thanks for the tips - I will experiment.

Holiday shipping will be much slower than in past years; order early.

Two recent trips -

Went to BJs Wholesale Club to stock up the newly defrosted freezer today (Friday 10/31). Seems as if everybody had the same idea. I've never seen the place so jammed.

Significant depletion in the TP aisle. When my daughter was young she had a part-time job as a checker in a supermarket. Whenever a snow storm was forecast everybody bought bread, milk, eggs, batteries, and of course, TP. Apparently it's the same for an election.

A few days ago I went to Cabela's in Hamburg, PA looking for a spotting scope. While I was there I asked if they had any .223 in stock. No, not one round.

- - - -

As an aside, I discovered that Cabela's has a distinct price differential for spotting scopes. There's the $49.99 scope (which I bought), and then there's the $400 and up scopes. Actually, as high up as about $2,500.

"Patriot" seems to have replaced "tactical" as the hot marketing buzzword.

Mask usage varies by location.

A small electric/tester (insulated) screwdriver is a cheap multi-purpose tool.

From unentangling two fine necklace chains of my daughter, to cleaning salt deposits on faucet thread during a plumbing job. You will appreciate this small, light an inexpensive tool.

Yes, you can use the small screwdriver part of those pocket tools (like Atwood tools) or swiss army knife, but it is not insulated, nor can it reach deep enough in some cases.

The other day, my grand son wanted to watch TV in a chalet we have rented, and the external part of the ON/OFF button was broken. I inserted the small screwdriver tip and pushed the inner part in, and the TV was ON. Knife tip would have worked too, but I wouldn't take the risk of an electric shock.

Other things I have learnt recently :
FINISH YOUR JOB LIST THE EARLIEST YOU CAN, or else you may regret it !!!

This Corona mess has shown me that I was right to have finished several jobs earlier, like donating several boxes of my personal library to suitable centers and organizations. From children magazines to books about disabilities ..etc. I worked hard to move those boxes from my dad's house (second floor) to my house (first floor) in another town, sort them out , keep about one third and distribute the rest. If I delayed this job, not only Corona would have stopped it, my knee problem would have made it impossible.

There are other jobs that I have procrastinated and delayed. I am regretting right now. With health and money issues, I have learned a valuable lesson not to delay today's job until tomorrow.

I am learning that organizing gear is important - makes it easy to find the right thing.

Here's a followup, one day short of ten months later.



If we'd left town in March we'd almost certainly have come back in a week or three. Based on the information I have now, it would have been an overreaction. Based on the information I had then, I still don't think it would have been.

The rest of what I wrote then seems to be just as true, other than that the TP shortage was very brief here.

New lessons since then:

• Every cellphone in my family uses the same large national provider. I do have an independent capacity to make and receive phone calls via the Internet and my home Internet is with a different carrier. With that said, I think I should get an inexpensive prepaid phone from one of the other large national carriers.
• Good relations with our neighbors have (unsurprisingly) paid off both in fellowship and assistance. In October we had a security issue with the police involved; the way the neighborhood worked together with us to mitigate the problem was gratifying. Unfortunately, the perpetrator was not arrested, but more importantly the problem has not recurred.
• All four schools we are involved with (one for Mrs. Magnet as an professor, the younger Magnets as students) are all flailing and failing to adjust to the circumstances. Losing most of Mrs. Magnet's income hurts, and losing it due to bald-faced incompetence stings.
• Carefully planning our essential travel has made things much easier.

I have learnt that while I visit forums to TALK about survival, some people are practicing it in their daily life.

Was reading about refugees. A man lost one of his legs, yet he was still focused on the wellbeing of his family. They lived in a refugee camp and were helped with food, but couldn't get a tent to protect them from the elements. So, the guy gathered the empty sacks of food delivered to refugees and he sewn the sacks to make a tent. Helping organizations noticed the improvized tent and provided him and his family with a proper one.

Through the same story I realized for the 1000th time the importance of the skill of improvization