Tag Archives: survival

How I Spent the Pandemic and Great Reset. A Conversation We Will Be Having with Our Grandkids in the 2050s.

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Zach Foster

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If I get to tell the young kids thirty years from now about how I spent the Pandemic and Great Reset, I’m so going all George Patton inspiration speech the day before D Day on this shit. I hope you find the humor in it.

I will be able to tell my hypothetical grandkids that, “Well, your grandpappy survived the pandemic and the Great Reset of the 2010s and 2020s without getting so much as a sniffle. I was also a part of a resistance to the rising tides of authoritarianism that was rampant among his family, neighbors, and friends in Red State America. I actually convinced a few of the insanity of their ways and got them freed of the MAGA cult.”

“Grandpa also ran errands for disabled shut in neighbors while making a small profit on Robin Hood with my stimulus money. I was a fan of Wall Street bets and a Diamond Hands crazy son of a bitch named Roaring Kitty. I was a small part of the Apes and Wall Street bets and Dumb Money who helped bring down a few shady hedge fund managers and made themselves a few bucks in the process. Nothing like using the free market itself to punish the worst abusers of said free market.”

“Grandpa also survived heart failure, lost over170 pounds, moved out of rural Nebraska (yes, Grandpa was part of the ‘rural flight’ migration to urban areas) to the greener pastures and red dirt of Oklahoma City. I had some really cool friends, and actually started turning a profit with his crazy son of a bitch mad man rants.”

I won’t have to say, “Well, your granddaddy pissed away a golden opportunity to reinvent himself during the covid pandemic and Great Reset.”

Obviously, it’s not as cool as surviving the Dust Bowl and bringing down fascists and tyrants in Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan. But I guess it’ll have to do for us “middle children of history.”

End of Winter and Thoughts After One Year of Pandemic

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Winter is almost over in my part of the world. I usually leave my windows open during the day only to get under blankets after dark. The days are usually warm but the nights are still chilly. The days are also a lot longer than just a couple months ago.

The vaccinations are rolling out pretty quickly in my country. Both my parents are fully vaccinated and getting out more often. Probably be a few more months before I qualify. Yet I have avoided getting sick for over a year. I still have some emergency supplies just in case. The last year has been lonely. But it wasn’t overly stressful. I’m glad I live in a town with home delivery groceries and Amazon delivery. I’ve avoided doctors’ offices and public places since last February because of pandemic. I did this as I am higher risk being overweight and mentally ill. But, as I had a set up where I could get groceries and prescription medications delivered, I didn’t have to leave my apartment unless absolutely necessary. My neighbor, who is quite mobile, picks up my mail once a week. In return I give him quarters for laundry and the downstairs vending machines. Amazon, grocery delivery, wireless internet with access to Youtube and Netflix, mail service, my cleaning lady arriving once a week, cell phone calls to family and friends, Facebook Messenger with friends, etc. has been a godsend for me and people like me. I sold my car almost two years ago as I no longer trust myself driving. My reflex and attention to detail just aren’t what they once were. If I do get real desperate, there are a few Uber drivers in my small college town. Most of the delivery drivers I have dealt with are younger people in their 20s. I think this pandemic would have been a lot worse had it hit back in the 1980s when we didn’t have easy access to internet, delivery services, fast vaccine developments, etc. I guess I am seeing the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I just hope when another one hits, could be a few years or even not for another several generations, we are better prepared. As bad as covid is, it could have been so much worse.

Emergency Preparation and Disability

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We had a lightning storm that knocked out electricity for over an hour in my hometown shortly after sunset tonight.  As I’ve been a small city dweller for over a decade, I forgot how dark it gets after dark, especially on cloudy nights.  Since the power went out, I found myself sitting in the dark.  But I was able to find my flashlights and battery powered emergency radio pretty quick.  Rode out the black out listening to short wave weather radio and the local classic rock station.  Now that the power is back on and so is my internet, I thought it would be rather appropriate to write a blog about emergency preparation while having a disability.

One thing people in my country learned the hard way during Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy was that a person can’t always count on emergency crews to get to them right away.  Anymore a person and family has to be self sufficient for at least a few days in case of a major emergency.  These emergencies could range from anything as mundane as a winter blizzard, a flood, the the unusual like a chemical leak or terrorist attack.  People do need things like emergency radios, flashlights, a few days of bottled water, a few days of non perishable but easy to prepare food, blankets, a few changes of clothes, a few extra days of medications, at least one first aid kit, and maybe some lighters in case you need to start a fire.  Everyone’s situation and needs are different.  I don’t have candles as I live in a crowded apartment complex and that could be a fire hazard.  But having a battery powered radio and flashlights are musts.  You have to find out what’s going on outside your neighborhood in case an evacuation order is issued or if help is on the way.

Sure I got off real easy this time being without power for only part of an evening.  But sometimes it’s a good reminder that things can and occasionally do go wrong.  And that being prepared in case of emergency is a must.