Winter Update

Yeah its been a while since I posted last. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Mine didn't go so well. I ended up in the ER Christmas Eve. Turns out a cold that I was fighting turned into a double ear infection. I spent most of my Christmas day sleeping. But that was the worst that happened.

My dad asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I almost jokingly typed "Ammo and MREs". I told my brother and sure enough, for Christmas a case of MREs landing on my lap. 12 MREs and 650 rounds of ammo, and some miscellaneous stuff were my gifts. My wife got her first pistol too! Its a very exciting time. It was a great holiday with my family. It was the first without my brother-in-law, who passed away several months ago, and my brother and his family, they moved out of state making it tough to get together for holidays. But enough of all that.

The York Gunshow was last weekend. In the wake of tragedy in CT, the good folks that love and own guns have lost their minds. I am a (stable-minded) gun owner, I don't like to panic buy. However, dealers there, and from what I understand, everywhere, have gouged their prices for "assault rifle style" weapons. (Side Note: I hate the term assault rifle because its not through around in the media to describe any rifle that has a pistol grip and is magazine fed. ALSO, they started throwing around the term "Semi-Automatic". The words "Assault" and "automatic" scare the crap out of people that don't understand or respect weapons.) I saw Saiga shotguns, that 3 weeks ago at the Harrisburg MAAC gunshow, were around 750-800. They were 1100 at the York show. The unfortunate part is people were happy to pay whatever price dealers felt like selling it at. AR style weapons were in the 2000 range. They were flying off the tables. When we allow that kind of treatment, we tell the dealers that this is okay. Also, when we behave like this it gives these anti-gun folks something to point at and yell "SEE! THEY'RE UNSTABLE! LOOK AT THEM BUYING! WE CAN'T HAVE THIS!" Please, please, please, stop buying like this. They're just using us to fuel their own machine. Now, on a positive note, gun parts were at an all time low price. There wasn't much there, though I wasn't surprised in the least. I knew this gun show would be the push for rifles and ammo. 7.62x39 was sold out by Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, a single case was left. Each box of 20 rounds was selling at a $10/box.
So gun parts were low priced and tactical gear was plentiful. I picked up a great thigh rig and a pouch for $20. That's it in the picture. Also, picked up a magazine for the pistol and for the wife's pistol. Including $29 in fuel, we spent right under $100. It was a good run. I also got my samurai patch, made my donation to the Wounded Vets, and finally got a 550 cord bracelet that fit!

Over the weekend, I officially started integrating my wife into the prepping. Shes always been a part of it, she's supported it and actively participated. But we've now broken the barrier. We're going to starting putting together her B.O.B. She officially has her own box on the shelf. I know it doesn't seem extremely exciting but it is to me.

Speaking of the shelves, I recently revamped the prepping room. Originally, the shelves were placed against the wall making them fully visible from the door. This was easy access for our food when we were going to use it. However, it was visible from the door. There was the problem. I didn't like that by walking past the door, or looking up through the window you could see the shelves. You weren't able to see what was on them, but shelving units like this are not a standard furnishing in an apartment like mine. Someone might be able to tell that I was stockpiling. I have taken to the idea of its probably best to stay low-key. Taking the opportunity to rearrange I could also go through everything. So the picture there is what is left of the food stuff after I picked it over. For two people, I'd say that isn't so bad.

I also missed the whole Mayan end of the world thing. Obviously, we're all still here. No one did anything really dumb. We all live to fight another day.

Well, this went much longer than I thought it would. I hope everyone enjoys the last of 2012! I'll update with some winter updates as things change. Its a very exciting time!