PP #18: Phones are out. Is this the start? Getting old is a crock, don't waste your life.
Project: Pioneer #18, February 22, 2024
As I write this, there is a massive cellular communications outage across the country, affecting AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, US Cellular. People can’t call 911. This is happening just after classified information was exposed revealing Russia is deploying nuclear capability into space that will be able to disrupt our communications and more.
It may cyber war, it may be hacking, it may be solar EMPs, it be nothing, it may be harbinger of things to come. You saw the Netflix movie, this is how it will start, with communications disabled. Certainly, we are overly reliant on technology to survive, and THIS IS WHY WE ARE DOING WHAT WE’RE DOING. You should be prepping, to reduce your reliance on tech.
Project: Pioneer is the live reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle, just at the start of winter. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Audio at this link, Apple, and Spotify
In this journal post:
Our Current Status and Updates, Valentines Day
This One Good Life
The Long March Backward
The Fall of Capitalism
What’s Next?
Current Status/Updates
Remember how I was confronted by our neighbor in my last post? He was wrong, but we made changes. I worked on our door so it would close more quietly. We’re trying to be considerate of his issues. Who knows what the guy has been through in his life. He’s the same guy who got into it with the gypsy pavers, and whose wife smashed into one of the steel beams holding this whole place up, back when we first moved in. He’s had a lot going on. Anyway, the gypsy pavers had moved out so the site next to him has been vacant (lucky him!).
Until now, that is. A new couple placed their RV there, and wouldn’t you know it, they have a ridiculously loud pickup truck and big loud dog. Old Elmer is a country boy through and through. The new guy is young, and has a long knotted black biker beard. Oh, boy. Karma. What comes around goes around. Maybe this is a test for old Elmer. I still feel bad for him, and hoping there’s no gunfire. In about another month and a half, we all move down into the woodlands, where everyone will have more space and tranquility. Hopefully.
We had a nice, quiet Valentines Day, exchanged home-made cards and went out for a nice meal. The slow march of minor holidays until Spring continues. President’s Day is gone, now just St Patty’s Day, then Easter, then we’ve made it through this winter. Daylight savings starts in a few weeks, helpful for people like me with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It’s been cold, but the outlook is pretty nice (so far!) through early March, even some days close to 60F.
Now that things have settled down and we’re thoroughly enjoying our new White House home, we’re more focused on the future. We’re starting to plan for what we hope will be our final stand, our final nest—finding some land near a nice lake, with some seclusion, and having a cozy cabin built on it. Something to enjoy until our final days. Hopefully we’ll get to do that in this wonderful country, should democracy survive this fall.
Other than that, it’s quiet. Giavana is away again, and coming back tomorrow night. Pia and I pass the time together. I took her for some grooming and pampering today. My CT scan to check my ascending aortic aneurysm is tomorrow morning. It’s been lurking on the threshold of requiring dangerous open heart surgery. The battery in the loop recorder in my chest has died, so no visibility now into my frequent heart stoppages. That’s all a bit daunting. They’ll rip it out and put a newer, high tech one in on March 1. Every day is a blessing, think about that when you wake to start each new day, no matter how hard you think things are. It will get better. Persist.
This One Good Life
You stare down into the depths of what was a delicious crock of crème brûlée, just a few bites left. It’s kind of sad, amirite? It’s like that last full day of a great vacation, knowing you’re going back to reality the next day. That’s what it can be like to age. If you’re young, this is important. Don’t “Ok, boomer,” this one away! Read on, don’t waste your one good life chasing and stressing about things that don’t really matter. Focus on the things that do.
Time sure seems to move more quickly as it goes on. Anyone with kids will tell you that. Even more so as you get older, it goes by fast. It’s like when your gas tank hits 1/4 left—that las quarter tank seems to evaporate twice as fast as a full tank.
We’ve talked a lot lately about afterlife, after death. Due to these revelations, I no longer fear dying. I believe I’ll join everyone I’ve loved and lost in the hereafter. So why are we preppers? Not fearing death is very liberating, but it doesn’t mean I’m anxious to die! It’s kind of like being financially independent (here’s how). Many people who reach that pinnacle of life still go to work, but it sure feels different knowing you don’t have to be there. If things change or it becomes stressful, you can simply just make your exit. You know you’ll be on to something better.
If you embrace that (whether or not it’s true!) it becomes easier to blow off the normal, everyday things that cause us stress and upset us. Those things are actually small potatoes, and don’t really matter as much as the emotion of the moment might have us think. Disregarding stress, being kind to others (even a little thing each day), forgiving past grudges, are all good things for us, and will make you happier in the moment, and who knows, maybe punch your ticket for a blissful eternity in the hereafter. Be curious, welcoming, and tolerant of those who are different from you, not hateful and fearful. You’ll likely live longer and be healthier. Try it, what do you have to lose? If you don’t like it, you can always go back to being miserable and stressed :-) And yes, I do need to remind myself of this more often. We’re all a work in progress.
The Long March Backward
All the above can help us personally in the day to day, but current events sure make it harder. We don’t have a ton of control over those, but we do have some. Right now, it seems we are the frogs treading along in the warming water, complacent and oblivious, until the temperature becomes fatal.
In World War II, a handful of dictators came awful close to carving up the entire planet between themselves. The only thing that stopped them was the United States of America. This time, it seems the USA is on board. Dictatorships are dandy for the ultra-wealthy. For everyone else, not so much. Not at all. Name one authoritarian country where people are happy and have freedoms. It never turns out well for the rest of us.
Which is why you have a well-known ultra-wealthy frozen fish sticks heir and trust fund baby globe-trotting to authoritarian countries to gaslight you about how great life is there (for people like him). The vast majority of people in those places live in poverty, the middle class essentially eradicated, the uber-wealthy prospering. It’s a good way to keep control, having your boot on the neck of the great unwashed and powerless.
There’s been an overwhelming amount of propaganda to prepare you and get your buy-in. There’s no disputing the Russians and Chinese have interfered in our elections on behalf of a particular authoritarian-oriented candidate. The big star witness in the “Biden crime family” allegations just admitted to lying about it all, and being fed the lies by Russian intelligence. The “key informant” from last year turned out to be a Chinese asset and gun trafficker, and went on the lam when the gig was up.
Are you seeing a pattern? As opposed to the 1940s, it’s far more likely to happen this time, due to powerful tools like artificial intelligence, social media, the vast amount of money being thrown at this by the dictators, and yes, one of our two political parties being totally on board. They are handing Ukraine to Russia the same way Poland was handed to Hitler, which caused World War II and so many millions of deaths. If Russia wins Ukraine it will move on to a NATO country, and our working-class kids will die in war. It might come to nukes, we might all die. Authoritarian countries have two classes—the super wealthy and the poor. Life in these countries is hard. Do you want that kind of life for your kids and grandkids?
To tie it all back to the recent spiritualism topic, it’s quite possible that once this existence reaches a certain level of rot, i.e. not enough good souls left, too much evil, it has to be rebooted, like your phone. We sure seem to be heading there. The Bible seems to refer to that in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Great Flood. It seems to promise it with the description of The Rapture and Second Coming.
The Fall of Capitalism
The concept of capitalism is amazing. Open markets, competition keeping prices down and product quality up. If a bunch of people are selling pet toys and I want to get in the game, to be successful I have to make better products, have lower prices, and take better care of my customers. That’s the idea, anyway. When it works, it keeps prices low, service good, and quality high.
The Communist Chinese always said it would fail due to the simple existence of human greed. And here we are. Lobbyists pay our crooked politicians to allow bigger companies to swallow up smaller ones, destroying competition and allowing them to jack prices up and make unsafe, crappy products. Capital One is buying Discover, for example. They get rid of that horrible “red tape” that forces them to make sure our products are safe, meaning higher profits. They bribe the Supreme Court with lavish gifts and trips to make irrational decisions such as “companies are people too” and to be able to limitlessly bribe politicians legally.
The perfect recipe for inflation is to cage people up for a long time, fill their pockets with money, then set them free to spend like drunken sailors. That’s what happened during and after COVID, so inflation ran rampant throughout the world. Corporations saw they had this convenient excuse and jacked their prices even higher, and have continued to keep them high. This is well documented and undeniable. That’s who is to blame, not the dude who has been working his butt off to fight it (and done an incredible job, best in the world). It’s being called Greedflation.
What’s Next?
Seems like a real Debbie Downer post, right? Hey, go back to the beginning of it. Nothing really matters that much! We’re here for a blink in time, but let’s make it a comfortable one. We have to worry about our kids and grandkids. Fight back against these evils. Try to educate people, get involved, even if from home. Spread this message! Please share this post on your socials!
Judge nothing, you will be happy
Forgive everything, you will be happier
Love everything, you will be happiest
— Jack Kerouac
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