Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
--W.B. Yeats
Friday, February 24, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Winter Snooze
We are into that part of the winter-- it happens to me every year at some point-- where I feel like nothing so much as just sacking out on the sofa beneath my wool Indian blanket, lying there and woolgathering, or websurfing, or mostly just woolgathering, and staring off lazily into space... or maybe just settling down and taking a nap.
Something about winter rubs me this way every year at some point. I've gotten much farther through this winter before it hit me, perhaps because this winter has been unusually mild. Here we are, I feel like lazing around and taking a snooze... and in just another month we'll be heading into the milder weather. Spring won't be here, winter won't be at an end: in these parts winter hangs on into April, and last year we had a major blizzard with only about a week of April remaining. But give it another month, and the beginning of the end will be upon us, and the end of the blasted deep freeze will be in sight.
Something about winter rubs me this way every year at some point. I've gotten much farther through this winter before it hit me, perhaps because this winter has been unusually mild. Here we are, I feel like lazing around and taking a snooze... and in just another month we'll be heading into the milder weather. Spring won't be here, winter won't be at an end: in these parts winter hangs on into April, and last year we had a major blizzard with only about a week of April remaining. But give it another month, and the beginning of the end will be upon us, and the end of the blasted deep freeze will be in sight.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Odds and Ends to End January
This January has been an odd month.
The best thing so far this winter? The new bird feeder, outside my kitchen window. Yes, the birds go through the birdseed at an astonishing rate, but it's worth it. Mostly goldfinches, a few juncos, a few sparrows, and twice a cardinal. It provides them with food, and it helps preserve my sanity in this often cabin-feverish remote rural setting.
The worst thing so far this winter? The accident, totalled my old Jeep, and I'm surprised I walked away from the crash in one piece. On an otherwise clear road, a sudden patch of black ice, or frost coming out of the ground, or whatever... my Jeep ended up smashed to smithereens, lying on its side far out into a field. I crawled out through the front window and walked away unscathed-- quite surprisingly, after going off the road, down a 20 foot embankment, through a barbed wire fence, and rolling more than once as I slid and pitched and careened across the field. Thank God for seatbelts, or I wouldn't be here.
The most unexpected thing so far this winter? The new Jeep. Well, "new" Jeep. 2004 Grand Cherokee, found at a car dealership in town. I was planning on a newer vehicle in the spring anyhow, so I only had to move my plans up by a few months. Though I'm still adjusting to all the technological novelties of a 2004 model. The old Jeep was a '92; yes, that's right, no airbags. Hope I'll never have to test out the airbags on the new Jeep.
Other bits and pieces to January, too. But, you know, this has been an odd month. One thing I discover in this remote rural corner of the country is how readily and quickly friends and neighbors come to your aid when you're in a tough spot. From the friend who spotted the new Jeep for me, to the neighbor who loaned me a car for two weeks, to all the folks who expressed their concern-- and, yes, news does travel. I keep running into people who heard.
Meanwhile, I find quiet satisfaction in watching the birds at the bird feeder outside my kitchen window.
The best thing so far this winter? The new bird feeder, outside my kitchen window. Yes, the birds go through the birdseed at an astonishing rate, but it's worth it. Mostly goldfinches, a few juncos, a few sparrows, and twice a cardinal. It provides them with food, and it helps preserve my sanity in this often cabin-feverish remote rural setting.
The worst thing so far this winter? The accident, totalled my old Jeep, and I'm surprised I walked away from the crash in one piece. On an otherwise clear road, a sudden patch of black ice, or frost coming out of the ground, or whatever... my Jeep ended up smashed to smithereens, lying on its side far out into a field. I crawled out through the front window and walked away unscathed-- quite surprisingly, after going off the road, down a 20 foot embankment, through a barbed wire fence, and rolling more than once as I slid and pitched and careened across the field. Thank God for seatbelts, or I wouldn't be here.
The most unexpected thing so far this winter? The new Jeep. Well, "new" Jeep. 2004 Grand Cherokee, found at a car dealership in town. I was planning on a newer vehicle in the spring anyhow, so I only had to move my plans up by a few months. Though I'm still adjusting to all the technological novelties of a 2004 model. The old Jeep was a '92; yes, that's right, no airbags. Hope I'll never have to test out the airbags on the new Jeep.
Other bits and pieces to January, too. But, you know, this has been an odd month. One thing I discover in this remote rural corner of the country is how readily and quickly friends and neighbors come to your aid when you're in a tough spot. From the friend who spotted the new Jeep for me, to the neighbor who loaned me a car for two weeks, to all the folks who expressed their concern-- and, yes, news does travel. I keep running into people who heard.
Meanwhile, I find quiet satisfaction in watching the birds at the bird feeder outside my kitchen window.
Google's New Privacy Whatever
Yeah. Starting March 1. Another month to go. No way to opt out. I haven't quite decided what to do about this. Blogger, you know, is also one of Google's services. I haven't decided yet whether I'll continue this blog, or whether I'll let it go inactive.
On the one hand, I'm sure Google has already gathered quite enough intelligence on me as it is, and this blog is a place where I can vent. On the other hand, no need to feed them with yet another source of intelligence once their privacy policy shifts modes into "one ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them"...
On the one hand, I'm sure Google has already gathered quite enough intelligence on me as it is, and this blog is a place where I can vent. On the other hand, no need to feed them with yet another source of intelligence once their privacy policy shifts modes into "one ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them"...
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
About That Constitution...
So, you've heard about the TSA detaining Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) at an airport while he was on his way to Washington. Quite predictably, our crotch-groping overlords have little use for the clear and explicit text of the Constitution:
The Senators and Representatives... shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same... (United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 6)Like I say, welcome to the police state.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
January Cold
Five below zero this morning. And here I sit, indoors, beneath a warm wool blanket, with a cup of hot coffee at hand. Furnace is running. And I don't believe on this frigid subzero day in the dead of winter that I will have any reason or need to go outside today. Refilled the bird feeder late yesterday afternoon, while the temperature was still in the single digits above zero.
Yesterday a friend who grew up in these parts, and who is only a couple of years older than me, told me that he grew up in a house (same house he still lives in today) where there was no indoor plumbing until he was in third or fourth grade. This was early 1960s. He remembers having to go out and use the outhouse when there was frost on the toilet seat.
Go back a generation earlier than that, and people would've been heating their homes on those subzero days by burning wood in a cast iron stove. Come to think of it, there are still several people around here who burn wood to heat their homes. Me, I'm enough of a city boy that I'd be stuck if I had to do more than just fiddle with the thermostat. But there are a good many folks around here who are not far removed from the roots of their pioneer ancestors.
Yesterday a friend who grew up in these parts, and who is only a couple of years older than me, told me that he grew up in a house (same house he still lives in today) where there was no indoor plumbing until he was in third or fourth grade. This was early 1960s. He remembers having to go out and use the outhouse when there was frost on the toilet seat.
Go back a generation earlier than that, and people would've been heating their homes on those subzero days by burning wood in a cast iron stove. Come to think of it, there are still several people around here who burn wood to heat their homes. Me, I'm enough of a city boy that I'd be stuck if I had to do more than just fiddle with the thermostat. But there are a good many folks around here who are not far removed from the roots of their pioneer ancestors.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Welcome to the Police State
Well, so Congress has passed, and President Obama has signed, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which among other things deals a mortal blow to the right of habeas corpus. Now if a US citizen is suspected of sympathizing with terrorism, the US military can apprehend them, on American soil or anywhere around the world, and hold them indefinitely... without charges, without trial, without legal recourse. As Senator Lindsey Graham infamously put it, "And when they say, 'I want my lawyer,' you tell them, 'Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.'"
Gee, what could possibly go wrong?
I remember here in my neck of the words, there was a stretch of several years following 9/11 when any time you read the court records in the local paper, it seemed at least half the cases at the county courthouse included a peculiar criminal charge: "making terroristic threats." It didn't matter what the person had initially been arrested for, this additional charge would be tacked on. Resisting an officer and making terroristic threats. Causing a domestic disturbance and making terroristic threats. Disorderly conduct and making terroristic threats.
Obviously a law initially passed for use against terrorism was now being applied to any staggering drunk who bellowed at the police, "You get your hands off me or I'll knock your block off!"
Righto: public intoxication and making terroristic threats.
And once the NDAA starts getting applied with similar elasticity, when the bellicose drunk or the political protester or the person who wrote an angry letter to the editor says "I want my lawyer," you tell them, "Shut up, you don't get a lawyer."
Public intoxication and sympathizing with terrorism. Taking part in a protest march and sympathizing with terrorism. Writing an angry letter to the editor and sympathizing with terrorism. As the quotable Senator Graham put it, "The homeland is part of the battlefield and people can be held without trial whether an American citizen or not."
Gee, what could possibly go wrong?
I remember here in my neck of the words, there was a stretch of several years following 9/11 when any time you read the court records in the local paper, it seemed at least half the cases at the county courthouse included a peculiar criminal charge: "making terroristic threats." It didn't matter what the person had initially been arrested for, this additional charge would be tacked on. Resisting an officer and making terroristic threats. Causing a domestic disturbance and making terroristic threats. Disorderly conduct and making terroristic threats.
Obviously a law initially passed for use against terrorism was now being applied to any staggering drunk who bellowed at the police, "You get your hands off me or I'll knock your block off!"
Righto: public intoxication and making terroristic threats.
And once the NDAA starts getting applied with similar elasticity, when the bellicose drunk or the political protester or the person who wrote an angry letter to the editor says "I want my lawyer," you tell them, "Shut up, you don't get a lawyer."
Public intoxication and sympathizing with terrorism. Taking part in a protest march and sympathizing with terrorism. Writing an angry letter to the editor and sympathizing with terrorism. As the quotable Senator Graham put it, "The homeland is part of the battlefield and people can be held without trial whether an American citizen or not."
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thoughts in the Waning Days of the Old Year
I often think we'd all be better off if the extremists and fanatics and ideologues of whatever stripe could be packed off to some tropical island where they could continue their quarrel-to-the-death with one another, and just leave the rest of us alone. You know, the rest of us? The 80 or 90 percent of us within shouting distance of the broad center?
Because I think many of our social and cultural and political ills stem in large part from the toxic, dysfunctional attitudes of those fanatics and extremists, those engaged activists whether on the Right or on the Left. They're so geared up, so filled with bile and hate, so engorged on the tunnel vision of their uniquely righteous stance on uniquely vital issues, that they can't imagine how most of us really don't give a damn.
Or, even harder for them to imagine, the rest of us do give a damn, but only within limits. We care, but we don't care enough to upend the world in the verbal and emotional and ideological equivalent of World War III. We have our own view of things, but it is a view which is less than totalizing, a view strongly tinged by an informal sense of live and let live. We're not into mudslinging. We're not into scorched earth. This is unsatisfactory to those, on Right or Left, whose rigid bent has ever been let our ideology prevail, though the heavens fall.
How tiresome it must be to be always approving or disapproving of the "correct" things, the "correct" people, the "correct" arguments, the "correct" ideological stances. One cannot be a Conservative in good standing, one cannot be a Progressive in good standing, unless one burns a pinch of incense at the "correct" ideological altar, unless one voices one's approval of all that is "correct," and unless one barks out full-throated disapproval of one's opponents.
Disapproval in particular is essential, disapproval of those on the opposite side, disapproval of the hated, despised, demonized enemy.
Why don't these haters on either side-- good Progressive haters, good Conservative haters-- just go off to a tropical island where they can continue their incessant rigid rage-filled fights, and leave the rest of us alone? Leave the rest of us alone, and stop ripping our society to shreds in the name of an ideological purity, whether Right or Left, which is never pure enough to satisfy the extremists, and only eggs them on to greater and greater displays of utopian purism?
Because the rest of us may care, one way or the other, to some greater or lesser degree; but we don't "care" so intensely that, in order to save the society we live in, we're willing to destroy it.
Come to think of it, it may already be too late. The Center Did Not Hold. The history of the past half century in these United States is largely the history of centrifugal ideologies of Right and Left spinning faster and faster, gaining angular momentum, eroding culture, eroding the economy, eroding the political system, until the entire damn structure is ready to fly apart. Somber thoughts as we come up on 2012.
Because I think many of our social and cultural and political ills stem in large part from the toxic, dysfunctional attitudes of those fanatics and extremists, those engaged activists whether on the Right or on the Left. They're so geared up, so filled with bile and hate, so engorged on the tunnel vision of their uniquely righteous stance on uniquely vital issues, that they can't imagine how most of us really don't give a damn.
Or, even harder for them to imagine, the rest of us do give a damn, but only within limits. We care, but we don't care enough to upend the world in the verbal and emotional and ideological equivalent of World War III. We have our own view of things, but it is a view which is less than totalizing, a view strongly tinged by an informal sense of live and let live. We're not into mudslinging. We're not into scorched earth. This is unsatisfactory to those, on Right or Left, whose rigid bent has ever been let our ideology prevail, though the heavens fall.
How tiresome it must be to be always approving or disapproving of the "correct" things, the "correct" people, the "correct" arguments, the "correct" ideological stances. One cannot be a Conservative in good standing, one cannot be a Progressive in good standing, unless one burns a pinch of incense at the "correct" ideological altar, unless one voices one's approval of all that is "correct," and unless one barks out full-throated disapproval of one's opponents.
Disapproval in particular is essential, disapproval of those on the opposite side, disapproval of the hated, despised, demonized enemy.
Why don't these haters on either side-- good Progressive haters, good Conservative haters-- just go off to a tropical island where they can continue their incessant rigid rage-filled fights, and leave the rest of us alone? Leave the rest of us alone, and stop ripping our society to shreds in the name of an ideological purity, whether Right or Left, which is never pure enough to satisfy the extremists, and only eggs them on to greater and greater displays of utopian purism?
Because the rest of us may care, one way or the other, to some greater or lesser degree; but we don't "care" so intensely that, in order to save the society we live in, we're willing to destroy it.
Come to think of it, it may already be too late. The Center Did Not Hold. The history of the past half century in these United States is largely the history of centrifugal ideologies of Right and Left spinning faster and faster, gaining angular momentum, eroding culture, eroding the economy, eroding the political system, until the entire damn structure is ready to fly apart. Somber thoughts as we come up on 2012.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Christmas Blues
The presents are wrapped at last. I'm getting things pulled together and packed. And then it will be off on the long drive to the city, to visit my mom and my brother for Christmas and several days of vacation.
More than once as I've been getting ready, I find myself pausing and gazing off into the middle distance, and something indefinable descends upon my heart, like the pale grey light of winter. This will be our first Christmas without my father. He passed away this summer. Suddenly, quietly, in his sleep. He was up there in years, but still in good health, and it was completely unexpected.
I find I'm approaching Christmas with decidedly mixed feelings this year.
More than once as I've been getting ready, I find myself pausing and gazing off into the middle distance, and something indefinable descends upon my heart, like the pale grey light of winter. This will be our first Christmas without my father. He passed away this summer. Suddenly, quietly, in his sleep. He was up there in years, but still in good health, and it was completely unexpected.
I find I'm approaching Christmas with decidedly mixed feelings this year.
Monday, December 12, 2011
So Where's the Snow?
Usually by this time in December we've been buried under at least one knock-down drag-out snowstorm. But not this year. We've had no more than a few dustings of snow so far. Of course it's been cold enough that the snow, once fallen, stays. But unlike the past several years-- when winter came early, attacked in earnest, and stayed late-- so far this year the weather has served up nothing much worth speaking of.
And I'll be honest, I feel deprived. I've lived most of my life in parts of the country where long, hard winters are a way of life. I have lived at times in parts of the country where the climate was milder, but by reflex informed by long experience I expect winter to be one blizzard after another. Getting this far into December without more than a tantalizing trace of snow makes me feel antsy.
And I'll be honest, I feel deprived. I've lived most of my life in parts of the country where long, hard winters are a way of life. I have lived at times in parts of the country where the climate was milder, but by reflex informed by long experience I expect winter to be one blizzard after another. Getting this far into December without more than a tantalizing trace of snow makes me feel antsy.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Day by Day
Sometimes life just slides along, day by day, like pearls on a string, like beads on a rosary, until I come to and realize weeks have fled. And all the while, I was busy attending to everyday life, and I never even noticed.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Odometer
More number voodoo. About a year ago the odometer on my Jeep turned over 200000. Now just today it turned over 211000.
And suddenly it dawned on me: ever since it rolled over, a year ago, there's always been at least one zero on my odometer. Soon, for the first time since last November, I will have an odometer with no zeroes on it. And that will happen once the odometer reaches 211111.1 miles.
And suddenly it dawned on me: ever since it rolled over, a year ago, there's always been at least one zero on my odometer. Soon, for the first time since last November, I will have an odometer with no zeroes on it. And that will happen once the odometer reaches 211111.1 miles.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Eleven Eleven Eleven
Oh dear. I heard the morning crew on the radio going bananas over "11/11/11." That's eleven Eleven ELEVEN, seven come eleven, heaven eleven, oh, heaven eleven Eleven ELEVEN!!! It's enough to make me swear off certain numbers for life.
Perry Drops Out
Governor Rick Perry dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination today after repeatedly misidentifying himself as "a Senator from the state of Texas."
Friday, November 4, 2011
Mageia Linux
I've used Linux as my main operating system for many years now. Started out with Mandrake, stuck with it when it became Mandriva. But the past year and a half have not made me confident about Mandriva's future directions, and so I stuck with Mandriva 2010.0 (which worked beautifully for me) long past its expiration date.
Until recently, when I finally made the transition to Mageia Linux. Not much of a transition! Am still tidying things up, post-installation: it wouldn't be Linux if there weren't always a cloud of "issues" to be resolved after a fresh install. But basically it works, and once I get it pulled into shape it ought to work well. We shall see. In a myriad of such small ways the spirit of do-it-yourself lives on.
Until recently, when I finally made the transition to Mageia Linux. Not much of a transition! Am still tidying things up, post-installation: it wouldn't be Linux if there weren't always a cloud of "issues" to be resolved after a fresh install. But basically it works, and once I get it pulled into shape it ought to work well. We shall see. In a myriad of such small ways the spirit of do-it-yourself lives on.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Picture-Screeds on Facebook
Okay, so I've got a few friends who keep posting a veritable crapflood of angry turgid extremist political bilge on Facebook. It was getting to the point where these few individuals-- say, three out of a total of several dozen Facebook friends-- were responsible for something like 95% of the posts I saw every time I dropped by Facebook. All angry lunatic politicized garbage.
It got so bad, I was finally driven to install a third-party Firefox add-on which enables me to block posts on Facebook based on content. Any post that contains terms such as Obama, Bush, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat, dailykos, foxnews, Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street... I never even see those posts any more. They're blocked. Problem solved.
Or at least, the problem was solved until a few weeks ago, when these friends all took to what I take to be a new Facebook fad. Posting pictures. Pictures that don't really contain anything pictorial. Pictures which simply present a slogan or screed or rant. Angry rigid political picture-screeds, like the JPEG equivalent of a political poster. I can't block 'em, because they bypass any text-based filter. It drives me crazy. What is this, the latest escalation in the "political bilge" arms race?!
No, it must just be a new fad. Because my friends have no idea I'm even blocking anything on my end. And I never noticed any damn picture-screeds until quite recently. Whatever's going on, it's quite annoying. I haven't found a real good fix yet, though I have found a way to block most pictures on Facebook, period. It blocks cute baby pictures and harmless Harry Potter pictures as well as the politicized picture-rant bilge, but at least it's stemming the tide for the moment.
Meanwhile, what drives some people?! Really. Why do they think anyone wants to read dozens of angry extremist political posts from them every single day? I just don't get it.
Update: Bingo! I found the solution. It involves regular expressions. And it works with nigh-surgical precision.
It got so bad, I was finally driven to install a third-party Firefox add-on which enables me to block posts on Facebook based on content. Any post that contains terms such as Obama, Bush, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat, dailykos, foxnews, Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street... I never even see those posts any more. They're blocked. Problem solved.
Or at least, the problem was solved until a few weeks ago, when these friends all took to what I take to be a new Facebook fad. Posting pictures. Pictures that don't really contain anything pictorial. Pictures which simply present a slogan or screed or rant. Angry rigid political picture-screeds, like the JPEG equivalent of a political poster. I can't block 'em, because they bypass any text-based filter. It drives me crazy. What is this, the latest escalation in the "political bilge" arms race?!
No, it must just be a new fad. Because my friends have no idea I'm even blocking anything on my end. And I never noticed any damn picture-screeds until quite recently. Whatever's going on, it's quite annoying. I haven't found a real good fix yet, though I have found a way to block most pictures on Facebook, period. It blocks cute baby pictures and harmless Harry Potter pictures as well as the politicized picture-rant bilge, but at least it's stemming the tide for the moment.
Meanwhile, what drives some people?! Really. Why do they think anyone wants to read dozens of angry extremist political posts from them every single day? I just don't get it.
Update: Bingo! I found the solution. It involves regular expressions. And it works with nigh-surgical precision.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Flannel Sheets
It's getting to be that time of the year again. Yesterday I changed the sheets on my bed, and I put on the flannel sheets.
Had the energy to turn the mattress, too, while I was at it.
It's flannel sheet weather again. Fall is here, and Indian summer is past.
Had the energy to turn the mattress, too, while I was at it.
It's flannel sheet weather again. Fall is here, and Indian summer is past.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Bugout Bag: Contents
In my previous post, I laid out the philosophy behind my bugout bag. To recap: this is really more a bug-in bag, a convenient central repository of emergency items for if I had to get along here at home for a few days, with the power out and/or some major weather-related emergency. With a secondary aim of being useful when and if I have to get out and leave on short notice.
Further background: I am nobody's idea of Rambo, a survivalist, a camper, or a Boy Scout. I'm just an old bachelor in his fifties, who lives on a gravel road far out into a remote rural area of flyover country USA, better than half an hour in good driving weather from the nearest small town. I know my own limitations, and am trying to plan realistically, with and not in defiance of those limitations.
That said, the basic bedrock idea for my bugout bag is that Less Is More. I decided to restrict myself to what I could fit into a leather dopp kit, which measures about 10"x6"x5". The end result weighs little more than 10 pounds, and can be carried under my arm.
Here's what the bag contains:
And I forgot, there are a few other things slipped in there. Instructions for the radio and the Leatherman multi-tool. Spare O-rings for the flashlight and the lighter (packed in an ever-handy small resealable plastic bag). You get the idea.
You'll notice, I'm not averse to redundancy on certain critical items such as knife blades, can opener, or ways of starting a fire. And if I could grab one other item on my way out the door, I'd take along a water bottle I've got, with built-in filter. Second item, I'd grab a fixed-blade knife.
Where did I find these items? Around the house, and various places online, chief among them A.G. Russell, Amazon, Duluth Trading Co., and especially Miles Stair's Survival Shop. YMMV, but those are good places to start.
All this is still very much a learning process for me, I'm a beginner on these matters and nothing more. A simple bugout bag in a leather dopp kit, really intended more as a bug-in bag. I think my next step would be twofold:
(1) On the bug-in front, start exploring the ins and outs of a small portable kerosene stove. I've got plenty of food stored away, but coffee and rice and Quaker oats do require heating, even in the dead of winter with no electricity.
(2) On the bug-out front, start thinking about what kind of items could be included in a weekend bag to go, such as a few day's supply of clothing, food, water; and blanket, and other items I deliberately excluded by sticking to my dopp kit.
Keep at it, and I ought be prepared for ice storms, power outages, flooding, blizzards, the collapse of the euro, President Obama calling a banking holiday and declaring martial law... maybe even the zombie apocalypse!
Further background: I am nobody's idea of Rambo, a survivalist, a camper, or a Boy Scout. I'm just an old bachelor in his fifties, who lives on a gravel road far out into a remote rural area of flyover country USA, better than half an hour in good driving weather from the nearest small town. I know my own limitations, and am trying to plan realistically, with and not in defiance of those limitations.
That said, the basic bedrock idea for my bugout bag is that Less Is More. I decided to restrict myself to what I could fit into a leather dopp kit, which measures about 10"x6"x5". The end result weighs little more than 10 pounds, and can be carried under my arm.
Here's what the bag contains:
- Bandanna
- AM/FM/SW radio powered by two AA batteries, and stored in a cardboard-lined metal box to help protect the radio against EMP
- Ear buds for the radio
- Wire antenna which can be reeled out and clipped to the radio's whip antenna
- Collapsible steel drinking cup
- Folding knife with two blades, clip and spey
- Flashlight, aluminum, Maratac Extreme, powered by one AA battery
- Spare AA batteries, four, in waterproof Delrin battery lockers
- Leatherman Super Tool 300 multi-tool in a leather pouch
- Embassy pen, aluminum, with Fisher space pen cartridge, will write under almost any conditions
- Rhodia notepad no. 12, graph ruled, 4.7"x3.3"
- Deck of playing cards
- Pocket New Testament
- Pocket slide rule, Pickett aluminum, 5" log log duplex (this is my one original idea, I've seen it nowhere else: more reliable and more EMP-proof than a calculator, and hey, I'm old enough that I learned in school how to use a slide rule)
- First aid kit: I kept it real simple, several bandaids of assorted sizes, a piece of moleskin, and four extra-strength Tylenols, in a small resealable plastic bag
- Prescription medications, three-day supply, in a small resealable plastic bag (you really can't have enough of these small resealable plastic bags, like tiny ziploc bags, 2"x3", 1-1/2"x4", whatever; items come in them, and I save the bags)
- Waterproof metal match box holding strike-anywhere wooden matches
- Steel & magnesium fire starter: this is the one boyscoutish item I got, and I oughta learn to use it
- Small stainless steel lighter
- Tinder, alias lint from my dryer, in a small resealable plastic bag
- Small metal toothpick holder with toothpicks
- Fork, knife, spoon, aluminum, compact foldable camping utensils
- Whistle
- Compass, brass, liquid-filled
- Can opener, compact foldable P-51
- Micro widgy pry bar
- Keyring screwdrivers, regular and Phillips
- Tiny, tiny clip light, can be clipped to clothing, leaving hands free
- Cash, several hundred dollars in tens and twenties, stashed in the internal side pocket of the bag
- Emergency Medical ID Card, foldable accordionlike in slipcover, with personal info, emergency contact info, medical info, list of my prescriptions, name and phone of my doctor, stashed in internal side pocket
- House key, spare, stashed in internal side pocket
- Carabiner, aluminum, clipped onto outside leather carrying loop
And I forgot, there are a few other things slipped in there. Instructions for the radio and the Leatherman multi-tool. Spare O-rings for the flashlight and the lighter (packed in an ever-handy small resealable plastic bag). You get the idea.
You'll notice, I'm not averse to redundancy on certain critical items such as knife blades, can opener, or ways of starting a fire. And if I could grab one other item on my way out the door, I'd take along a water bottle I've got, with built-in filter. Second item, I'd grab a fixed-blade knife.
Where did I find these items? Around the house, and various places online, chief among them A.G. Russell, Amazon, Duluth Trading Co., and especially Miles Stair's Survival Shop. YMMV, but those are good places to start.
All this is still very much a learning process for me, I'm a beginner on these matters and nothing more. A simple bugout bag in a leather dopp kit, really intended more as a bug-in bag. I think my next step would be twofold:
(1) On the bug-in front, start exploring the ins and outs of a small portable kerosene stove. I've got plenty of food stored away, but coffee and rice and Quaker oats do require heating, even in the dead of winter with no electricity.
(2) On the bug-out front, start thinking about what kind of items could be included in a weekend bag to go, such as a few day's supply of clothing, food, water; and blanket, and other items I deliberately excluded by sticking to my dopp kit.
Keep at it, and I ought be prepared for ice storms, power outages, flooding, blizzards, the collapse of the euro, President Obama calling a banking holiday and declaring martial law... maybe even the zombie apocalypse!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Bugout Bag: Prologue
Well, I figured as long as I'm going insane and stocking some extra canned food in an unused cupboard for just-in-case, I may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb. Yes, I'm pulling together a bugout bag. Have I gone certifiably crazy, or what?!
Actually it's more of a bug-in bag. A convenient centralized storage place for items that might come in handy in an emergency, better to have them already assembled than to be scrounging around and searching once the proverbial shit has hit the fan. I can't really think of an emergency, this side of a house fire, where I'd be better off fleeing my house rather than staying and digging in.
Still, I can think of a number of actual incidents, in the years I've lived here, when it might've been handy to have a bag like this assembled in advance. Ice storms are frequent here in the winter, and I can remember several which kept many people in these remote rural parts pretty much confined to home base for four or five days, and the roads not really so navigable, even with 4WD and a Jeep like mine, for upwards of a week. There are ice storms, there are blizzards, there are power outages, there is flooding, there are tornadoes. A tornado has never come my way yet, though there have been a few close misses, with major damage where the thing touched down. And I could tell you about the time a few years ago when I had to deal with two feet of water in my basement, and many local roads out due to flooding.
I'm basically pulling together a bag which will have what I need in one place in case I need to get along here at home, without electricity and/or without ready access to the outside world for a few days. As a very secondary aim, I'm also planning with an eye to the (much less likely) contingency of ending up staying with neighbors, or in a public shelter, or having to leave the area entirely on short notice.
You can google on bugout bags, and see what people commonly put in them. What strikes me is just how overly-heavy and overloaded many of these bags are. I mean, come on, am I really going to head off into the sunset wearing a backpack that weighs 80 or 100 pounds? I don't think so. The usual advice-- pack two extra changes of clothing, pack a sleeping bag, pack a tent, pack a portable toilet-- I'm sorry, but I'm assuming that unless there's a house fire in the middle of the night, I'm going to be suitably dressed, and carrying in my pockets those items I carry in my pockets whenever I'm dressed. And I'm not planning to leave on a permanent survivalist's camping trip on a moment's notice. We're talking have it on hand, or carry it with me, in some kind of practical real-world framework.
So, I started out by limiting myself to what I could pack inside a shaving bag. A leather dopp kit. This immediately ruled out extra clothes, or food and water, or portable toilets, or any of the other usual extravagances you'll find on so many BOB packing lists. And I was surprised at how much I could fit in that small leather bag, at a total weight of only 10 or 15 pounds.
Coming next: The contents of my bugout bag
Actually it's more of a bug-in bag. A convenient centralized storage place for items that might come in handy in an emergency, better to have them already assembled than to be scrounging around and searching once the proverbial shit has hit the fan. I can't really think of an emergency, this side of a house fire, where I'd be better off fleeing my house rather than staying and digging in.
Still, I can think of a number of actual incidents, in the years I've lived here, when it might've been handy to have a bag like this assembled in advance. Ice storms are frequent here in the winter, and I can remember several which kept many people in these remote rural parts pretty much confined to home base for four or five days, and the roads not really so navigable, even with 4WD and a Jeep like mine, for upwards of a week. There are ice storms, there are blizzards, there are power outages, there is flooding, there are tornadoes. A tornado has never come my way yet, though there have been a few close misses, with major damage where the thing touched down. And I could tell you about the time a few years ago when I had to deal with two feet of water in my basement, and many local roads out due to flooding.
I'm basically pulling together a bag which will have what I need in one place in case I need to get along here at home, without electricity and/or without ready access to the outside world for a few days. As a very secondary aim, I'm also planning with an eye to the (much less likely) contingency of ending up staying with neighbors, or in a public shelter, or having to leave the area entirely on short notice.
You can google on bugout bags, and see what people commonly put in them. What strikes me is just how overly-heavy and overloaded many of these bags are. I mean, come on, am I really going to head off into the sunset wearing a backpack that weighs 80 or 100 pounds? I don't think so. The usual advice-- pack two extra changes of clothing, pack a sleeping bag, pack a tent, pack a portable toilet-- I'm sorry, but I'm assuming that unless there's a house fire in the middle of the night, I'm going to be suitably dressed, and carrying in my pockets those items I carry in my pockets whenever I'm dressed. And I'm not planning to leave on a permanent survivalist's camping trip on a moment's notice. We're talking have it on hand, or carry it with me, in some kind of practical real-world framework.
So, I started out by limiting myself to what I could pack inside a shaving bag. A leather dopp kit. This immediately ruled out extra clothes, or food and water, or portable toilets, or any of the other usual extravagances you'll find on so many BOB packing lists. And I was surprised at how much I could fit in that small leather bag, at a total weight of only 10 or 15 pounds.
Coming next: The contents of my bugout bag
Thursday, October 6, 2011
That Inward Horror Known as the Self
Looking inside of myself, I am sometimes horrified at what I see. I am well acquainted with some of the ways in which I am a flawed, faulty, broken human being. No doubt sometimes I succeed in deceiving myself on this front, but I know myself all too well to be fooled all of the time regarding myself.
Most of the time I conduct myself fairly decently toward people around me, and they conduct themselves fairly decently toward me. Though sometimes I do slip up, and that horror which is within me slips its leash and lacerates innocent people around me. When this happens, I am usually sickened and nauseated by my own behavior toward them.
I don't always know if they can tell. Does it show through? Does it show through to them that I am sickened by my own behavior? Sometimes I do apologize. But even when I don't (life isn't always so straightforward), does something in me show through to them, that I am cringing at what I just said or did, that my conscience isn't allowing me to get off scot free?
I wonder about this, because on those rare occasions when someone behaves poorly toward me, I can sometimes sense their inward cringe, their horror at their own behavior toward me; though more often not. Especially online, I could easily get the impression that many people rarely feel compunction regarding their careless or even malicious online mistreatment of others.
The standard patter regarding this is that on the Internet people lack the visual and emotional cues which are in motion face to face. If online behavior weren't on average notoriously so much worse than face-to-face behavior-- come on, it's become a commonplace, don't deny it-- then I might buy this standard patter as an explanation, or at least a partial step toward an explanation. As it is, it hardly rises above the level of a facile excuse. Qui s'excuse, s'accuse.
Online, as in everyday life, I've generally been quite fortunate in my dealings with people. That is, most people I encounter are quite decent and likable folks. My current blog is (thankfully) pretty much readerless and commenterless; but my old blog, which I ran for several years under my real name, had several dozen regular readers and a dozen or so regular commenters, and they were all without exception unfailingly polite, civil, courteous to one another. It was a delight blogging and dealing with them.
But one doesn't have to search very hard to find blogs, forums, boards, threads where it is quite otherwise. And these venues make me wonder. When I look inside myself, I'm horrified at the attitudes I sometimes find. I'm sickened when these attitudes within me slip the leash, and get loose. But how about some of these people out there who routinely treat their host or fellow commenters like garbage, and seem to display nary a twinge of conscience over it? Are they ever horrified by their own poor behavior? Do they have any internal level of self-awareness, any self-insight into just what a piece of work they truly are? Or do they sail along blithely with never a self-doubt and never a self-regret?
Do they succeed in fooling themselves all the time regarding themselves?
On second thought, I'm not altogether sure I really want to know the answer to that question. I'm horrified enough at what I sometimes find within myself. Let the self's faults be sufficient for the self.
Most of the time I conduct myself fairly decently toward people around me, and they conduct themselves fairly decently toward me. Though sometimes I do slip up, and that horror which is within me slips its leash and lacerates innocent people around me. When this happens, I am usually sickened and nauseated by my own behavior toward them.
I don't always know if they can tell. Does it show through? Does it show through to them that I am sickened by my own behavior? Sometimes I do apologize. But even when I don't (life isn't always so straightforward), does something in me show through to them, that I am cringing at what I just said or did, that my conscience isn't allowing me to get off scot free?
I wonder about this, because on those rare occasions when someone behaves poorly toward me, I can sometimes sense their inward cringe, their horror at their own behavior toward me; though more often not. Especially online, I could easily get the impression that many people rarely feel compunction regarding their careless or even malicious online mistreatment of others.
The standard patter regarding this is that on the Internet people lack the visual and emotional cues which are in motion face to face. If online behavior weren't on average notoriously so much worse than face-to-face behavior-- come on, it's become a commonplace, don't deny it-- then I might buy this standard patter as an explanation, or at least a partial step toward an explanation. As it is, it hardly rises above the level of a facile excuse. Qui s'excuse, s'accuse.
Online, as in everyday life, I've generally been quite fortunate in my dealings with people. That is, most people I encounter are quite decent and likable folks. My current blog is (thankfully) pretty much readerless and commenterless; but my old blog, which I ran for several years under my real name, had several dozen regular readers and a dozen or so regular commenters, and they were all without exception unfailingly polite, civil, courteous to one another. It was a delight blogging and dealing with them.
But one doesn't have to search very hard to find blogs, forums, boards, threads where it is quite otherwise. And these venues make me wonder. When I look inside myself, I'm horrified at the attitudes I sometimes find. I'm sickened when these attitudes within me slip the leash, and get loose. But how about some of these people out there who routinely treat their host or fellow commenters like garbage, and seem to display nary a twinge of conscience over it? Are they ever horrified by their own poor behavior? Do they have any internal level of self-awareness, any self-insight into just what a piece of work they truly are? Or do they sail along blithely with never a self-doubt and never a self-regret?
Do they succeed in fooling themselves all the time regarding themselves?
On second thought, I'm not altogether sure I really want to know the answer to that question. I'm horrified enough at what I sometimes find within myself. Let the self's faults be sufficient for the self.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)