WELL, IT AIN'T OVER YET!

The markets were really boring today. Oil went up $2 a barrel in overnight trading but then leveled off. Silver, Gold, and the DJIA were not very interesting either. So we wait for the next day's trading. Reading the financial blogs today left me with the idea that there was no way out of the Great Dismalness. We shall see. I got a letter in the mail today that said I would get my stimulus check by Saturday. My wife has agreed that I may go to the Dairy Queen and gorge myself. I won't, but it is tempting. But I owe her $125 and after I pay that off I will have $175 to spend on preps. I ought to be able to get SOMETHING with that much funny money. Maybe some more medical preps. Maybe a few more tools. Some .308? You just never can tell. Lots of thoughts will head my way between now and then. But I don't believe I will be buying gasoline with the money. To hell with giving my money to the oil companies. I don't have a job and I don't have to drive. Life is a little restricted according to my past behavior but I can deal with it.





Supper tonight was a bowl of good Black Beans and a slab of Mush and a Purslane Salad. It just doesn't get much better than that for nutrition. I really enjoy being able to say that. Simple and relatively inexpensive but really good for you. Like eating at a health spa.





One thing I intend to do with the funny money is get some various kinds of rope. Mayberry got me going on that so I think I better get on with it. I am supposed to be able to get Paracord at the local Army Surplus store. Any other kind can be bought where I find it. The Handmaiden says I have a cold beer in the fridge. I now have one less! I told my son this week I had drank only two beers in January and none since and he said, "Really?" Hah! He knows full well of my love for the brew. He can't drink much cause it gives him bad hangovers the next day. The old timers used to talk about the curse of the drunkard. The curse was they DIDN'T get hangovers. I know nothing of that type of condition. You let me drink a couple of tankards of wine with the Handmaiden and I will guarantee you a headache in the morning. Can't handle the stuff. I can take the brew or leave the brew. Leaving it and using it for barter makes a lot of sense. There is a thing about oral gratification in the human family that says that you have to take certain things into your anatomy or you are not a success. Food, booze, cigarettes, things like that. If you want to relax then you have to have your oral gratification, if you are built that way. Just part of the human family.



All kinds of articles in the news this morning saying that speculators are NOT responsible for oil shortages. The articles are saying that demand from growing economies such as China and India are to blame. Okay. Have Dubya add their names to his list, right after Iran. But we are not to worry. There are major oil fields being brought online in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It will be a year or three before they are ready but we are supposed to wait. I ain't waiting. I turn off my engine and don't burn the fuel. It doesn't get more economical than that. Living out in the country makes you schedule your appearances in town. You no longer drive for casual errands. It costs too damn much. You plan your visits and make them pay off. You hit as many places you shop as you can remember. We have a country store that sells pretty reasonable, close by. It's half the distance to town. The country store also sells the cheapest gas. And people WILL drive on in to town for 2 cents less on the gallon. That gasoline has become pretty precious stuff.



The more I think about it the more I feel that little reminder that my stimulus check was coming was to get me prepared to spend it as fast I can. I am supposed to come into heat now and not feel satisfied until I have spent my money. Maybe I'll just wait a while before I spend it just to piss 'em of. The letter reminded me of the mainstream media and it's habit of putting up a picture on the articles it wished you to read on line. Earth shaking news will be in micro-print tucked away in a column of microprint. But the latest pimp-and-whore news will have nice color photos. The story they are featuring will have the biggest picture. That is how they get us masses attention. That is how they create "stars" out of people who have done nothing noteworthy except maybe show their private parts in public. But America loves it so we have it. The media is a bunch of liars. They swindle the public into thinking that what they say and show is important. Couldn't be any further from the truth. I actually read the blogs more than the mainstream media any more. You will generally get sounder reasoning and greater factual data from the blogs than anywhere else. The newspapers are crying the blues about the loss of advertising dollars these days. People working for big newspapers are getting laid off. Tough shit, guys. Your product isn't too good anymore. Journalism used to be a highly thought of profession. But not any more. Too many times they have been proven to be wrong or even worse, liars. So you find your niche, your comfort zone, among the people you feel will give you the best shot at arriving at the truth. I find my comfort zone amongst the survival bloggers. And they are growing in number. They are growing by leaps and bounds. We may actually become the next big thing if this trend keeps up! Hope so! Guys like Rawls and Dakin and others have devoted a lot of time and energy to keeping people informed on what is going on and how to deal with it. And the list is growing and I am proud of that. Keep reading these guys. They are the country's best bet right now.



Stay alive.



Michael



mboone@rtccom.net