mind is so you can mitigate the effects of your weak points. The second is so that you can avoid putting yourself into situations you don’t think you can handle.

Note: I used the masculine gender because it fit with the cool old movie line. You gal's had better get right with this stuff also.

Tribal Thoughts

The concept of intentional survivalist groups has always kind of bothered me. First it makes me wonder about people. Why is this person’s primary plan to abandon everyone they know to go live with strangers? Also furthermore I am paranoid and distrustful. The idea to have your plans for a worst case scenario be to come together with a bunch of people who supposedly have stuff in common with you that you met on the internet does not sit well with me. Some folks have end of the world plans with people that are not, to me, sufficient to let them watch the cats over a long weekend. Personally I find trust way more important than skills or whatnot. My father or friend might not be the perfect end of the world survivalist type but I’m not going to wake up to my throat being slit.

In any case I find the concept of a tribe a lot more natural. A tribe is, in this context as coined (IIRC) by the good folks at Western Rifle shooters a sort of clumping of people based upon family, pre existing friendships and maybe some intentional choices. It is more a selection of people already in your life than a group of random strangers. The downside of tribes is that they are, on average, probably a lot less paranoid than you are. This means they are less likely to take preparedness seriously and put in serious energy and resources. Not a big deal if there is a Doomer Daddy Warbucks but that scenario is few and far between and does not apply in my case.

Here are some effective ways I have influenced my tribe:
-Positive modeling has worked well. It works well especially when it comes to people who look up to you and or respect you. Showing a way other than living on credit, getting your financial house in order, using food storage as a way to take advantage of sales and decrease your food costs as well as for emergencies, etc. I have done surprisingly well with this one.

-Teachable moments. When it comes up naturally you can give some advice or share experiences you have had/ techniques you use that are relevant. My folks went to pick up a few things (primarily a ham I believe) at the store during one of our annual PNW ice storms. They were not taking cards and luckily somebody had a checkbook. I mentioned that it is prudent to keep a couple of hundred bucks in small bills on hand for these eventualities. Also that lead naturally into talking about how wonderful a well stocked pantry is.

-Teach/ expose people to things. Take someone shooting. Teach someone how to use hand tools or do auto maintenance. Whatever it is that you know and they want to know teach them. This is also a very effective one because it helps build relationships and credibility in that area and others. It is also a good way to lead to new teachable moments.

What does not work:
-Paranoid ramblings or rants. These just do not work. Best case you are preaching to the converted and worst case you look like a loon and lose credibility.

-Being pushy. Nobody likes being told what to do. If somebody asks your thoughts on how to survive the zombie apocalypse then tell them, otherwise stick to the topic being discussed.

How have you been successful (or not successful) in influencing your tribe?

I Can Haz Economic Recovery

I heard on the news today that our economic recovery is at risk. I wondered what that guy was smoking and if it showed up on drug tests. Unemployment is around 10%, real inflation (I don’t know about you but I can’t magically factor out food, housing  and energy) is nipping away at purchasing power, home prices are down and the markets are painfully in the hole.

Granted the economy is a complicated thing so it is best judged by a broad variety of indicators. To be blunt I would say that finding any indicator that is positive would be difficult and even then it would be an exception proves the rule sort of situation.

In normal people’s lives unemployment, followed by inflation (maybe inflation would go after home prices as home prices trickle into a lot of things but I went inflation first because most people are not buying or selling a home at any given time), followed by home prices and then the market are probably the indicators that matter the most.

Come to think of it the only really positive thing I have heard anybody say about our economy in some time is that it is probably a buying opportunity for real estate and stocks.

The phrase “don’t piss down my back and tell me it is raining” comes to mind.

How To Pay For All This Stuff

Survivalism and preparedness (it’s friendly, better spoken non camouflage wearing cousin) involve a lot of stuff. Even if you take a relatively middle of the road view you are talking about all kinds of gear, several firearms with lots of mags, ammo and spare parts, a bunch of stocked fuel and lots and lots of food. How do you pay for all this stuff?

Well the first and least socially acceptable solution is to have a real job that earns a decent living. It is not socially acceptable because Americans have this weird taboo about talking money. We have our middle class myth and are sticking to it. If you make the choice to get a job with an average or above average income you get some flexibility; more flexibility than say, being a part time employee at Walmart.

The next option is to live simply. Some of the most well prepared individuals I know earn average, or slightly below average incomes. However they do not buy new cars all the time or live in huge extravagant houses or always have new newest consumer electronics. They tend to shop sales and forgo a lot of consumer trappings. By living below their means they can afford things they could not otherwise.

Next comes prioritization. When something is important to you it is amazing how much more likely it is to happen. Pick up side work, go out and hustle (not illegal stuff but side work, deals, etc), scrimp and save. There are numerous times I have bought the next important item on my list with a wad of wrinkled fives and tens I saved over a period of months. I saved that cash by working more and doing without all sort of small things or substituting cheaper items (going to Jack in the Box instead of someplace nicer, etc).

Lastly be sure to take a long view. Like building physical fitness or financial health preparedness is a true multiyear effort. Unless you are truly wealthy and dedicated getting all of the “stuff” is going to take time.

Economy of everything, This or That

There are few bad hobbies or skills. For example if somebody came up to me and said that they could teach me to speak and write Russian like a native, master marine biology with an emphasis in tropical turtles and play the violin instantaneously (matrix/ terminator style) of course I would say yes. I don’t particularly want to do any of these things and would probably never pursue them on my own but if it was free and easy why not.  However as we all know life does not work that way.

We only have limited amounts of most important things like time, money, energy, mental effort, etc. Not fixed parse (except time) but certainly limited. This means that in a practical sense every time you choose to do something you are by default choosing to not do, or stop doing something else.

A dollar spent on preps cannot be put into savings and cannot buy you a McDonalds double cheeseburger or be given to charity. Time spent at work can’t be (unless you are a bad employee or work in a similar field) used to research or pursue your newest preparedness project. You get the idea.

The thing is that in the beginning it is easy to just add things and fat slips away. An hour in the gym instead of in front of the tv or a few bucks spent on food storage instead of ordering a pizza, etc. However pretty quickly the far is gone and that is where it gets interesting and you have to start really making choices. Should you spent Tuesday evenings learning to kickbox, canning food or building a recession proof home business?
I have come to learn recently that in trying to do everything, sometimes we get nothing done. Either our efforts are so split that any progress is negligible, we work at cross purposes or burn ourselves out and as a result do nothing. We need to choose what relatively few things are most important and focus  on them. Sometimes we can become more efficient at something and incorporate it into our everyday efforts, food rotation is a great example of this one. Some other things can be done and effectively marked off the list when they move to the maintenance phase. Firearms acquisitions and basic (or by all means beyond if you want) training. Once you have your desired arms and stored ammo, mags, etc and the know how to use them the maintenance of hitting the range monthly (weekly, bi monthly, whatever you decide works) and doing some cleaning now and then  is a very different burden of time and money than the acquisitions plase.

I think we have to really strip it down to look at what is important. First it makes sense to look at what you need to survive and thrive. This means having the skills and education to earn a good living and support for family comfortably. This means having the skills and capabilities for self protection and survival. This means building and maintaining healthy relationships with people important to you. Next come things that interest you and give you happiness.

Maybe you want to do some sort of personal plan or something, I don’t know. However I do know that when we identify what is important we also by default identify what is not so important. Unless it really makes you happy then don’t bother to grow an herb garden or master a martial art, learn ham radio or play a musical instrument.

Crazy Market and Appetite for Risk

I bought a little bit of silver about a week back. I was happy that spot was down a buck, since then spot is down another 9 dollars. I sure bet right on that one. It is probably a nice “dip” if you didn’t blow your wad a week ago like I did. Stocks are down significantly as well. I think it is pretty apparent that Europe is nowhere near done with its fiscal troubles and a Greek default is getting more and more likely.
I don’t know what will happen but we are probably in for a wild ride.

Interestingly I bought stocks awhile back. I do not regret that decision. On the long timeline I am looking at stocks are probably (more so in certain areas) a bargain. However in the short run I do not have a clue what is going to happen. Interestingly a co worker recently bought a bunch of stock on credit in the last couple of days. He figured they will bounce back and he will make some easy money. I wish the guy the best.
That got me to thinking about appetite for risk. There is of course a definite relationship between risk and reward or more accurately put potential for rewards. Also leverage (which we normal people call debt) lets you theoretically raise profits and when it works well it works very well indeed. However when it works badly things come crashing down like a house of cards. Instead of your plan going to heck, your plan goes to heck and now you have to service this debt.

I hesitate to say what is right or wrong for anybody. It depends almost entirely on what you are comfortable with.  I’ve heard it said that if something will leave you up worrying at night you should not put money into it and that makes sense. There is definitely a human component there. I have some appetite for risk as I invest in stocks and relatively more risky areas like energy and in developing markets. However I do it with cash, cash that while it would not be ideal I can afford to lose. Worst case if I take a big hit (especially now while we are relatively young) we call it an expensive lesson and move on.  Personally for me it is about a specific pool of money for a specific thing.  Also since we have some of our bases covered by putting some money away for emergencies and not having debt we have more options and can afford to put money toward something with an element of risk. The money we need to feed ourselves if my income is disrupted is not sitting in some stock that might be wildly down (or up) at any given time.

Picture of the Day

When the news guys talk about those big numbers it sounds made up to me. Sort of like a kid on the playground yelling "I hate you a gazillion" to another kid. Broken down into numbers that make sense and equate to a family budget it is quite scary.

Book Review Lights Out by David Crawford

I am a bit tired and kind of out of it so if this post is a bit more disorganized and erratic than usual that is why. This book follows a middle aged man, his friends, family and neighbors through a grid down (EMP) event. The setting is Texas and while they don’t get into exact dates it occurs in contemporary times. Now we will go on to the usual format for these things.

The Good: This book was quite entertaining. I read it over the course of a couple days and was quite drawn into it. The story line was interesting, the characters believable and the plot (except parts we will discuss later) was generally realistic. The characters in the book were not some super hero’s (at least for the most part) who had seemingly been training their whole lives for the Zombie Apocalypse but average folks with an average range of skills.

I also appreciate that a lot of the “action” was in and around vehicles. This is quite realistic as well, that is how Americans get around (and will unless there is no fuel) so it is worth thinking how you would fight out of a civilian vehicle (vs a HMMWV or MRAP or Bradley with a crew served weapon and armored frame). Food for thought.

I really liked that the author did not get sucked into it being a walking product advertisement for his favorite kit, firearms, etc. Especially in the area of firearms this was noticeable. Different characters had different preferences and aside from generic observations such as semi automatic rifles are better for defense than bolt and lever guns, .308’s are good at punching holes in stuff, etc there were no caliber/ weapons platform soap box moments. Also there was never a moment where only a whiz banger 72 with a XXXX optic, YYY bullets and numerous other specific accessories (all of which the main character happened to have, how lucky) fit the bill and perfectly carried the situation. That was a breath of fresh air from other survivalist fiction.
The book also had some good ideas about getting organization going among a group of people in a disaster situation. Nothing revolutionary or new parse but some of the incidents that happen would make for interesting “what would you do” vignettes or discussion questions. The old leadership trick of convincing people that what you want them to do is their own idea came up more than a couple times.

The Bad: Early on and even throughout the book it was awful hard to keep track of the characters. I think that they were a little too shallow in developing them or maybe they exposed too many too fast, I am not sure. At one point just into the book I thought there was some swinging action going on between the two sets of main characters then I realized I couldn’t keep track of them. Maybe the fact that I haven’t slept much lately made that worse. In any case I decided to stop trying as it wasn’t really significant any way and just went with it.

The Ugly: 3 things stuck out as downright ugly and I will go through them in the order they appeared in the book.

First the way things go down the main characters do the vast majority of their preparing after an EMP goes off and kills the grid. They were able to keep going to the grocery store, which was being restocked, for a prolonged period of time which allowed them to stock up on staple foods. Also they were able to acquire a wide variety of different things during this timeframe. How exactly that situation would develop could be debated but this seems idealistic. I suspect it is a way to show how they became prepared and it allowed the main characters to not be hard core survivalists (though they were tactically trained and hunters, with solid gun collections which is not totally unusual but still a bit convenient) but also not starve to death.

Furthermore going along with this they were able to pay cash for items which I suspect would become very valuable very quickly like seeds, ammo, fencing supplies, etc. Again it was necessary for the book to work but still awful convenient and potentially misleading. I don’t know that things would go all Mad Max overnight (at least outside of massive urban centers) but I lean towards a more restricted supply situation a la Jericho or maybe One Second After. To his credit the author did work in how it would have been a lot more convenient for them to get this stuff earlier a few times but this whole part was just unbelievable to me. I had to ignore it to continue reading and enjoying the book.

Second I think this book might have been edited by the ACLU and some sort of womens rights group prior to publication. The main characters paused regularly to discuss feminist views and worry about women’s rights. When they were making committees for different areas one woman demanded that a woman be put onto a committee based solely on gender. We will call this gal Quota Girl. Quota girl somehow ended up in charge of all kinds of stuff for her “organizational abilities” and to be honest it just made me sick. They were more concerned with her feelings than having things work well. Also Quota Girl did no actual work and was a huge pain in the butt to the men she supervised who actually did work.

Furthermore I the author clearly made an intentional effort to have a nice, positive character portrayed in a great light of every reasonable ethnicity you could think of. It was ridiculous. Even more disturbingly all bad people were either race neutral or white guys of rural backgrounds. I’m not saying us honkey’s aren’t capable of some bad things but shoving every evil deed in a book off onto us is a bit much.

Lastly there was a classic hypocrisy when it comes to other peoples stuff. Call it theft, spoils of war, whatever but the main characters talk about how they respect everyones right to property and chastise minor characters for considering to acquire anything but then take all sorts of stuff they happen to find. There was some minimal justification but it was a load of BS, the least authors could do is have their characters own up to and be honest about their actions. Even more ridiculous the main characters go to great lengths to vilify bad guys for their treatment of people and then use them as slaves. This was just nuts.

These criticisms aside I did enjoy the book and get some things out of it. Made me think a lot about my current priorities and shift some things around a bit. I would recommend it but would suggest you scheme to avoid paying full price.

Back To The Stan

They say all good things must come to an end and at least that is true with leave. R and R was great. I got to spend a lot of time (minus a trip or two to the store all of it) with Wifey and Walker. Walker is a totally different kid and a complete riot. I caught up with my family and saw almost all of the friends in that area.
We got to take a scenic drive and stay in a great place for several days which was awesome. I ate and drank everything I wanted to so no complaints on that front. I accomplished my modest preparedness goal which was good also.

Now it is back to work. On the bright side I took leave late in the deployment so at least the end is somewhere in sight. I am eager to get back to the track and weight pile but other than that the only thing I am looking forward to is leaving this country and getting back to my family.

As Wifey noted having two stay at home parents is really the way to go. However the economics of that are to say the least difficult as we do not want to stay at home parents in a tent in a national forest. Our hopes in that department rest on winning multi millions in the lottery and since I do not buy lottery tickets and Wifey rarely does (less than $20 a year) the odds of that one are slim. Oh well I guess you can always dream.