Planning regardless.

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In spite of the recent difficulties, I am planning to move forward with hiking, biking, and camping this summer. To that end, I just ordered hiking boots, wicking boxer briefs (I previously ordered a few types to find the size and type I liked), a multi-tool kit, and a few other items. These things will make hiking, camping, and even biking a little easier. Right now, I need easy. With some learning, perhaps I can do with much less.

Thanks to Matt, I have some information I have been thinking about for a while regarding particular pieces for a medical kit, namely blood-clot material and a link to possible full medical kits. After two serious bleeding accidents in a year and my penchant for turning a humble rain into a flood with electrical and chemical dangers somehow, a serious medical kit is on the shorter list (after a bike, rocket stove, and maybe a thing or two I can't recall, so maybe for Christmas?). I have a few small kits, and might be ordering several blood-clot bits next month for necessary fill in my anemic kits.

One thing I have noticed, now that my mind is clearing, regarding prepping is that there is a serious issue. No matter what equipment, knowledge, and expendables one could have on hand, and assuming one could either stash or secure all said items, keeping those items up-to-date and functional up to a global melt-down is a whole other can of worms. Okay, so you have every hand tool for working wood and bending iron into useful function, you have enough food to eat on that alone for five years, you have non-electric equipment to navigate, you have horses for travel, you have equipment for cleaning water, you have well shielded tube short wave transceivers transmitters receivers with backup parts in excess of a lifetime, etc., etc., etc. (Or even some small part of that). How are you possibly going to keep up on all that, make sure it all works all the time especially considering use means possible damage, and keep it all together? Basically, I need to consider what I can really do, what I would like to do, and start finding out what my neighbors are doing in this regard.

We live in such an easy world. It might be failing. It might be crumbling. My guess is that it is. None of us has ever had to live on little food, had to work for our water, had to wash our clothes by hand and wait for them to dry, or even had to worry about getting a vital, let alone trivial, item at a moments notice. This is the first place I have lived that doesn't have air conditioning in... decades? If you have the cash there is almost nothing you can't get. Heck, I can go to Wal-Mart right now and get almost anything to at least tide me over until I could get better if necessary (especially with a little imagination and some degree of mechanical or electrical knowledge). Heck, you can build a bomb for $50 or (far) less! (Not that I recommend that, mind you.)

That will all change if things keep going as they are. When Democrats counter Republicans demands to cut spending in order to raise the debt limit with... demands for more spending... and Republicans are seriously listening... I don't think there is anything but trouble in the future. Well, and that is just one of the problems, one of very many problems. There will be no Wal-Mart. Or, more, all there will be is Wal-Mart. At which time we will be at their mercy.

So planning for a world even I have never seen is... difficult. Part of the reason I am thinking of hiking and camping and such is not just to increase my physical condition, but also to learn how life will be. Even when hiking, I may simply begin taking my water filtration device and an empty canteen or two. I probably will take a bit of food camping, but I would like to practice getting campfires going if that is a bit limited in a mountain desert sometimes. I need to begin practicing with the gear I have. It won't be for fun, for views, for other things. Those will simply be bonuses when they happen and when I can appreciate them. The only way to know what life will be like, what is necessary and what is not, how long I can go on what food and water, and how to make better due without easy access commercialism, is to get in there and live it now, with the safety nets that still exist. That should help me shake out my lists. But... to even get to that point I still have needs/wants on my list! With the boots, however, if they work, I have a very large piece of that list. I have been looking for a pair of leather boots with a real replaceable sole, that looks right. Most hikers are disposable these days.

On top of all that, and while I plan and work to store, gain, learn, I still have to live in the modern world. Having two masters is not difficult, it is actually impossible. I realized this not from looking at the current and future demands but, when frustrated, having the notion the bible imparted. You really can't have two masters. I guess, what I am saying is, I first have to part with the easy master of modern convenience before I can truly choose to live in a time that (technically) may never happen in my lifetime. Easy or hard, gas or sickle, technical or manual. And even that trip won't be easy or fast. But... I have decided. I have chosen the path of pain! Oh, that was Saruman channeling through my blog... Anyway.

I had to check several accounts to make sure I could afford these items, which ended up with me pushing my sleep time. I can only focus for just so long, then... I lose track. But the sale was tonight only, and all of those things were reduced to 50% off, so... I managed, right at midnight, to finally place the order.

Tomorrow I will be going in to see my friend. He has been given nutritional, and other stuff, from his doctor. He is having difficulty understanding it all. So I offered to come in and help him figure it out. I will probably get something for us to munch on my way in. I think with better food and some ongoing work the doctor is doing with his legs and feet, he might come back to health a bit. He has been a bit worrying lately, ailing, falling. I might have to get in to see him a bit more often in the next weeks. Even just stopping in, or giving him a ride to the store so he can stock up a bit more or even get to the store more frequently. I might be failing just a bit, but I am still doing good enough to check on him I believe.

Good night.