Since I’ve lived here in Louisville, we’ve had at least 3 multi-day power outages, one in the dead of winter. We’ve had a bad haz-mat situation, thankfully on the other side of town. There have been tornadoes in the area, but not massive. However, the possibility of massive damage to Louisville from storms is definitely there.

So Irish Woman and I have done some small things in the past to get ready for problems and we have started kicking those efforts up a notch.

We of course do all the things that people normally do. We keep flashlights and candles around the house in case the power goes out. We have food in the pantry, and we make sure we have enough to go for a while if SuperMegaMegamart isn’t available.

But now we’ve started doing things a bit more earnestly. Our food stocks have taken a definite turn upwards, and I intend to increase them as time goes on. We have come up with the beginnings of plans for getting out of Dodge in the event that our home becomes a denied area. We’ve talked to friends and family on all of the cardinal directions from Louisville so that in the event of an evacuation, we have a place to go that isn’t a Red Cross shelter. Our emergency bags are in the cars in case of a problem at work, and I’m putting together a long-term bug-out-bag for the house.

We’ve also started gardening more and more. In the event, we’d like to at least be able to feed the kids fresh vegetables for a while.

I’ve started stockpiling firewood above and beyond what we need for enjoyment in the winter. Luckily for us, we didn’t lose power and heat during the ice storm last winter, but if we’d had to use our fireplace to keep the house warm, we would have been in trouble. I don’t want to be in that situation again.

Security is one of my concerns. While our neighborhood is firmly postwar middle class, and I’m not concerned that we would be a primary target for looting, we’re surrounded by very high-end sub-divisions. They are ground zero for looters. During the first multi-day power outage that we had here, I heard on the radio that some in the not so well-off areas of Louisville were talking about coming over here and helping themselves to whatever they could get. That was one of the reasons that I bought my first gun. I was home alone, with 3 (at the time) small children, no phone, and idiots were talking about looting. Kinda ratcheted up the pucker factor a little in an already tight situation.

I’ve begun talking to the other dads in the neighborhood, and they have been thinking similar thoughts. Luckily, two of my neighbors are hunters, and another is a shooter. If we have to post guards during bad times, I at least won’t be having to show people which end the bullet comes out of. Heck even Irish Woman is talking about learning to use a shotgun in case of emergency.

I take a lot of advice from several sources, principally from JWR’s excellent Survival Blog. I’ve read his book, “Patriots“, and while it’s a worst case scenario with a dash of non-internationalist paranoia thrown in, it gives good advice on products and tactics for being prepared. As I mentioned before, I read “One Second After” a few weeks ago, and while that isn’t as helpful on the techniques side, it gives you ideas on what to do and what not to do.

For those of you who have the ability, please give some thought about being ready for disruptions in your normal supply chain. Even if WallyWorld is still there, do you have cash to pay for what you need? No power means no debit cards or electronic verification of checks. Do you have the medicines you need in sufficient quantities to last you a couple of weeks if you can’t get to Walgreens? Do you and your family know where to go and how to communicate if you can’t go home and you’re separated by work and school?

And remember, your neighbors are your immediate support network. Make sure they know they can depend on you so that you can depend on them.

To: Kentucky Transportation Secretary
From: A Reluctant Taxpayer

Subject: Road Conditions and Driver Qualifications in the Commonwealth

Dear Sir:

Over the past several years, as I have become accustomed to driving across Jefferson County to work each morning, I have observed several things that I feel I must bring to your attention.

1. The road conditions in my area are very inconsistent. It appears that the ruts and holes in the Interstate highways are used to channel traffic into fire sacks and other kill zones. On several occasions each week, I have near death experiences caused by my vehicle going axle deep into the road surface and then rebounding into another lane. In other areas, the roads are mirror smooth, which is nice on dry days, but when the weather is not as nice as San Diego in April, I am forced to drive my automobiles in a manner that is closer to a luge run than a morning commute.

2. I do appreciate the building of cross-over prevention cables on many of the roads in the Commonwealth. However, I feel it must be pointed out that if the roads were properly drained and banked and if Kentucky drivers were not training for NASCAR, these barriers would not be so necessary.

3. I would like to meet the “engineer” that laid out the road system here in Kentucky. He obviously needs a new ruler since no road in Kentucky consistently follows a direction. The Gene Snyder Freeway, since it is a semi-circular road, understandably changes direction. But the Northbound lanes of the freeway actually go either east or west. And there are at least 5 roads I know of within a few miles of my home that have been chopped up and are no longer contiguous right of ways. A road will go on for a few miles, then stop or merge with another road. Several miles away, the road will pick up again, causing confusion on the part of drivers who have not been in the area for 3 or more generations. My guess is that this was done to confuse revenuers.

4. Kentucky drivers scare me. As I stated before, they drive their cars like NASCAR drivers trying to run someone into the wall. Most rear windows in Jefferson county are so obstructed by bumper stickers extolling racing, hunting, fishing, politics, or narcotics that I am sure the drivers are unable to see the accidents they cause as they speed away. I am forced to wonder if there is any formal education for driving in the Commonwealth, or if teenagers learn about driving the same place they learn about sex: on the playground.

While I enjoy living here in Kentucky, I feel that if these issues could be addressed, the living conditions in Kentucky would be greatly enhanced.

Thank you for your time,

Daddy Bear

On this day in 1776, the Founding Fathers went public with their intentions to rebel against the rule of the British crown. They were playing against long odds, and they all knew it.

Failure would have meant death at the end of a long drop at the gallows. This wasn’t going to be a peaceful change of leadership. They knew that many would be killed, and even more would be destroyed economically and socially.

They were wealthy landowners that were risking their fortunes and lives. They were slave holders who believed in personal liberty and freedom. They were of many faiths, and came from many backgrounds. They were imperfect, but they could imagine a perfection of society that we still strive for.

They weren’t a monolithic revolutionary council. There would be plenty of intrigue and back biting throughout the revolution, and it comes through to this day. There would be political wrangling and betrayal from that day until the last of the British and Hessian soldiers had left.

Our experiment in a revolutionary type of social contract continues. Sometimes we stumble on our path, but we always find our way back. Sometimes we stumble too far to the right, and sometimes too far to the left. But we keep working towards the realization of our ideals as a people.

The nations of the world have come to our country since 1776. Our understanding of equality and freedom has evolved, but it is grounded in the actions and beliefs of those men in Philadelphia.

It falls to us, their heirs, to continue the experiment and work to perfect our union.

I decided to celebrate the morning of this 4th of July by going out to Knob Creek and shooting my new-to-me M1 Garand. It had a clean bill of health from the gunsmith, and I was itching to put a couple of rounds down the barrel.

As usual, I got there before they opened, and picked out a good spot on the firing line. I put a target out at 100 yards, and put 2 clips of ammunition through it to zero the weapon.

The three shots in the center are my final rounds. I guess the zero is pretty good.

My groups weren’t as good as I would like, but these were the first rounds I’d put through the rifle. With practice, it’ll tighten up.

Here’s a pic of the new addition:

My impressions of the Garand is that it’s a heck of a lot of fun to shoot. It kicks more than an AR or SKS would, but not even close to the impact of a Mosin against my shoulder. It’s a heavy piece, and I can’t imagine walking with one from Normandy to the Elbe.

I would have burned up even more of my M2 Ball on it, but it’s in short supply, so I stopped after two clips. I’ll practice dry fire and stoppage drills with it at home and see if that helps with my groupings.

A lot of the systems I support have been in production, in one form or another, for over a decade. A couple for much longer than that. Occasionally, we run into some things that have been around since the Reagan administration that try to creep into new iterations of those applications.

The other day, one of the lead developers for one of our oldest applications called one of my coworkers and asked if he could have KERMIT put on his development Linux box.

We were all shocked when we heard about this request. I haven’t used KERMIT since Junior Bear was in diapers, and I haven’t had a system with KERMIT in almost 10 years.

We searched around, and there isn’t a supported KERMIT for our Linux distro. We did, however, find this:

I haven’t heard if this will be acceptable.

Well, our yearly family reunion with the Hoosier side of the family has come and gone. There was the usual crop of new babies. Imagine that, a Midwestern German Catholic family that has a steady stream of kids.

Girlie Bear had a good time running around with her cousins. Little Bear stayed home with his mom and Junior Bear is visiting his mom in California. Baby Bear had a blast being passed from aunt to aunt all weekend. We set up an inflatable pool for him and the other little ones and it as a big hit.

The weather was clear, sunny, hot, and muggy. We joked that it was convenient that the family reunion was held during the state Humidity Festival. I’m not complaining. It could have been storming all weekend long. The weather here has been very wet lately, and we were worried that it would be wet all weekend.

One note. To the group of four older couples that had the camping spots in the middle of our little mob all weekend. I’m very sorry that we messed up your quiet get together at the lake. The herd of children roaming through the area is actually a nice group of kids, and we tried as much as we could to keep the noise down after dark.

We’re leaving for the annual Hoosier Hoedown family reunion tomorrow. I probably won’t post over the weekend. I’ll let y’all know how it goes when we get back.

NBC is reporting that Michael Jackson has died.

One can only hope it was painful and slow. Hopefully when he gets to hell, Satan can find enough demons to reenact Jacksons actions with little boys for a few thousand years.

Roast slowly you pedarast freak.

Ok, I know she wasn’t the greatest actress in history. And she did go a bit off the deep end with drugs for a couple of decades. But her swimsuit poster is one of my most vivid memories from adolescence.

For all the mornings I woke up to see that smile and other attributes, I thank her.

On June 22, 1941, 68 years ago today, Adolf Hitler and his mob of sociopaths demonstrated why you should never believe your own PR and began the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Hitler believed after taking 2 countries without firing a shot and several more using innovative blitzkrieg tactics, his armies were invincible and he had “only to kick in the door” and the Soviet Union would crumble. He forgot that the thing that has protected Russia for millenia is how vast the country is and how harsh it is to invaders once the first snows fall.

By the time his little gambit was done, tens of millions of people would be dead, Germany would be partitioned for an entire generation, and Eastern Europe would take a body blow of oppression that still lingers.

I’ve been in Russia, and every little village has some sort of memorial to the civilian and military cost of the war. Germany is littered with mournful reminders of not only the German dead, but the innocent victims of German nationalism run amuck. France, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and all of the other countries in Europe have similar scars on their history and collective psyches.

For those of you who listen to podcasts, Dan Carlin over at Hardcore History is doing a multi-episode discussion of fighting at the Russian Front. Go, listen. He puts things into a very human perspective.