The high cost of WhuuuuuuuT!

So I went to the store yesterday and damn near lost my mind...

celery stalk $1.99 ea
cocoa powder, dutch $5.69 a lb - supposedly sale price
Mexican gray squash $1.99 a lb
zucchini $1.79
regular gas - $3.28/gal
premium gas - $3.48/gal
sugar (4lb now not 5lb) - 3.99

Then...I read an article about how there is an increase of home invasions by ARMED burglars and these are not being reported in the news so as not to "alarm homeowners." Really? They are breaking into good neighborhoods that they do not live in, that they are casing, and then taking off and getting away with it. Seriously? Unbelievable.

Then...my Psych teacher told us that a few months ago she was walking across the parking lot around 7am and some young guy mugged her for her purse and laptop. What? She chased him about 2 blocks while calling the cops and he dropped her stuff and ran. Mind you, our campus is in a nice neighborhood with plenty of sheriffs around - when I told Mr. Man this he really is encouraging me to carry concealed loaded. I think that's a bit much.

If you can't read a sign - then I'm sure you can see a billboard. All that stuff I just wrote about is on a BILLBOARD. Because of weather conditions (frost and floods) expect everything to go up in price because it's already heading there. If you do not have at LEAST a month of food and water in your house you better get with it now. If I'm wrong then you just eat what you get...I pray that I'm wrong every morning that I wake up I pray that I am just being overly cautious and things aren't going downhill and all general population has is a digicam and a bottle of Gatorade. I pray every morning for the safety of my friends and family. I pray every day that I can discern enemies from friends. I live in the now but get ready for tomorrow.

This past week we tried to discuss the inflation spiral and preps with a couple friends. I think one of them agrees and has about a weeks worth of food and is planning on getting a weapon, my only concern is that he has this false perception of time. Erm, the time is now. A second friend of ours acts like he is on board ---but stubbornly hangs onto that notion bias that "oh that could never happen" I simply told him not to be naive. He actually said,"well I will just come over to your house..." I laughed and said "no you won't, not empty handed..." Mr. Man said,"that is rude...just plain rude. You don't want to prepare yourself but you will come over and eat my shit, use my shit and borrow my shit. That's not going to happen." Really, really, really unbelievable. I don't worry about my friends out of state too much because they have the means to get stores if they needed to.

We have 'friends' who have children and even newborns - who look at us like we have a tin foil hat on when we talk to them. I finally just told them - look I'm not some Area 51 dork who thinks they got abducted and given an ASS probe so don't shake off what I say. Because if they don't want to have anything they are free to do that. We tell our friends because we feel that it is our obligation to "ring the warning bell," to have 'just in case' stuff in the house. I am absolutely mortified that anyone with children would be so IGNORANT as not to have anything in place for emergency. Don't get it twisted -- even if you come to my door with that child on your hip I will still turn your ass away and not even think twice about it. I heard Mr. Man say to his so-called friend,"If I have to decide between my sanity and your starvation - then your ass is going to starve."

No one can prepare you as well as you prepare yourself.

As horrified as I am about what's going on - I can at least breathe that we are insulated against any sudden fluctuations or disasters or any unknowns.

On the upside...I'm getting 3 A's and an A- (math)...my psychology professor just gave me a barrel of oranges and grapefruits. Valentines was fun...we just spent some time together over dinner and talked politics, how far we've come and where we want to go. Today we hit about 833 lbs in food preps. My seedlings are blooming (my first attempt!) for jubilee and roma tomatoes, armenian cucumber, thai basil, spinach and green beans. Let's hope I can make those actually become a town crop lol. My head finally stopped having that exploding feeling after I added Vitamin B-12 and ginseng to my supplements.

Mr. Man has started a video log - to encourage others to prep. Especially trying to encourage people of color to prep. We're doing our best to be helpful but sometimes we might as well be talking to a cactus.

It's all a bit much...but we just have to keep it Movin'