Just like before a thunderstorm

[neilgin1]

silverflake, you honor me with your words on my purported "wisdom", i do thank you for that encouragement, but any wisdom i have gained is from two sources, first thru the maze of own my blunders and character defects, and the ensuing baptism of tears, cold lonely grey nights, dissecting my many mistakes, and secondly, wisdom only gained thru the awful Grace of God, the Teacher, listening to that Small Still Voice, God the Holy Spirit. So if i boast, i boast in the Lord, and if i was truly "wise", why is it, that i smoke cigarettes like chimney?....ruined the marriage to the woman i love?, (though we remain blood kin, and tight family, who speak everyday, with love)

Hence, any "wisdom" is gained thru pain, and seen thru a glass darkly, imcomplete and flawed, but you do lift my spirits, in the sense, that any words i type out, may be of SOME benefit to a brother, sight unseen. THAT brings me joy.
That "joy" tempered by what you wrote about your father, and his travails. Undoubtably a fine man and a good American, and between him and your Granddaddy they layed a foundation that carries you to this very day. Hear me brother, WE ARE GOING TO MAKE IT THRU. NOBODY gonna beat us down! If we got to, we gonna reach inside and take hold of that inner steel that was bred into us...and we WILL prevail, God willing......and pennypicker, I'm 52 my bro, and i agree with you wholeheartedly, i am not seeing that "U-turn" either, in a national sense, thats whats tearing me apart, as i got my two "wolverines", 16 and 18...and this whole sickness is grabbing at their heels, but at least i can fight back, by teaching them what i know.....so i beg ya'll, please consider me friend, ally and brother, even though i aint in your physical orbit. NOBODY is going to beat us down, and turn us into slaves, they gonna hafta kill me first. Sorry to "get heavy", but there it is. i pray for the kind of pen that Thomas Jefferson had.....amen. fondly, neil

[silverflake]

You are OK in my book neilgin1.
Keep your wits and more importantly,keep the faith dude.

(Silver lookin' good today eh? Storms-a-rumblin...)

[68Camaro]

Almost all of us here share a certain common ground of seeing value where others don't. In that we all have a kind of kinship. But the population of us comes in several flavors, and with that, there are those that I feel closest too, while others will just be acquaintances - though with a bond. We can have favorite brothers, and while I won't name all, and won't set a limit, Neil is a special one. Smoker or not. Failed past or not.

And on that note, we've all been there in one or more ways, if you live long enough - only the young and naive claim to know it all and be without fault. Believe me, you don't want to examine my past life closely, and even my now, with lessons learned, is nothing to boast on.

(Dude, you need to work on that smoking! A waste of silver, waste of future capital! Most importantly, a waste of your health, and of future time with your family. Not that I'm telling you anything you don't know, but maybe some reinforcement will some day be what you need to decide that today is the day to quit!)

[wbeck]

Lord... Can you even imagine? Making minimum wage, or $10 an hour... And not even getting 40 hours a week. I can't even conceive of how anyone can live on that. As much as I like to complain sometimes, ultimately I do realize how fortunate I am being self employed with a growing business right now.

Beck, no i cant even imagine...i can. but its just all cracks my heart in two. Thats why whenever i go into wal marts, or this in that store, i always try to walk ultra courteous, be sweet, and winsome, coz i see their faces, and we aint talking about people that can envision a bright future, they just getting by. the way i was raised, was that America is sposed to be a Land of Bright Futures, meaning if you work hard, play by the rules, study, you can better your lot and your childrens lot in life, and it seems to me, that American Dream is fading way fast. Thats why we see a land in turmoil, and thats why i see these labels, "liberal", "conservative" of little to no value.

if you love something or someone SO MUCH, what a failure a man would be if he doesnt call out with a ringing voice, when the object of his love is going astray? i LOVE this country, Our America, and its going wrong. i thought we whooped king george the thirds azz and his redcoats!...and send them packing, i thought we whooped hitler's azz, and his nazi hordes, and sent them packing off to hell, which is there place....and i look around, and THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE BACK!!....coz we all fallen asleep and these hellhounds just crept in thru the back door...and the only fellow with enough grit to call out this madness, Congressman Ron Paul, the media treats his campaign like its a gang of pajama wearing mental patients......and if you get to be a threat to this empire...you're dead. i learned that lesson on 22 Nov 1963.....i sure wish we'd quit tearing each other apart, meaning that whole "liberal", "conservative" thing....sorry to vent, i just dont know anymore, but i AM glad you done like a coyote, with the self employed growing business, may God enrich your household, fondly, neil

Exactly. I always try to be as nice as I can to everybody... But the rougher a life someone has, the nicer I try to be to them. The thing that really kills me is how easy it would all be to avoid. First off our country could easily be turned around if people had their heads screwed on straight. It's been an intentional indoctrination through the public school system (I went through it all too, but had a father who'd figured out a lot of the "scams" the man runs and so I didn't buy it), through the media, etc. If you magically replaced the populace with people from 1900 we'd have this country turned around in a couple years. Unfortunately people hate to admit they've been duped... So even when people with some sense hear the truth, they often refuse to admit it's true. BUT I think there are more people in the know now than any time in the last few decades, so who knows how things might go. EVERYONE knows there's "something wrong", the only problem is the people who think big government is the way to fix it... Courtesy of the indoctrination.

Then the other thing, is that even within this crumbling empire one can STILL easily live a very good life. Once again my dad was a big self help book freak. He's more into it than I, but I've read quite a few. I'm a fairly even keeled sort, so all the inspirational stuff, while nice, doesn't do a lot for me... But some of the more nuts and bolts books/authors I LOVE. While he may not be the brightest man in the world (he says it himself frequently) Robert Kiowsaki of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" fame is someone I really like. It just lays out a lot of the super easy common sense idiotic things 99 percent of the populace does that keeps them poor. If a couple of his books, and books of a similar ilk, were required reading in school (as they should be!) our nation would be twice as rich, there would be virtually no poverty of any kind, and it would be better all around.

As I said I'm very thankful my business is doing well in all this... But that said, it's doing well because I'm being halfway smart about things! Most people could very quickly turn around their lot in life with very minimal changes in their behavior, if they just knew the correct changes to make. I try to pass along some hints to friends and others sometimes, but most of them seem to not care. Hopefully someday I'll get someone who takes the bait, as it'd give me a really good warm fuzzy feeling inside! Until then, at least some of you guys on here seem to be great company since you get it!!!

[neilgin1]

Beck, you seem to be good company as well. a most hearty welcome to you sir, neil

[Saabman]

Almost all of us here share a certain common ground of seeing value where others don't. In that we all have a kind of kinship. But the population of us comes in several flavors, and with that, there are those that I feel closest too, while others will just be acquaintances - though with a bond. We can have favorite brothers, and while I won't name all, and won't set a limit, Neil is a special one. Smoker or not. Failed past or not.

And on that note, we've all been there in one or more ways, if you live long enough - only the young and naive claim to know it all and be without fault. Believe me, you don't want to examine my past life closely, and even my now, with lessons learned, is nothing to boast on.

(Dude, you need to work on that smoking! A waste of silver, waste of future capital! Most importantly, a waste of your health, and of future time with your family. Not that I'm telling you anything you don't know, but maybe some reinforcement will some day be what you need to decide that today is the day to quit!)

Because of this site and everyone's input about the impending storm, I finally decided to quit my 30 year addiction to snuff so I can have additional funds for more silver! 3 weeks and counting. The way I figured it was: 1 can of Skoal was around $4.00. 1 can a day = $28.00 a week = $112.00 per month. Heck that's a bunch of silver over time!!!

[silverflake]

Nice job Saabman. neilgin1, you gotta stop the smokes. Your health is one of those things you have to stockpile too. Keep stacking and get running.

[wbeck]

Argh! I smoke too... A horrible habit really. If I could just cut back to half a pack a day... And they find a cure for cancer it'd be great! Then I wouldn't have to bother with trying to quit!!! Until then though, should probably give it some thought.

[68Camaro]

Easy for stats to get skewed in an electronic forum, especially when the topic comes up specifically and people are willing to be transparent, but I get the impression that far more RCers smoke (or did, given that many are in the middle of working on quitting, thanks to barrytrot) than those I know locally. Maybe I travel in an odd crowd, but no one I know personally admits to smoking, except my wife's sister. Anyone else notice this, or just me?

[shinnosuke]

Easy for stats to get skewed in an electronic forum, especially when the topic comes up specifically and people are willing to be transparent, but I get the impression that far more RCers smoke (or did, given that many are in the middle of working on quitting, thanks to barrytrot) than those I know locally. Maybe I travel in an odd crowd, but no one I know personally admits to smoking, except my wife's sister. Anyone else notice this, or just me?

I work mostly at home and since neither the Mrs. or I smoke, I never encounter cigarette smoke while "on the job." Furthermore, lately it seems that to even smell cigarette smoke is a rare occasion for me. Rare enough that I actually take note that it has been a long time since I last smelled it. I guess the most common appearance of a cigarette in my world is to occasionally see a hand hanging out of a car window with a short, white, pencil-thin object perched between a couple of fingers. Doesn't Uncle Sam keep raising the taxes on cigarettes, which only drives more people to quit? The government needs the tax revenues, but their practices reduce the income. Typical, eh?

[beauanderos]

Easy for stats to get skewed in an electronic forum, especially when the topic comes up specifically and people are willing to be transparent, but I get the impression that far more RCers smoke (or did, given that many are in the middle of working on quitting, thanks to barrytrot) than those I know locally. Maybe I travel in an odd crowd, but no one I know personally admits to smoking, except my wife's sister. Anyone else notice this, or just me?

I work mostly at home and since neither the Mrs. or I smoke, I never encounter cigarette smoke while "on the job." Furthermore, lately it seems that to even smell cigarette smoke is a rare occasion for me. Rare enough that I actually take note that it has been a long time since I last smelled it. I guess the most common appearance of a cigarette in my world is to occasionally see a hand hanging out of a car window with a short, white, pencil-thin object perched between a couple of fingers. Doesn't Uncle Sam keep raising the taxes on cigarettes, which only drives more people to quit? The government needs the tax revenues, but their practices reduce the income. Typical, eh?

I would think, logically (though logic doesn't always rule when considering addictions), that the failing economy would have a beneficial effect in assisting smokers to quit... if only because it's a fairly expensive habit? I know some diehard smokers might disagree, but when it comes to a choice of feeding yourself or your family, it seems like you'd be forced to cut back, whether you were willing to try and quit or not. On another note, for the member who is trying to give up snuff to stack... just think... after silver explodes you can buy all the snuff you want for a long time. I expect silver and gold (not so much platinum and palladium) to absolutely explode in value by several multiples (five or six, at least) within this next year. It would be nice if that occured in an environment where we could all think merrily "la, la, la, la, la... I'm off to sell some of my enormous gains and enjoy my stupendous windfall profits" in a normal world and not fear the sudden display of wealth... but I strongly suspect, that accompanied by such an imagined upsurge in metals worth there would, unfortunately, be a concurrent descent into an anarchic world of chaos. Very soon... the have nots are going to decide they want what the haves have, and little is there to stop them from taking it.

[NotABigDeal]

I don't smoke, but everyone at work smokes but me and one other guy. I don't have to buy them, I get to smoke for free.... Maybe it's a blue collar think? More smokers in "dirty" work?

As far as the price goes, one guy went to rolling his own. He bought a machine and he can smoke a pack a day for around $40 a month. But I'll tell you what, his cigarettes smell worse than the name brand ones everyone else smokes, hehe.

People think they can tax smokers enough that they will quit. They will not quit no matter how high the price. While I know some of our more "distinguished", hehe, members on here can remember prices way lower, I remember the guys saying they would never pay $3 for a pack. Then it went to never paying $4 a pack. Now these same guys are spending $5 on a pack. My state has I think the lowest state tax on cigarettes. Only like 17¢ per pack. There is talk on raining our state tax on them to $1 a pack. Not for health reasons, for money. They, and we know who they is, know that they can milk the smokers and they will pay.

Deal

p.s. I just realized I didn't post anything pertaining to the original post. Sorry....

[neilgin1]

Deal, not to worry...i KNOW i gots to quit the smokes, this knowledge torments me.
Ray, you wrote some good stuff, and i wanted to respond, ie, outsider chaos, and coveting of any wealth by hellions, and my mind went to several items needed, concertina wire...LOVE IT!...its like gold...you decide your "perimeter", then you disc and till the perimeter, you think is the limits of your "green zone", sow it to buckwheat, just keep letting the buckwheat go, when you have to go code red, just unspool the rolls atop the buckwheat, get a few tent spikes to lay the wire in, keep sowing to buckwheat.
i also got my eye on a type of dog, my neighbors got, its got a fancy name, but its a white black spotted leopard dog, they're an older couple who i adore, and the dog adores me, she's a young un, but already has killed 17 moles! if anybody knows moles, this is a fantastic feat. they complain that she requires play, and they might wanna give her to "uncle" neil. She's got a fun personality, and is an excellent "doorbell", plus me gots the feeling if she had her back to the wall, she'd be lethal, which leads me to talk about weaponry. a lot of guys like bolt action hunting rifles, i prefer mil-spec MBR's...thats just me. Now i know if our friend "needler420" reads this, he's just gonna roll his eyes at my words. Dude, we're cool...serious, you gotta do your thing, i do mine, thats FREEDOM, but i dont have a "SHTF mentality"...its just that both life and a careful perusal of history, has taught me, you gotta be very careful in all endeavours, especially in these days of such economic and social dislocation....this "mentality" you speak of, i feel you dont really know me, or my crew, coz i aint a lone wolf, lone wolves die, packs and tribes are the order of the day, and much of our day is spent laughing about all the fun and good stuff in life, not constant ruminations on dire shtf scenarios...NOT AT ALL. Life can be fun, a lot of fun. So my prayer is for everybody reading this, that they have life and life to the fullest, neil

[Delawhere Jack]

Back on topic...... ehhem...

It appears that the bailout fund scheme for weak European nations and insolvent banks has been recieved about as well as a loud garbage fart in church. This will cause (is already) another credit crunch of the sort we had in 2008, only possibly on a much larger scale.

Hang on, this ride is going to get wild.

[silverflake]

...Like a thunderstorm. The clouds keep building. Let them build, the longer the wick, the bigger the bang.

Speaking of black clouds, I live in Virginia - a tobacco state. Lots of people smoke down here. Too many. Which leads me to this - in past SHTF scenarios (WWI, WWII, post WWII Berlin etc.) cigarettes were like gold and traded as currency. Stack a couple of cartons of those for future barter too.

Still, gang, quit the cigs. Your health is as important as the prepping (it's part of the prepping). Keep your health and keep your silver and gold too.
Not to rub it in but my wife and I are running our first marathon in February. We don't and never have smoked.
Keep stacking, quit smoking (I like reading you guys too much...)

[neilgin1]

Back on topic...... ehhem...

It appears that the bailout fund scheme for weak European nations and insolvent banks has been recieved about as well as a loud garbage fart in church. This will cause (is already) another credit crunch of the sort we had in 2008, only possibly on a much larger scale.

Hang on, this ride is going to get wild.

yeh, i know. i'm getting that bad feeling again. Asia opened up bad, and the headlines just get more dire. MF Global going belly up? Italy in the EU crosshairs? they sure do want Italys 2500 tonne gold stash. But the dollar, the American equities markets just hang in there, either i'm missing something, or market participants are so dosed up on anti-dpressants and tranqulizer's, the markets reflecting their pilled up state. i dunno.

[Delawhere Jack]

Back on topic...... ehhem...

It appears that the bailout fund scheme for weak European nations and insolvent banks has been recieved about as well as a loud garbage fart in church. This will cause (is already) another credit crunch of the sort we had in 2008, only possibly on a much larger scale.

Hang on, this ride is going to get wild.

yeh, i know. i'm getting that bad feeling again. Asia opened up bad, and the headlines just get more dire. MF Global going belly up? Italy in the EU crosshairs? they sure do want Italys 2500 tonne gold stash. But the dollar, the American equities markets just hang in there, either i'm missing something, or market participants are so dosed up on anti-dpressants and tranqulizer's, the markets reflecting their pilled up state. i dunno.

Intravenous Hopium.

[68Camaro]

yeh, i know. i'm getting that bad feeling again. Asia opened up bad, and the headlines just get more dire. MF Global going belly up? Italy in the EU crosshairs? they sure do want Italys 2500 tonne gold stash. But the dollar, the American equities markets just hang in there, either i'm missing something, or market participants are so dosed up on anti-dpressants and tranqulizer's, the markets reflecting their pilled up state. i dunno.

From what I've observed from the side-lines, American traders (and others around the globe that emulate them) only know four things: stocks, bonds, commodities, and forex. And the last two are considered speculative, so the bulk of fund managers spend their funds only on stocks (foreign, domestic, what type, what market, what proportion) or bonds (T-bills, munis, corporate, foreign, etc). They just don't know what they don't know. And so they vacillate back and forth between assets that are almost all fiat-based, not knowing what else to do. They have trillions in paper assets and they have to put them somewhere. So until we see either the big crash (not the little dip we're in the middle of), or see the big inflation and the resulting loss of confidence, I will not be surprised if the equities market goes back up by year end as people pull money back out of bonds and into equities.

[Diggin4copper]

Is there a way to stack ciggarettes without them going stale? Thx... Diggin

[rickygee]

Wrap those nails in freezer bags and into the big chiller.

Re. smoking: It WILL catch up with you. You'll trade an (X) per day butt habit for one prescription inhaler every three to four weeks. No stocking up on those either, maybe three or four at the most.

But you WILL quit after it's too late, you have no choice, so you'll be able to save some money for the progeny if you don't need oxygen and that my friends is the bright side (the not needing oxygen). Most of the things you did that required strength and/or exertion like taking the trash out or walking quickly across the street forget running, hiking or backpacking and SO MUCH MORE, will be in the past. I'm getting morbid just thinking about all I miss. Quit! Sermon over, over and out.

[Treetop]

Is there a way to stack ciggarettes without them going stale? Thx... Diggin

I cant say how long they last for sure... but the "tins" of tobacco that are sold are what I smoked before barry and corsairs offer. (still going strong)

Anyway one time a local tobacco ship was going out of business and the brand of tins that I used was slashed to half price. I must have had like 10 of them. I didnt exactly keep track of how long they lasted but it was several months. The last of those were as fresh as the first, and they are in metal tins with a seal. Id assume they would last a few years atleast. If tobacco gets to dry, put a few drops of water in with it, and seal it somewhere airtight. It will be fine again. For shtf purposes im sure those tins would still be useful for a decade or three in al honesty... I see no reason it should go bad. Most herbs dont go bad stored in open air let alone airtight containers.

There are also seeds. Its a crop that likes a rich soil, and decent water levels... otherwise very easy to grow and in most areas has few or no pests. strangely the areas we grow the most is where the pests for it live. Same for potatoes. rather odd actually, there are shorter season tobaccos, and potatoes for the south... weird how that works out...

[neilgin1]

Back on topic...... ehhem...

It appears that the bailout fund scheme for weak European nations and insolvent banks has been recieved about as well as a loud garbage fart in church. This will cause (is already) another credit crunch of the sort we had in 2008, only possibly on a much larger scale.

Hang on, this ride is going to get wild.

yeh, i know. i'm getting that bad feeling again. Asia opened up bad, and the headlines just get more dire. MF Global going belly up? Italy in the EU crosshairs? they sure do want Italys 2500 tonne gold stash. But the dollar, the American equities markets just hang in there, either i'm missing something, or market participants are so dosed up on anti-dpressants and tranqulizer's, the markets reflecting their pilled up state. i dunno.

Ohhh, the "news" is BAD this morning, if at the end of this day, 1 Nov 2011, if the stock market trades positive, i will be VERY surprised.....and everyone, i HEAR ya on the cig thing, its not falling on deaf ears...but i'm reading the financial wires, and this is going to get ugly, big time.

[neilgin1]

There are also seeds. Its a crop that likes a rich soil, and decent water levels... otherwise very easy to grow and in most areas has few or no pests. strangely the areas we grow the most is where the pests for it live. Same for potatoes. rather odd actually, there are shorter season tobaccos, and potatoes for the south... weird how that works out...

off topic?...good word, i got a slight problem, vis-a-vis my soil tilth, it is poor up on this ridge, which was logged off a while ago. i know what i gotta do, but its a multi year thing, meaning a lot of discing, and then 2 years AT least of laying in clovers, white, red ladino, and alfalfa, buckwheat, fescue, timothy, broom, and just tilling that under. i got friends with cows, and i gotta lay MUCH manure, etc etc...before i can even think of doing anything serious, which is why i been stocking grains in buckets, stashing non hybrid seeds, AND fitting on putting a monster greenhouse in the spring just to keep my seed stock current. you know, right now, in the stores, i keep seeing cans of tomatoes, at 5 for $5, big cans...i been laying into those, stocking them...becoz you CANNOT can maters, below what they offer in cans..at least not yet. SeedSavers is a wonderful resource, for non hybrids. neil

[neilgin1]

just one more "off topic" note, i'm desirous of stacking coffee "bricks", i found a whole mess in the big city, but (lol), i done cut thru that. and the price is ramped, big time. i do keep a TON of instant coffee, but thats not the optimum brew, though it would make a good trade items....gotta think "vices"..."vices" will trade high. but i only keep a couple of large cans of tobbaco, well aware of its horrid effect on me. ooooohhhh. enough of my talk, time for action, i love you all, neil

[rsk1963]

Why in god's name is greece determining if they want to be saved or not? It's like they were sent a life line, and instead they're thinking about cutting the ropes that keep them from falling? Someone please explain to me what/why would they consider such things? Massive pain now, rather than later? I truely do not understand.