One night when my wife was at work I was flicking through TV stations trying to find something half decent to watch, I found something called Doomsday Preppers. I had never heard of this show before, so I decided to watch it while I played mindless games on my tablet. (As I do lol)
Whoa! Okay, I have since watched a number of episodes of this show. I have to say I am completely intrigued by the way these people live their lives! The more I watch this show, the more I question if they're insane or if those who don't 'prep' are insane! lol
The guy pictured above, dug a secret bunker by hand in his garage. He never opened the garage door to dispose of the dirt - it was carried out of the house by hand.
This show got me thinking about the differences between Australia and America again. So on one hand the American preppers fall into a couple of categories:- Some live on farms and have barns and even bunkers underground as well as basements. Those who live in the suburbs have basements, some even have underground hideaways in the country. They have dug out bunkers or used shipping containers (pictured above) as fortresses! Many of them have massive amounts of ammo and guns etc.
One thing most of them said in relation to food storage was that they kept their food in the basement to avoid humidity....... Which leads me to the Australian side of this prepping idea. The majority of Australians don't live on farms and those who live in the suburbs don't have basements. Don't ask me why, but Australian houses do not have basements.... I should Google this and find out why lol
So for example if I was a prepper, I would be in serious trouble regarding where I would store my food, as I live in an area where humidity can reach 100%! I live in a regular suburban house, on a small block of land with no basement. Sure we have spare bedrooms and I could load those up, however those rooms get the afternoon sun and turn into saunas by the end of the day..... So there goes all of my food and I would have wasted a lot of money stockpiling.
The other difference is weaponry, a lot of the Americans had vast amounts of guns, ammo and other homemade devices to protect their supplies. They spend a lot of time mastering the art of arming themselves, firing practice etc. The gun regulations in Australia are very, very strict. There are so many laws surrounding the ownership and use of a gun/s in this country, it would be virtually impossible to own as many weapons as our American counterparts. So again, if I were a prepper, how would I protect my supplies? With a baseball bat?
So why do they prep? Some believe that the American economy is on the brink of collapse leaving the USD worthless and plunging society into a depression, some are in wait of a worldwide health pandemic and some believe that war will come. One woman has also had the same vivid reoccurring dream for over 20 years that something catastrophic will happen in her lifetime. Some do it purely based on the fact that the cost of living is getting so high, and if they buy extras with their regular grocery trips they can have a constant stockpile of supplies while they can afford it. Others believe that it will be a natural disaster such as a solar flare which will fry and wipe out the power grid - which will also prevent vehicles such as trucks delivering much needed supplies.
Just out of interest, I Googled solar flares to discover that the last solar flare (The Carrington Event or Carrington Super Flare) was the 3rd September 1859 and the next predicted one is for somewhere between 2012 and 2022. The last flare occurred when the Telegraph system was in its infancy and it did completely wipe it out, so imagine the damage a solar flare could do in this high wired society that we now live in. No phones, no tv, no radio, no lights, no working vehicles.... Anything containing wires is now dead.
The show stated that 45% of Americans are preppers in some form or another and 51% believed that something 'big' was going to happen. The show also stated that the CDC has advised people to have at least 3 days worth of food supplies in their homes at all times and never let the fuel in your car drop below halfway.
So I leave this question with you:- Are preppers insane? Or are those who don't prep insane? If you're an American reading this post, have you seen the show Doomsday Preppers and what's your take on it? Until then, I'm off to make a cup of tea and hope nothing happens in the meantime so I can finish it :) Catch you next time!
I've never been one that likes being labelled or put into a box - I am, who I am. Over the years I've had many 'encounters' I guess you would call them, with entities of some sort. I've had readings done for me and been told on more than one occasion that 'you're psychic, you just need to learn how to use this gift etc etc'. To be honest I've never really taken too much notice of these comments, as I've put it down to these readers telling everyone one something along these lines. After all most people who have readings done, would love nothing more than to hear that they're psychic and they just need to learn how 'to tap into it'.
I don't have a label for what happens to me, I can't make it happen on command, but it does happen..... In fact it's happened twice this week! From an early age I have seen things at random that I cannot explain. It actually hasn't happened for a few months, but this week I got a double whammy!
The other night I couldn't sleep so I decided to read a book, my wife was asleep. So here I am sitting in bed reading - then all of a sudden in my mind I see the face of one of my staff members, immediately followed by the image of an older man. This man had his hand on his chest over his heart and he said 'tell her I'm okay'. Now I had no idea who this older guy was! So when I went to work and explained to my staff member what had happened and described what he looked like, she looked away from me, then looked back. She said it was her grandfather, he passed away before she started working for me and that she was at his house the day before. She also said that she had been thinking about him a lot lately, as due to circumstances she wasn't able to get to the hospital to see him before he passed and she was angry at herself for this. Don't ask me why I saw this, or received this message? I do not know! I have never seen a photo of her grandfather, nor did I know that she had gone to his house.
Okay, so take two.... Yesterday for some unknown reason, the face of a woman I used to work with when we lived in the mountains flashed through my mind. I really didn't give it much thought, I just went about my work. Then this morning while I was eating my breakfast before leaving for work, I was scrolling through Facebook...... A woman I used to work with at the same workplace, had written how sad she was to hear that this woman had passed away...... Again, don't ask me? I don't know, I have no explanation.....
Some of you might remember around the start of the year we bought a bird. He was supposed to be my bird...... I could hold him and pat him on the back, he would 'share' my breakfast with me etc. Well when I bought the store I was up and out the door 7 days a week lol as a result Tango and I are no longer the best of friends lol He is now my wife's bird. She can do what ever she likes with him, and he's okay with that. She even kisses his beak!! Personally I wouldn't dare put my face near that beak.... Unless I wanted my nose or lip pierced! lol
I can't even get him out of the cage! I actually left the door open one day and walked away in the hope he would come out.... But nope! He just sat there looking at me through the bars. However, here's the kicker!! The first two sounds he made were whistles - which I taught him! Then he copied the sound of the microwave - which I use. Then he mimicked the sound of my mobile phone. After that was his name, followed by pretty boy, who's a pretty boy, Tango Tango, and birdie birdie birdie. All of which I taught him! This bird has double standards! He doesn't like me and wont come near me, yet mimic's what I say! Go figure! Geez and they say cats are finicky! lol
So here is an update of my Queen cross stitch - even though two of the boys are done I still have the backstitching to do on them. I'm hopeful that I will get more done on this pattern this weekend, as it's a long weekend and my store isn't opening on Monday. I have opened in the past on Public Holidays and it just isn't worth it, so I'm closing the store on Monday.... Which means I get a day off! Woo Hoo! :) I know that most people would love their long weekend to be nice and sunny (which it's going to be) but I would really love it if it was cold, miserable and rainy! lol
When we lived in the mountains it was either rainy, cold, snowing, misty, foggy or all of those combined lol Sunny days just weren't that frequent, and it was something you simply lived with - without giving it a second thought really. Now that we live in a coastal area it's always sunny, and I have a hard time stitching when the weather's nice. I don't know why, I guess it's because I feel that I should be doing something (constructive lol) outside, rather than sitting on my butt inside stitching lol First world problems huh? Anyway, enough weather waffling. If you live in Australia, have a great long weekend!! :)
Well I said I'd be back lol and here I am! (I'm typing this post on a tablet via an app, so I hope the format is the same as typing it on a PC lol) It's amazing, since I bought the store, I pretty much stopped reading and I completely stopped cross stitching. I was either too tired, couldn't be bothered or spent my time after work looking at new products to sell. But last week on my 'day off' (lol) I started working on a cross stitch pattern that I purchased months ago. It's from Clouds Factory and it's the band Queen.
I should also mention that Queen was in Australia recently and we went with some friends to see them! OMG - Amazing! That is all I can say! lol Anyway, back to the cross stitch :) I've done 2.5 of the boys. I love Clouds Factory stuff as they are just quick, small and simple patterns. I also have a Halloween themed one and a Beetlejuice one as well (I can watch Beetlejuice again and again! lol) I will probably do Beetlejuice after this Queen one.
I've also started reading again, I used to read most nights before bed but then I stopped. I just couldn't focus on what I was reading, my brain wouldn't switch off, I had constant thoughts of what I had to do the next day or what I had forgotten to do that day etc...... But for some reason, since I have stepped back a bit, my brain has eased up and allowed me to read and actually take in what I'm reading, rather than scanning the words and not remembering a word I had just read! Very frustrating!
Apart from getting back to reading and cross stitching, I actually cooked dinner the other night! lol Now this might not sound like much, but prior to buying the store I used to do the majority of the cooking for three reasons: 1. I like to cook 2. My wife doesn't lol and 3. My wife prefers my cooking over hers. Because my wife is a shift worker she needs to have dinner fairly early and I'm never home in time to cook, so she has been doing the cooking. But now that I am taking the odd day off here and there, I'm back online searching for new recipes to try :) :) :)
Okay I'm off! I'll catch you all again soon!
