A bit cooler

Thankfully today, it’s a bit cooler out. Yesterday it was hot, somewhere in the mid 90’s and while the oldest and I were on the other side of town (getting him jeans at the cowboy store) it hit 100. This morning it feels like a nice fall morning even though we still have a good 90 days of oppressive heat to come.

The boys swam well. They’ve only been at it a week or so and will take another few weeks to get into shape. There’s actually another meet this morning (going on now) but they have a birthday party to go to today, lucky us!  After the meet yesterday we all went to lunch in Golden.

We have bad fires burning here and in New Mexico. It’s real early for it to be so bad. Hopefully the weather today will help. When you live in the west, fire is one of your main concerns.

I’m going to give everyone a rest from politics today, at least in our country. On a worldwide scale though, we have some serious problems. Spain needs a $125 billion dollar bailout to survive another month or so and Greece is about to have elections. If the people of Greece vote to leave the Euro Zone, look out. To give you some idea of what’s really going on in Greece, check out this blog by a buddy over there who’s just trying to make it day by day. His name is Manos and he sent this on June 6th. Here you go,

Hi guys,

The daily life is still the same.

Things keep going because some divine hand still help us.

You wake up in the morning having no mood at all. And it’s this heat which destroys your brain cells. Today, it’s 34 degrees Celsius. (that’s like 98 degrees)

I’ve kept a small amount of around 250 euros, to buy some final provisions. Mostly meat cans, vitamins, and dried bread. I will store them to my parents’ basement, in order to have alternative escape plans.

The rumor about a power shortage is more and more been discussed around people, and alternative media. (meaning not the mainstream media like our NBC, ABC and CBS)

It’s being said that the Power Company is no longer having the money to purchase coal and diesel.

We don’t have a generator for home use, so in case of a failure, we must consume all refrigerator food first.

My wife bought two big camping gas devices, with many spare bottles of gas. We can cook all meat and veggies, and then share them with the rest of the family.

My shotgun is full and well equipped. I hope I don’t need to use it.

My car had a small steering wheel failure last Friday, and I had to fix immediately. I don’t know if we have to leave the town in a rush.

I tried to find a small hut in the property but nobody sells at all. (he means out in the country)

Prices are so low, that they don’t want to sell their properties for nothing. I’m considering to buy a caravan (trailer) and put it in the biggest olive-field. A small one with 2 beds, light enough to be dragged by my car, costs around 5.000 euros.

Today the stock market is going upwards, but soon enough the final collapse will occur. Spain is going down rapidly.

I’ll keep posting as long as I can. Don’t worry, I’m fully equipped and prepared.

Just take care of yourselves and families.

When the things reach to your neighborhood, you will have to fight.

Your fellow citizens are still living in their utopia. When they realize the danger, they will turn into ruthless beasts.

I pray for you all.

God Bless you, Manos

Now no matter what you think, this is his real life and daily concerns in his country. The point is, it’s not that far away from what could happen here. Their power grid is in real danger of going down, can you even imagine your life without power? Check this out,

Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country’s electricity and natural gas system.

“RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,” the regulator’s chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters.

RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.

Source: Reuters

Now the point of all this is, you have to stop believing nothing can happen to you! I’m not saying what’s happening in Greece is going to happen here, but the point is, it could. We have been conditioned to believe whatever they tell us on the idiot box or in the papers is true. We believe when the stock market goes up on one day, everything is fine. There are too many warning signs out there for us not to be concerned. For example, for the first time in the history of our nation over 50% of the people receive some sort of government subsidy or support to live. Food stamp distribution is at a record high, more people are living paycheck to paycheck and are only 2 weeks away from poverty than anytime in our history. There’s a ton of economic data which is pretty complicated that I won’t go in to but trust me, some really smart guys are very worried. All in all it adds up to a house of cards that can go down at a moments notice.

So now that I’ve made my case trying to convince you that your idyllic life in your little corner of the World is pretty fragile, what should you do about it. First off, believe it, as it’s true! Next once you accept that things are much different than they were even 10 years ago, and also understand they can change at a moments notice, the only prudent thing to do is to take some simple steps to prepare. This isn’t about democrats or republicans or our political system. It’s about the global economy and the coming global recession that will soon arrive.

So all I’m asking is that you take a few simple steps to be in a better position should something happen. Please humor me and do the following even if you think I’m nuts. Here’s what you should do,

1. Stock up on your medications. You do this by refilling your prescriptions every 3 weeks instead of every 4 or when you run out. Over time you can accumulate a good supply. The misses and I have over a years supply (instead of 30 days) of ours by doing this and it was all paid for by the insurance company.

2. Please buy some extra food. Prices are going up and up almost daily so the worst that’ll happen is you save some money. Buy what you eat, we get tuna fish and can goods and lots of condiments like honey, peanut butter, jams and jellies, pasta, rice and beans, etc. that we use all the time plus watch for meat and chicken on sale and then stock the freezer.

3. Keep a little money at home, a few hundred dollars is good but keep in small bills. People will still take the funny paper money even if it’s not worth much.

4. Next, always and I mean always, keep your gas tanks at least half full. Better yet, if you can remember, try to fill them when they are between half and 3/4 of a tank.

5. Last and probably most important is to keep some bottled water around. If the power is shut off for any reason, your water will stop. Without power, the water companies cannot run their machines to get water to your tap. You can go a month without food but only 3 days without water.

There’s lots more you can do but I’m not going to go into that, let’s just start here. Those of you that are older can probably remember your parents doing all these things when you were a child. I’m sure you had a root cellar with extra food and such. These days we’ve ll been so conditioned that if we run out of something we can just hop in the car and  drive 1/4 mile down to the store and pick it up. It’s going to be a real wake up call when you can’t do this anymore.

Oh well, I’ll stop now as I’ve probably lost some of you who have dismissed all this as not possible. I hope you’re right. One last thing, don’t forget about your pets. We practice the same strategy with pet food as we do with gas, we always have a few months extra dog food, which in our case means an extra 100 pounds! In any case, even if you think I’m nuts, just humor me and go out and do what I say. It shouldn’t cost you more than a nice dinner out and if I’m right, you’ll be glad you did.

God Bless,