When SHTF, *A LOT* Of the Neighbors were asking and expecting our help *&* our stuff!
My father and I are not the most experienced nor the most equipped preppers, that much I would concede right at the start. We are , however, moderately intelligent, quite wordly experienced and in different ways and areas, and pretty good at shopping. So we have a lot of prepping done in the years others take many many years to accomplish, and we are always keeping our eyes open and minds fresh. So we were not overly concerned come SHTF.
One thing we did get was a generator... my father had been looking for one for a long time. He finally found one at Cabelas the weekend before last and since it was an open box, he got like 50% off on an awesome model... Could not say no! Other than that we had plenty of food, plenty of guns and ammo, plenty of water, and plenty of energy to get the job done right. We spent what time we could topping off our preps, shopping for this and that, and making plans in case and getting our house and affairs in order.
Then came the storm. on Monday the power went out at about 2pm for a few hours, came back on. Then at night time, literally RIGHT AFTER we took our last bites of dinner and said, "Well its getting pretty sporty out there!" BOOM there goes the power! So we went outside, fired up the generator in the driveway/garage, closed the garage door halfway... And connected the strips of lights we had laid out, the sump pump, and the fridge.
The next morning, first thing, the annoying guy who is "Friends" with my Dad but absolutely hates me because I am 31 and live with my father, calls and gives him the whole "OH Can we borrow your generator?? Please?? Just for a few hours???"... AND WE MADE A PACT, NO ONE ESPECIALLY AND INCLUDING HIM was borrrowing ANYTHING *ESPECIALLY* the generator ... UNLESS lives were at stake, babies or young children were involved, or absolute pandamonium scenario was involved, we were saying Too Bad Soo Sad. Our neighbors have plenty of money, they just chose not to spend it.
I can't express my disappointment when he said he was giving away the generator to the neighbor but he did. WELL THAT WAS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. The nextdoor neighbor older husband and wife who are pompous as hellz and hate us, "Well you are gonna let us borrow your generator right???" my Dad says, "Oh sorry we loaned it out already." "So when you get it back we can plug in then, right?" "Uhh... we will see how the situation is later". "Well what time is later are you expecting to get it back, we need to know when we can connect!".
Again, tip of the ice berg. Other people were randomly coming up asking if we were letting our neighbors use our generator (As in, can we borrow it even though we live three streets away and have no idea who you are)... People looking for gasoline, to attempt to use it to secure a DIFFERENT neighbors generator.... A Kid I graduated high school with I GOT INTO A FIGHT WITH SENIOR YEAR, Shows up knocking on my door to see if I could charge his cell phone, ... when I said we let it go to a neighbor, he asked if I could put some gas in his car from our gas cans cause he was on empty.
This is just some of the things. other neighbors who were bitter they had no generator and therefore no power for a few days had the intestinal fortitude to complain about the noise. But they would not mind the generator noise if they could plug in. One person even showed up asking if my Dad would take their kids for a ride on his Gator. (Its not legal to ride on the streets here, so basically some random guy tried to shake us down, like, we won't snitch on you if you entertain our kids.).
When the power went back on, THE STORES WERE EMPTY. So people were STILL in trouble because the grocery stores HAVE NO FOOD TO BUY. So people are STILL experiencing SHTF and they REALLY EXPECT you to help them. And not only that they have an attitude about it, like since we live in a townhouse community they can basically boss us around and tell us to share with them . Not going to happen, especially since we're the best armed and equipped. BUT it is SHOCKING how quickly people show up expecting you to fix their problems!
*** LET THIS BE A LESSON TO YOU ALL, and certainly to us as well *** If OpSec and keeping your own preps to yourself and taking care of yourself isn't a high priority, it HAS TO BECOME ONE. Because we just experienced, THE SHEEPLE EXPECT YOU TO FIX THEIR PROBLEMS and it DID NOT TAKE LONG for them to show it. And we didn't even get the water that bad! I can ONLY IMAGINE what could happen come post election SHTF.
My father and I are not the most experienced nor the most equipped preppers, that much I would concede right at the start. We are , however, moderately intelligent, quite wordly experienced and in different ways and areas, and pretty good at shopping. So we have a lot of prepping done in the years others take many many years to accomplish, and we are always keeping our eyes open and minds fresh. So we were not overly concerned come SHTF.
One thing we did get was a generator... my father had been looking for one for a long time. He finally found one at Cabelas the weekend before last and since it was an open box, he got like 50% off on an awesome model... Could not say no! Other than that we had plenty of food, plenty of guns and ammo, plenty of water, and plenty of energy to get the job done right. We spent what time we could topping off our preps, shopping for this and that, and making plans in case and getting our house and affairs in order.
Then came the storm. on Monday the power went out at about 2pm for a few hours, came back on. Then at night time, literally RIGHT AFTER we took our last bites of dinner and said, "Well its getting pretty sporty out there!" BOOM there goes the power! So we went outside, fired up the generator in the driveway/garage, closed the garage door halfway... And connected the strips of lights we had laid out, the sump pump, and the fridge.
The next morning, first thing, the annoying guy who is "Friends" with my Dad but absolutely hates me because I am 31 and live with my father, calls and gives him the whole "OH Can we borrow your generator?? Please?? Just for a few hours???"... AND WE MADE A PACT, NO ONE ESPECIALLY AND INCLUDING HIM was borrrowing ANYTHING *ESPECIALLY* the generator ... UNLESS lives were at stake, babies or young children were involved, or absolute pandamonium scenario was involved, we were saying Too Bad Soo Sad. Our neighbors have plenty of money, they just chose not to spend it.
I can't express my disappointment when he said he was giving away the generator to the neighbor but he did. WELL THAT WAS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. The nextdoor neighbor older husband and wife who are pompous as hellz and hate us, "Well you are gonna let us borrow your generator right???" my Dad says, "Oh sorry we loaned it out already." "So when you get it back we can plug in then, right?" "Uhh... we will see how the situation is later". "Well what time is later are you expecting to get it back, we need to know when we can connect!".
Again, tip of the ice berg. Other people were randomly coming up asking if we were letting our neighbors use our generator (As in, can we borrow it even though we live three streets away and have no idea who you are)... People looking for gasoline, to attempt to use it to secure a DIFFERENT neighbors generator.... A Kid I graduated high school with I GOT INTO A FIGHT WITH SENIOR YEAR, Shows up knocking on my door to see if I could charge his cell phone, ... when I said we let it go to a neighbor, he asked if I could put some gas in his car from our gas cans cause he was on empty.
This is just some of the things. other neighbors who were bitter they had no generator and therefore no power for a few days had the intestinal fortitude to complain about the noise. But they would not mind the generator noise if they could plug in. One person even showed up asking if my Dad would take their kids for a ride on his Gator. (Its not legal to ride on the streets here, so basically some random guy tried to shake us down, like, we won't snitch on you if you entertain our kids.).
When the power went back on, THE STORES WERE EMPTY. So people were STILL in trouble because the grocery stores HAVE NO FOOD TO BUY. So people are STILL experiencing SHTF and they REALLY EXPECT you to help them. And not only that they have an attitude about it, like since we live in a townhouse community they can basically boss us around and tell us to share with them . Not going to happen, especially since we're the best armed and equipped. BUT it is SHOCKING how quickly people show up expecting you to fix their problems!
*** LET THIS BE A LESSON TO YOU ALL, and certainly to us as well *** If OpSec and keeping your own preps to yourself and taking care of yourself isn't a high priority, it HAS TO BECOME ONE. Because we just experienced, THE SHEEPLE EXPECT YOU TO FIX THEIR PROBLEMS and it DID NOT TAKE LONG for them to show it. And we didn't even get the water that bad! I can ONLY IMAGINE what could happen come post election SHTF.
