I'm a superstar! Heh. That's pretty danged cool. Go us!

ETA: Oh man, I didn't even see the badges!

Current Mood: amused

Well, I'm officially in violation of the law.

We've been trying to stay cheerful at Chez Chuckles but it's just not happening. Every day this crisis continues, more lines appear on the my dad's weathered face, already leathery from years in the sun. He and Mom are more drawn-looking, more tired, than I ever remember seeing them. I'm scared for them, and I guess they are, too.

My dad and I went out today and took two doe out of season. I think this is a Class B misdemeanor, which, if I'm reading the statutes right, could cost me my concealed handgun license. Not that I think I'm likely to be harassed for it. Everyone around here is doing it, just not talking about it. Here I am running my yap, though, so here it is. Come get me, coppers.

Butchering animals in the heat and humidity really stinks, by the way. Ticks, fleas, smells, sweat. There were so many dang fleas on those poor deer that I had to strip down to my skivvies outside before I came in and ran to the shower. I thought I heard my parents giggling at me, but surely I was imagining it.

Tomorrow Mom's going to slice down what she can and make jerky from the meat that's big enough and pemmican from what has to be ground up. We don't want to have to depend on the fridge. We've got enough to run the genny for a while, but if there's a long-term blackout, better safe than sorry. That's why we're taking whitetail, even though it's off season. Don't want to dry out rabbit or feral hog, since we don't fancy tularemia or trichinosis much. Who does?

Yesterday Dad was looking at one of the cows with an appraising stare. Mom hit him in the arm. But I imagine if it comes to that, their time is up.

Luckily diesel is still "cheap" and available nearby, so I've been spending the week hitting up the local gossip holes to see if any families around here are in need. We're collecting what we can to help out. If there's a blackout and nobody has air conditioning in the 100+ heat and humidity this summer, Lord help us.

Tags: hunting season hot
Current Mood: morose

I'm so impressed with the excellent stuff we've gotten so far. Here are a couple of accolades...

I just wanted to point out a really excellent series of posts from WWO Hero 'Peakprophet." This guy picked up and left Oregon to move to Tennessee in order to build a more sustainable life. He's got some excellent advice about preparations and adaptability, finding land to bug out to and growing his own food supply, and some good armchair quarterbacking about our current situation. I'm really glued to his blog.

And, of course, a tip of the hat to good ol' RedHatty, who's believed in us for a long time. Her post a few weeks ago made a lot of people think. Lady's got some real helpful information on her blog - y'all should check it out.

Tags: wwo accolades
Current Mood: impressed

I guess deep down, I didn't expect anything to happen today. I actually scheduled a trip up to Austin to pick up some papers for my dad.



Filling up to come home was... painful. I talked to quite a few people at the gas station. Actually, I was laughing about this picture I took with my cell phone and a little crowd of us gathered around to talk about prices. I mentioned that at least they had a bus system to use there and they agreed. In fact, several folks mentioned that they hadn't even thought of that, but they were going to take the bus to work at least a couple times a week from now on. And thanked me for the inspiration.

Nice thing about Texas - strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.

I'm all moved home to Beeville now, by the way. Didn't have much stuff to pack up. A blessing in disguise.

Tags: wwo shock
Current Location: Beeville to Austin
Current Mood: productive

I've been doing a lot of thinking tonight.  And making phone calls.  And thinking some more.  I've been thinking so much that I think I might almost have it figured out.  I think.

Stay tuned, y'all.  The winds of change are blowing.  At least for me.

Current Mood: optimistic

I was down in South Texas over the weekend and saw a grand total of one turkey - a hen.  But the weather was really nice and I borrowed Dad's camera and played photographer.  Don't tell anyone, but I thought the flowers were pretty. 

And I guess with April 30 coming up, I had petroleum on the cranium... it seemed like I saw something relevant everywhere I looked.  Of course there's plenty of oil-related stuff down there.  And it was nice to spend time with the folks, and I had a heck of a poker game with Dad and Judd Lee and all them.  Never play poker with an ex-sailor.  Trust me. 

All Dad's farming friends are getting real concerned about the gas situation.  I spent a lot of time talking to them about it, commiserating about the price of diesel lately.  I think they're at their wits' end, really. 

And so am I.  Because when I got home, I found a note on the fridge from the roomie.  I haven't seen him in months.  He's always over at his girlfriend's house - and it turns out there's a reason.  They're getting married in a couple of weeks.  I guess they'd been talking about it for a while.  But the problem is that there's no way I can afford to live there by myself.  And there's no way I can scrape together a deposit on another place.  And all the furniture and just about everything but my futon (shut up, yes I sleep on a futon) belongs to him anyway.

I just don't know what to do.  Literally, I'm completely out of ideas.  April 30 is in less than two weeks, and I feel like I've just stood there with my thumb in my posterior watching the date get closer on the calendar, and now I'm faced with the prospect of living in my truck.

Please, I could use some guidance here.  Does anyone have suggestions?  What the heck am I gonna do now?

Current Mood: scared

My dad went to play poker with his buddies last weekend, over at Judd Lee's house.  This, of course, sent my mom into a tizzy, since she was convinced that playing poker on Easter weekend would surely destine Dad to the fiery pits.  Anyway.

So Dad called me up the other day to laugh at ol' Judd Lee.  You have to understand, most of my dad's friends are farmers.  They're not complicated.  They're not stupid by any means, but they just have so much to do that they might not stay current on many of the world's most pressing issues.  Seems like Judd Lee went off on a tear - he has been known to rant for two hours straight - about America's dependence on foreign oil.  He spent the entire night raving about he was sick of putting money into those gosh-darned Middle Eastern communists' pockets every time he filled up his gosh-darned tractor.  Dad thought that was pretty amusing.  Communists?

I wish like heck I had been able to make it down for Easter last weekend, but jeez louise, diesel's nearly three bucks a gallon around here.  I've got to limit trips in the ever-thirsty truck.  I had enough budgeted for one trip this month - this weekend, to hunt turkeys.  Ah well.  We had ice on Saturday anyway.  (Ice!  On Easter weekend!  What the hay!)

I have seen even less of my roomie this month, and I didn't think that was possible.  Getting very bad vibes about that...

Tags: red scare
Current Mood: restless

Man, gas prices are doing nothing but going up lately, and diesel's even worse. If (and it's a big if) something really does happen in April, what am I gonna do? I'm already broke enough trying to feed my truck. I canceled cable last month after only having it for a little while. Stupid price fluctuations. So tonight I stayed at home and watched the DVDs I borrowed from Mom last time I was home. Good thing my roomie's never home. He would be horrified to see what I defiled his electronics with. But it's not like I can afford to go anywhere.

So here it is, two in the morning, and I was staring at the insides of my eyelids trying to wrap my brain around my life and how much I depend on my truck. And trying to get the stupid "So Long, Farewell" song out of my head (note to self: see if Dad can talk her into higher-quality entertainment). And trying to think of something - anything - that will help dig me out of this rut. And wishing that airport hombre were here so I could throttle him for adding this extra layer of worry on me. Thanks, bud.

If I could afford a beer, I would be drinking it right now.

P.S. I forgot the reason I originally started typing up an entry in the first place, which was to say that this is awesome advice for anybody, not just people watching a hurricane bear down on them. Uncle Sugar ain't gonna wipe your backside every time it's dirty.

Tags: insomnia
Current Location: State of sleeplessness
Current Mood: worried
Current Music: Filter - Thanks, Bro

Thanks for the offers of help, y'all.  I guess this is just one of those things I have to fiddle around with until I quit looking like a monkey trying to assemble a rocket ship.  Yucky, I'm happy to lend you some protection.  Say the word.  Nico shows up knocking on my door, he's gonna get surprised. 

About the incident thing, dang, I'm just not sure what to say.  I guess you can see people are freaking out about it still.  Not sure why.  But we're not taking anyone to the airport; we're talking about when we all met at the Denver airport, stuck during the blizzard.  We did hear from the guy later, but if I go on about that, Gala_Teah will have me crucified. :P

Tags: monkey nico blizzard
Current Mood: chipper

Why is the WWO community closed? I got no idea why we're taking some random guy in an airport so seriously. Every day that passes, I believe him a little less...

And a little more, I guess. But just a little. I still think y'all are getting too weird about all this, though.

And oh yeah, I'm with you, Illiana and Yucky.  Put me out in the wilderness for a week with nothing but a toothpick and  a shoestring, I'm good.  Set me in front of this Live Journal thing?  I'm a bowl of quivering jello.

Tags: wwo
Current Mood: cynical