Week in Review

You can look at this as very late or 3 days early.

If you're thinking its very late, its because it is. My apologies. I've been running full speed the past week. So here's the timeline!

Last week: Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing

Saturday: Left nice and early in the morning and went to Baltimore for Comic con! This was the wife's first convention and she loved it. She decided that she wants to go back next year, but she wants to go in costume. SO, that gives me an exciting opportunity. I would like to dress up too and what I want to make allows me to get a few of the things I'd like for my kit. Now, I can piece it together over a long period of time because I have over a year to do it. Its not going to be one big lump sum all at once. The picture is the idea for my costume. With that costume I'll have to buy the gloves, knee pads, and elbow pads I've wanted. I'm also adding a thigh rig to it, and a few pouches since my pockets in the pants won't be able to be used I'll have to have something to put stuff into. Finally, I'll need to purchase proper boots and a set of black BDUs. But its all beside the point, it really has nothing to do with prepping. But its gonna be fun anyway.

Sunday: I spent some time at Barnes and Noble reading. I've been looking into alot of books about personal finances. The new system we came up with is working GREAT. We have majority of our bills paid off the FIRST paycheck of the month. I'm taking care of some debt when I get paid and we knocked down some extra on a one of the credit cards. But again, like Comic Con, it has nothing to do with prepping. Simply, we're working with our money and getting more out of it. Hopefully, this extra money we can expand our prepping.

Now we get to this week and its all headed down hill.
Monday: Nothing happens, Panzer is acting funny.

Tuesday: Panzer continues to act funny. That evening, I bent down to pat Panzer for following his command perfectly, suddenly a pain shoots up from the base of my spine to the back of my neck. I ignored and powered through the pain thinking it will be better in the morning.

Wednesday: I wake up and can hardly move. My back is stiff and very sore. Again, like an idiot, I power through it. I make it through work until about lunch. My wife made my first ever Chiropractor appointment. The chiropractor could be my friend, I felt pretty good. However, basically my right side is way more tense then my left. This is connected to my ankle hurting. Also may be the reason my knee has been hurting.

Thursday: Woke up very sore. ...Very sore. Can't really move. Unfortunately, I had to call off. With my wife off for the day and me being down for the day we decided to take Panzer to the Vet. He has been acting funny for the past 2 weeks. He wasn't eating, scratching, and had some sores on his belly and tail. Turns out he has fleas and the eating problem is his being picky. So I spent the day tearing apart the house and cleaning top to bottom. I'm not interested in any kind of infestations. It gave me a great chance to clean from top to bottom. This evening we started out second round of obedience training classes.

The week has been a little rough. 

Tomorrow, I go back to the chiropractor to have him look. Also, going back to work with being off for a day is terrifying. I never know what I'm walking into. But I'm ready to take it all on.

The plan for this weekend is to go to DF and EF's future house, we're doing some repainting and I get to check out the next locations for a greenhouse.

Man, that's all for now. I'll update again on Sunday. Again, sorry for the delay.

Week in Review

This week has been very calm. Nothing of major note has happened.

While I wasn't actually going to post anything, it has become a weekly ritual. I don't like missing weeks.

There is one thing that came of this week. After all the numbers and looking at the money I've decided that for the next couple months I'm going to very low. I have some shows and movies I want to catch up on, some range time to put in, some planning to do, and some games I've been meaning to put some time in to. Most of all, money to save. So I'm putting all Field Trips on hiatus. There aren't many Field Trips left that I had planned, but the ones I did I'm putting on hold probably for a few months. However, I'm hoping for some more training exercise ideas. I think my next one will be a hands on time with my bug out bag. I wish I had more people around that would take part in a bug in/bug out weekend. I would love to set up a weekend. I'm working out the kinks. Even if no one else will participate I'll do it by myself. I'll begin planning this week, work out the kinks then have a full on scenario.

Anyway, I have to cut this short. I've lost track of time today. Sorry this wasn't more exciting.

Rest in peace - Dino Taylor

A month or so back I posted a fundraiser for a Baltimore City police officer. His name was Dino Taylor. He was in a nasty accident a while back that put him down for a bit. He past away last week. He was a friend and worked with my brother in law who past away a few months ago. It is a sad loss for Baltimore City. I still have friends there and I wish them the best of luck and hope that they stay out of danger.

My wife wrote:
Today we lost a great husband, father, police officer, and friend Dino Taylor. He was a great man, who was there for me when I lost my brother exactly 5 months ago. Dino you will never be forgotten. I'm sure Nick was there to greet you with that contagious smile of his. Love and miss you, my friend.

If any of you did donate, I thank you. I know we all don't agree with police and the media only shows us the cops that kick a woman in the face while she cuffed on the ground or whatever. The truth of it all is what we're shown is only the nasty power driven cops, who are only cops because they have a badge. The ones we often forget about are the good guys that do their job day after day, that go to work knowing they could be punched, shot, stabbed, spit on, or whatever. Those police aren't given enough credit. 

Rest in peace, Dino. You'll be missed.

It's not a hobby, it's a way of life.

For the record this is a junk post. Lots of thoughts but no organizations...Read at your own Risk.
 
So I'm crunching numbers budgeting my personal finances. I'm doing this because it needs done and usually my wife does it, but I feel like I've put all the pressure on her and its unfair. Also, we're looking at a new TV this evening. Our TV is about to go tits up I'm sure. It was bought in the early 90s, its a 27in CRT TV. The color is going, the picture gets cut off. It makes watching TV miserable. But anyway, I'm crunching numbers thinking about where my money goes each month and I gotta say that the little purchases just eat up ALL the money.

BUT where all this comes from is me thinking about how I plan for things. I plan for things that are unknown in the future, but I realized I stopped paying attention to the important things that NEED done. I've put alot of thought into it and I realized that by prioritizing and planning everything going on around me everything will come together like a puzzle. It made me think about what I've heard alot of you guys say: Its not a hobby, its a way of life. When it boils down, I was treating prepping like a hobby. I was doing that and not understanding why I felt like I wasn't making any progress.

I've crunched my total debt. Its way more than a person my age should have. I've crunched may monthly income vs. my monthly costs. We make more than we spend so that means we should be packing up some extra money.

SO drawing all of this together and a reason why I bothered to write any of this. Here is where my wife and I are at currently: Too much debt and no plan to fix it and no goal to accomplish it. We always talk about planning and setting goals to make progress with our skills, stockpiles, and supplies. Here I am with no goal and no plan and a huge lingering problem. I don't like feeling lost or unprepared, that is why I do what I do.



Conclusion: I don't know where I was going with it all and it was terribly written. I apologize to everyone for it. BUT no plan and no goal means no progress and integrate prepping into your day-to-day life or both will feel unfulfilled. Finally, I'm probably buying a TV.