Preparing

So every year, we have a hurricane come close to, or make landfall, somewhere in the United States.

And every year, when a hurricane approaches, we see the stores run out of bottled water, batteries, plywood, propane and low/no prep food. And, invariably, we see people bitch about the fact that there “aint nothin’ left”.

Yet how hard is it to have a few pieces of plywood for your windows stashed in the back of your garage or in a shed?
How hard is it to stash a weeks worth of cans of food under your bed or the back of the closet?
How hard is it to stock a few cases of bottled water at the start of the hurricane season?

I mean, panic now, beat the rush….prepare early so you have what you will need, that which will be in short supply if and when. It isn’t like cans of food or plywood or bottled water spoil that easily. You can use it for many years.

Why do these folks always wait until the last minute? 

Are you ready?

I mean, on this date 160 years ago, a MAJOR solar storm hit the planet earth.

Known as the “Carrington Event” this storm caused havoc in the atmosphere and even affected and damaged the (relatively crude) telegraph systems of the day.

Think of what this would do today….

You’d have no internet, no telephone, no TV….(probably no national power to provide it anyway).

No distributed electrical power means:
No refrigeration….your food will spoil quickly, and your freezer will thaw after a few days.
No (or very little) food distribution…Fuel will run out quickly for those that don’t have any stored. No communication to order it even if it could be delivered.
No banking (part of that “No communication bit) to pay for it even if you could order it and had fuel to transport it….
No AC for those in the Southern states…..No heat for those in the Northern states.
If it is harvest time, no fuel for tractors to harvest the grains or fruits or vegetables, much less get it to people that are starving.

And it will take years to fix the infrastructure to make parts to fix the systems that are damaged.

Now, it hasn’t happened again in 160 years. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen tomorrow. Doesn’t mean it will happen again in your lifetime.

But if it does, can you survive for longer than a month? It happened once. It CAN happen again.

Conversation:

“So someone turns you in using the Red Flag laws and the cops come to get your guns.”

“Ok”

“Do you turn them in?”

“Of course…not worth getting killed over the guns they have on a list”.

SO they take…what? 25 guns?”

“About that”

“How many do you still have?”

“About 30”

And that is just ONE of my friends. 

NASCAR: Alienating fans as fast as they can

Read:

There is being out of touch with your fan base, then there is totally not realizing what will alienate your market.

NASCAR seems to be doing their best to drive fans away.

And it isn’t like they are filling the seats at the Speedways, or that their viewership is growing….

At the end of this cycle, they won’t have any fans and no one will be watching their races.

One wonders how stupid the folks who make these decisions really are.