are you F'ing kidding me?

So the republicans came up with this: $300 million to whoever builds a better battery. That is pure fucking genius. So lemme ask the question where is the money coming from? So I get to pay out of my taxes for something that the government should have been working on for 30+ years? In McCain's brilliant plan, every car made that is zero emissions gives the auto company $5,000 in tax breaks. For each car! If it's not coming from taxes then the FedGov is going to print more monopoly money to pay. Reduce corporate taxes, spend more money. That is just SUPER!

So the Saudis have played the American government like a fiddle. Bush goes in and begs for them to increase production, and they basically say "Fuck off!" Now they say they will increase production to win over the stupid people's public opinion. "Gee they are pumping more oil, why is gas still going up? Must be the Oil Companies!" Well what I see buried in the press reports is that the Saudis are pumping high-sulfur crude, which is shitty for making gas. Classic bait-and-switch.

I'm surprised that gas has not gone up more. Crude has doubled in price, but gas hasn't doubled... I need to do more poking around and see what the historic trend is between the price of crude and the price of gas. I also need to trend the price of #2 heating fuel because that is what I heat the house with. I got to polish up my crystal ball and see what we are in for this winter.

shopping today

Well the early bird gets the worm, but the early prep shopper avoids the sheeple!

I dropped $40 on 10 gallons of gas, all mixed with fuel stabilizer and carefully stashed in the garage. While shopping I got an extra 4 cans of canned chicken breast - I hate spam so I don't even bother. Bags of rice are now $30 in BJ's, they were $20 when I started. I attribute panic to the increase, along with extra fuel costs. I grabbed six of the mini propane tanks for my lanterns and camping stoves as well, and stashed them in my basement.

I swung by a local bargain store and got 100 tea light candles for $3 and 50 citronella tea light candles for another $3. Also scored a pair of swim goggles for $1 for my civil disturbance kit.

A I also picked up maps of the NE area, and a detailed Boston map and tossed it into the Mini-BOB

The local archery guy has no 3 bladed broadheads, but pushed me to buy a dozen carbon fiber arrows without tips for $120. I'll pass. I did pick up a string silencer. I'll buy 6 three bladed broadheads online, and convert 6 of my existing arrows over. I will be buying CF arrow shafts online. For the price the local shop has them I can buy them online, and a fletching jig, and do it myself and save a few $.

I am working on a post about archery. It's really big at the moment, and I need to break it up into logical sections, ad do more cleanup.

Black Flag - Rise Above

Jealous cowards try to control
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
They distort what we say
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
Try and stop what we do
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
When they can't do it themselves
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
We are tired of your abuse
Try to stop us, it's no use

Society's arms of control
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
Think they're smart, can't think for themselves
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
Laugh at us behind our backs
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
I find satisfaction in what they lack
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
We are tired of your abuse
Try to stop us, but it's no use

We are tired of your abuse
Try to stop us, it's no use

We're born with a chance
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
I am gonna have my chance
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
We are born with a chance
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
And I am gonna have my chance
Rise above, we're gonna rise above
We are tired of your abuse
Try to stop us, it's no use

Rise above
Rise above
Rise above
We're gonna rise above
We're gonna rise above
We're gonna rise above
(used without permission)

Still pertinent after all these years. I guess I'm still a punker at heart.

The Mini-BOB

Well I spent quite a bit of time going through and packing my mini-BOB. This is small enough I can carry it in my bag at work, or toss it in the truck without any trouble. Without any further adieu, here it is:
The core of this system is the fanny pack. Along with my Gerber multi-tool and the 2L camelback-clone I have 3 days of food, and a ton of water.

Now for the contents. I'm still missing a few items, which I'll go over later. The fannypack contains the following:

coffee filters in a ziplock bag - Good for removing sediment before using purification tablets.
Ziplock bag with Dryer lint
Vaseline in a film container
Swedish Steel
Altoids tin containing: Band-aids, Iodine swab, 6 500MG Tylenol, Antibiotic gel, & a Survival fishing kit - two bobbers, 20' of line, hooks and split shot.
4" x 7" bandage
2 boxes of waterproof matches
Water purification tablets
chapstick - I HATE chapped lips
10' of electrical tape (wrapped around chapstick)
tin foil folded into a little square
Emergency poncho
3 day survival food - lasts 5 years. 3600 calories in 9 squares
Space blanket
gallon and quart ziplock bags
para cord
25' of 1200# nylon strap
Mini maglite w/ extra batteries
micro flashlight w/ extra battery
unbreakable mirror
Folding knife
Whistle with compass and thermometer
4' roll of velcro - added after picture very handy stuff


And here is what I'm missing.

Maps
Duct tape
Some baby-wipes
Bandannas
sunscreen - maybe wipes?
bug spray - maybe wipes?
Roll of quarters
Cash
copies of ID's - laminated.
.45ACP Glock w/ extra mag or 2 - (Cannot take to work)
1L water bottle

Hopefully this gives you a few ideas. This should be enough so I can get back to the house if something bad happens. I'm still working on the bigger BOBs. I'll post what I have in those, once they are complete enough for public scrutiny.

Update on my preps.

Over the weekend I decided to store some gasoline, in case I needed to haul ass somewhere if I had too. I'm not sure what the difference is between storing gas in a metal or poly container, but since the steel containers are ~$40 and the poly ones are ~$5 I bought two 5 gallon poly containers and some fuel stabilizer. I have not had a chance to fill them yet, I will tonight on the way home when I gas up the jeep.

While I was out I stopped by Wally World and bought two 7 gallon water storage containers. Think they were $8 each, and have a spigot you can use with a little vent. Not too shabby. Filled them up and added 50 drops of bleach to each to keep them fresh. I did forget to date them, but I'll do that tonight.

I have a nice spot in my basement that I might be able to rig into a "hidden closet." It gets no sunlight, and already has shelves. It's about 10' from the furnace, and 15' from the oil tank so I should be good to go there. I'll devise some way of camouflaging the door. I need to hide my stores because I'm away from home a lot, and just need some meatball to shoot my dogs and rummage through the house, stealing all my preps. At least this way, I have a chance of keeping my stuff. I should be able to get a gun safe in there too, which is perfect. I'll snap some photos when I'm done.

A while ago I got my shipment of dehydrated food for the BOB. It's a lot bulkier than I thought, but it is lighter than expected. I think I'll take one of those compression sacks I got for $3, put 1/2 the food in there, and the other 1/2 inside the BOB, and eat the stuff in the sack first.

So I took the night off last night to watch the Celtics whup on the Lakers. I mean beat them like a red-headed step child. Feels good to be in the City of Champions. Now so long as Jeremy Jacobs sells the Bruins so we can get the Stanley Cup here I can die a happy man.

I have revised my plans for my Bug-Out-Bag System™ I cannot fit the minimum I feel I need into the camelback-clone I have, so I am going to use a fannypack I had in my paintball stuff. This is big enough to conceal a handgun, which was a big issue. Tonight I'll go through my Bug-Out-Bag System™ and get everything squared away. I'll do another post tonight with what I have in there. Guess I need to clean off the kitchen table though, and clean up the house a little.

I'm feeling better, but there is no rest for the wicked, no rest for the prepper either. I can confidently say I have 2 weeks of food and water in my home, excluding the dehydrated stuff. I also bought some salt, sugar, and cooking oil because I found it on sale. I do need to buy a bunch of baking soda though, haven't seen it on sale yet - next time I'm at BJ's I'll buy a big package.

There is a feed store in town, which is odd because there are no farms in 10 miles... I keep forgetting to swing by and see what they got. Next on my food prep list is wheat.

I also need to look at alternative energy. I'll be getting a generator, but I also want to get some deep cycle marine batteries, and a solar panel. Alternative power is expensive, so I'd like to have three months of food squared away before pursuing it. I am planning on using part of my bread and circus (i.e. economic stimulus) check for the genny. The rest is for a good shotgun.

I also need to keep an eye out for a cheap wood stove, if it gets too bad I could connect it to the chimney in the basement and heat the house with wood. Although a cord of wood is over $200 and climbing.

Mixing with the animals.

So I can't even go out and see a movie without some nitwit acting up. On Saturday I figured I'd escape the heat some, and go see The Incredible Hulk with Ed Norton and Liv Tyler. Movie was pretty good, I'll rent it when it comes out on DVD to see it again.

During the movie, I had this nitwit a few seats over screwing around with his cellphone. It was a really bright one, with the whole case made of pink and purple lights. After the 6th time he was screwing around with it I got his attention, and whispered, "Hey, could you knock it off with the cellphone?"
He looks over, face twisted in anger, and in a rough tone of voice, "The lights come on when I open the fucking phone."
"So what? I'm not dicking around with my phone."
He gives me a dirty look, and I turn back and say "Thank you" before he could be more of a dick.

The world is sorely lacking in common fucking courtesy. He's there with his wife and 2 young kids and gets argumentative with me? Gee, Sorry Billy, your Dad's going to the hospital to have his teeth put back in.

So the movie ends and I'm waiting for the credits to roll by because they have been putting cool stuff after them, like in Iron Man. His family stands up, and starts to head out and he's looking down at me a few feet away. I'm watching him with peripheral vision, ready to beat the fuck out of him if he takes one step towards me. I figure I have 125+ lbs on him, so in a grapple I could take anyone that small no problem. He thinks better of it and heads off with his wife and kids.
So nothing after the credits, I go to hit the head, and sure enough he's in there, on his way out. The dumb bastard barely come up to my chin! He's like 5'4" He moves to block my path in, and I look him square in the eye and shake my head. He wisely steps aside and collects up his two boys and leaves. I wash may hands to make sure he's not dumb enough to come back in.

If I was 5 years younger I would have beat the fuck out of him as soon as he talked to me in that tone of voice. Guess I'm wiser, and I do NOT want to jeopardize my class A application.

I hate people, I mean I am REALLY starting to hate people. I avoid stores like wally-world, target, etc like the plague. The mass of stupid humanity concentrated in such a small area makes me dumber by contact. I don't usually see movies opening night, I prefer to escape the heat during the weekends and catch the really important ones on the weekends during the day.

AAR: (After action report)
1) I kept my cool, and kept my tongue.
2) I refused to be intimidated, although if he was 6'4 I think my BP would have gone up a bit.
3) I was smart in waiting to make sure he didn't come back in while I was talking a (much needed) leak.

Any critiques of my behavior is appreciated. I tried to relay the event as impartially as possible.

Getting antsy

Monday is my 4 week anniversary for my LTC application. I'm starting to get nervous because I really need a class A and I'm concerned they will stick me with a class A with restrictions or worse, a Class B.

A class B means no "high capacity" firearms. They term that to be any magazine-fed weapon that can hold 10+ rounds. A class B also means I cannot carry the firearm, It's a license to own I guess. I've pretty much made up my mind to get a Glock .45. As it is, I'd have to buy a used one, which could take 3-4 months to find. If I get stuck with a class B, which is wholly dependent on the mood of the Chief of Police, I can kiss that Glock good-bye.

It takes 4-6 weeks to get through the LTC process here in Mass, so I'll be nervous as heck until I actually get it. But Daddy, I want it NOW!

I already know what gun club I'd like to join when I get my LTC. It's local, has an outdoor rifle and pistol range, as well as a trap/skeet range, an archery range, and an indoor pistol range. Dues are under $200 a year. Already have the $ set aside for it, just need the license first. Would be nice to be able to practice with my bow, it's been over a year! That reminds me I need to buy some arrows with broadheads.

Since Mayberry got such a deal on a .22, I think That will be the second firearm I purchase. I haven't shot with any regularity in my life. I am a natural shot with longarms and bows, but I really have to work on my pistol skills.

Not to brag, but on fine fall day my buddy's dad took me and his son for some trap shooting. I have never been before, so I was all wired up. I was 20 at the time. Now My buddy's been shooting 12ga since he was 9, and is a decent shot. Now to make a long story short we both fired 50 rounds total between stations. He scored 38, and I scored 45... He was pissed, so I didn't get to go shooting again. Was a lot of fun though.

I expect to drop a healthy chunk of $ on ammuntion so I can practice. Argh! I hate waiting!