Month: March 2020

by William Skink

silly, silly preppers
stocking your supplies
reading conspiracy literature
about government lies

go nibble your MREs
the economy is doing fine
central banking wisdom
is borderline divine

take your auto to the range
in head to toe fatigue
silly, silly preppers
training for the siege

go play pretend soldier
and palm your coins of gold
call yourself a patriot
fighting globalist control

you racist anti-semites!
you dumb, paranoid loons!
grab your bug out bags
and go howl at the moon!

by William Skink

What a week.

After doing the mad scramble for supplies I’m ready to hunker down. I don’t have a job to go back to next week and the kids don’t have school to go back to. We are ready for a long haul.

While there are still people who think this virus thing is being overly hyped, or a total hoax, I’m not taking the chance of increasing the odds that my parents will get sick.

For at least the next few weeks no play dates for the kids and only essential travel for mom and dad. It’s going to be difficult but we are better prepared than most.

Doing the home school thing is going to be interesting. Making and sticking to a schedule will be important for everyone.

The garden we are planting this year will be bigger and better maintained. We got four new chicks yesterday who cheep frantically before passing out beneath the heat lamp.

The neighbor girl wanted to jump on the trampoline with my daughter this evening but we said no. Explaining why to an almost four year old is not easy.

There are a lot of different angles to consider when thinking about what is happening and what our actual risks are.

My current assessment: the old paradigm is dead and the quicker we realize it the better.

by William Skink

The last few days have been difficult. I went to work Tuesday at the non-profit that has employed me for the past 3 years. Due to a combination of factors I was sent home early and was given yesterday and today off.

I am using this time to continue stocking up.

Tuesday I purchased a Ruger Mini 14 semiautomatic rifle. It’s a great rifle, especially for new shooters who might be turned off by a higher caliber rifle.

The mini 14 takes .223 or 5.56 NATO rounds. Finding this ammunition in bulk is now impossible. Sportsman Warehouse has upped their restrictions on ammo purchases and much of their shelves are empty.

I also purchased a .38 revolver.

At the Selway Armory, where they don’t have any limits on ammo purchases, the guy I talked to said things really got crazy on Monday. Last Friday he said things were picking up, but by Monday his average of 30-40 orders waiting for him on Monday morning had shot up to over 150 orders.

I have heard rumors of tensions at Costco spilling over into altercations between shoppers. From what I have heard police responded earlier in the week, and Costco is brought on additional security.

The purchases I am making are to top-off supplies I have already built up over the years. And what turned me into a prepper? The economic crisis of 2007-2009.

Anyone who truly understands what happened during the “economic recovery” of the Obama regime should have been preparing for this moment. Central bankers bought a decade of time to rearrange the deck chairs of the Titanic, but the eventual sinking of the global economy was assured when the underlying exposure to the mortgage-backed security scam was simply papered over to keep the .01% insulated from the consequences of their greed.

My friends and family thought I was being stupid and paranoid when I invested in dried food, guns and bullets. “What are you going to do, fight the government with a rifle?” they would jokingly ask. No, I would reply, I’m preparing for the time when shelves in grocery stores are empty. The guns aren’t to fight anyone, they are protection against the desperation that will undoubtedly increase, making normal people act in abnormal ways.

The desire to survive justifies all kinds of behaviors that otherwise wouldn’t be considered in a stable society.

Things continue to change fast, and I’m going to keep stocking up before more stringent restrictions are implemented. The window on free movement is quickly closing. Even the super rich are discovering that they might not be able to hop on a private jet to make it out of quarantine zones.

We are in a marathon now. Managing stress and anxiety amidst all this uncertainty is going to be a challenge for everyone adjusting to the new reality that could again change by the end of the day.

Stay tuned…

by William Skink

It was surreal driving to work today, not knowing what to expect. By the end of the work day bars and restaurants were mandated closed in Missoula County, per the Health Department.

But not really closed, they can still do take out. How are the logistics supposed to work? It depends on the space, I guess. Social distancing. But the grocery stores and convenient stores and big box stores are still open?

The Health Department is interpreting the latest guidelines from the CDC. Gatherings of 50 people and greater are being shut down, but in practice does that mean little coffee shops close while Walmart stays open?

And what about primaries tomorrow?

Not knowing what part of life will drastically change tomorrow, or the next day, is adding to the anxiety everyone is feeling. Pace yourselves, people, we are just at the beginning of this.

On Monday Costo was packed again worse than it was on Friday, according to a first hand account from my mom. Will Costco be allowed to operate normally tomorrow while Break Espresso has to turn away business?

Local businesses are being asked to sacrifice in ways some of them won’t be able to bounce back from. People are losing their jobs. The entire economic system is fracturing all around us.

If and when we get through this first wave of disruption, what will development in Missoula look like moving forward? Is Nick Checota’s Big D(rift) still going to break ground this summer? Will TIF still be used to sweeten mixed-use condo/retail builds?

I think I’m getting ahead of myself. Better focus on getting through the next few days.

by William Skink

I turned my Ridin’ w/ Biden poem into this, enjoy: