Prepare

06:30 Thursday, 27 August 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 62.58°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 7.02mph
Words: 545

Life has been wonderful around here lately. I joke to people that I keep waiting for the meteor to strike.

Well, I think we can see what's coming. What's possibly coming.

Iran and Russia aren't very happy with the U.S. these days. China has its own agenda, but our low stocks of sophisticated interceptors and strike munitions may be altering their calculus with regard to Taiwan.

I have little faith that the federal government is prepared for what could possibly be coming.

I'm not thinking about kinetic strikes on the U.S., though there may possibly be conventional limited ones. I think it's going to be more along the lines of cybernetic attacks on infrastructure, primarily the electrical grid, communications and water.

These will be intended to sow domestic chaos, while impeding a military response to other actions, either against Taiwan or a Baltic state, possibly both.

Right now, I feel like I'm personally racing against time. I want to get this new house dried in with power and HVAC as soon as possible, and our next priority is going to be a solar array, with some battery storage.

But that's not going to do us much good if the society around us is suffering and struggling. We won't be able to count on much help, if any, from government at any level in the near term. So it's going to be up to individuals and maybe local committees to do what they can to prepare for significant disruptions to the key systems that sustain our way of life.

I used to say, "We're all preppers now," in connection with extreme weather events. My personal risk analysis now has international conflict as a greater threat than extreme weather.

And we definitely all should be preppers now.

We should all be doing our own vulnerability assessments. If you require daily medication to function, how much do you have on hand? How much are you allowed to buy in advance? We live in a highly optimized economic system, which makes it very brittle. There aren't large stocks of meds in the local pharmacies. They rely on logistics chains that are vulnerable to disruptions.

Food is similarly vulnerable, but you don't have laws or regulations that impair your ability to stock up. Canned and dry goods that can keep indefinitely. Be sure to have a hand-powered can opener.

Generators are great, as long as there is fuel. And if there is no power, it will soon follow that there will be no fuel. Do not stock up on fuel. That's not safe. I'd say just never let your vehicle get below three-quarters of a tank.

Buy some large-ish battery "power stations." Depending on your budget, you can get something that could run your whole house for a day, or your refrigerator for a week. But you'll also need some solar panels to recharge during the day.

You'll want to figure out something to do about water and sanitation. A five-gallon bucket and some sawdust can get you started. And you can store some amount of water safely, unlike fuel. But definitely think about water.

Get to know your neighbors.

I hope I'm just being paranoid, but I've got a bad feeling about this.

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