Infrastructure...

...or lack thereof. Within the past couple of days we have seen gas prices rise exponentially, had a power outage, had an internet outage, and my bank's website "had issues" according to the customer service lady. Here's how we are dealing with these things...

• On payday I logged into my bank's website to move money to savings and to an investment account and nothing was working. A few hours later it still showed pending for something that wasn't pending and processed for something that wasn't processed. I called the customer service line and the lady said their computers were having issues. Several hours later the site was kind of working. Fortunately I wasn't in a hurry to get my banking done but we do keep some cash on hand in case the system stays down for an extended period of time.
• For some reason we had zero power outages for the first 12 years that we lived in Vegas, however during the past few years, we have had several. Our power was out for about five hours a few days ago but now we are so used to breaking out the power banks it's barely a glitch for us. Since these issues seem to be getting worse (and in case power costs really spike) we are ready with power banks and solar panels to take care of our basic power needs.
• After the power issue resolved, out internet had an area-wide outage. We dealt with that by hotspotting to our cell phones (I still had a few work emails to send off). Then, since streaming wasn't working we watched a TV show via the over-the-air antenna then watched a movie from our newly-created DVD collection. We got rid of our DVDs years ago but I decided to start collecting them at $1 each on dollar Mondays at the Goodwill. When I first started doing this, hubby said we will never use them but I pointed out that we are using the collection..as I slid the movie into the DVD player! :)
• Gas is continuing to rise so we just fill up when it gets to 3/4 tank. Which is better than the guy at the gas pump before us who left his receipt for $180 worth of gas on the pump. Yikes!
• My project this week is to acquire a 55 gallon water barrel. With infrastructure (and our government) hanging by a thread, and because we live in a dessert, it makes sense to be ready for a water service outage as well. Hopefully we never have to use it and can just rotate the water by watering the shrubs with is, but better safe than sorry!

A Shopping Update

We did our usual shopping rounds today and noticed all kinds of signs that our economy is teetering on the brink...

• The Goodwill was packed with people today. It was dollar day so Mondays are usually busy but there were way more people than we usually see there.
• We had lunch at our favorite dim sum place which is usually busy every time we go there but there were a lot fewer people today than normal.
• We went to two Dollar Tree stores and the shelves were noticeably sparse. I think it is only a matter of time before the whole notion of dollar (now dollar fifty) stores goes the way of five and dime stores as the cost of producing and shipping these small items is increasing by the day.
• We got gas which was $4.79 a gallon(!?!). Yikes.
• At the big Mexican grocery store we shop at, produce is usually very cheap and very fresh. Prices seemed much higher than usual today and none of the produce seemed as fresh as usual.
• We skipped Costco and Sam's Club today as we have a good-sized stockpile of food. I am, however, making a point to pick up a few extra food items at every store we shop at (like two pounds of brown rice and two pounds of pinto beans at the Dollar Tree today, extra mayo that was on sale at Albertsons this week, etc). 
• Tech shopping has pretty much come to a halt. Samsung released their new phones recently and I wasn't even tempted to upgrade, and I have several laptops that work just fine, ditto for tablets. Besides the higher price for tech items these days, "improvements" are generally unnoticeable compared to previous iterations.
• Overall we are pretty well set to weather economic turmoil, however I would love to have a garden. Unfortunately our yard is tiny and the ground is like concrete (although this lady in Las Vegas seems to have an AMAZING garden!).

5 Ways Not to Die

This week has been fairly eye opening when it comes to health/injury/death prevention stuff.  My work varies from deep conversations with our accountant to interesting conversations with coroners and everyone in between.  So far this week I've learned...

1. Don't fall, especially if you are old.  Also this week, I learned that I fall into the "old" category as many injury prevention programs that target falls in the elderly are designed for those over 50(!).  Here is a good resource for falls prevention but it basically boils down to staying healthy and physically fit, managing chronic disease, and removing trip and fall hazards in your home.  
2. Don't do street drugs.  Period.  When I was a teen, drugs were pretty prevalent but back then, when you bought marijuana, you got marijuana and when you bought speed, you got speed.  Apparently these days, even something as simple as marijuana is can be laced with fentanyl to "increase the high".  Unfortunately this often has the side effect of causing death.  The coroner I talked to today said many overdose deaths (which are increasing at a rapid pace) are due to combinations of drugs that people may not even know they are ingesting because "everything but the kitchen sink is being cobbled together and sold as specific drugs" even if that specific drug is only a tiny part of the combination used to make the drug in order to produce a higher high.  Yikes.
3. Have a bug out bag prepped and ready to go at a moment's notice.  I heard numerous sirens last night so I texted my neighbor and she told me that SWAT had a street a couple blocks away locked down.  Apparently the barricade and stand-off lasted for hours and several nearby neighbors were evacuated because if anyone started shooting, these innocent people could have been toast.  At least if you have a bug out bag, your emergency evacuation will go much smoother and you will have everything you need to spend hours (even a night or more) away from home in marginal comfort.
4. It's fire season and that means several things including dangerous air quality, wildfire evacuations (yet another reason to have a bug out bag as well as a good route out of town), and preparing your home for wildfire season.
5. Finally, watch out for crazy people which is easier said than done.  The news lately is just awful and filled with so many (unexpected) ways to die from road rage to nasty neighbors to being an innocent bystander when someone starts shooting.
   

10 Things to Prepare For

I hope you all are having a wonderful fall.  Since it is in the 90s here and not 110 degrees, I guess that qualifies for fall in the desert!  Here are some things to prepare for in the near future...

1. The mid-terms are coming up in November so if you aren't registered to vote, now may be a good time to do that (then vote like your life depends on it because it may!).
2. Daylight savings time ends in early November as well so I always make sure we have furnace filters in stock as well as D batteries because when we change the clocks back, we also replace the furnace filters and the batteries in our smoke detectors.
3. We have been buying an extra bag of candy each week when we go grocery shopping in preparation for Halloween (which is better than running out and buying a whole bunch of candy at the last minute!).
4. I can't find the article, but I read somewhere that more than 65% of Americans plan to put their Thanksgiving dinner on their credit card because they can't afford to pay for their dinner items all at once.  Big yikes there!  Like our Halloween plan, we are buying a few items each week for our Thanksgiving dinner so when the time arrives, we won't have a big outlay of money all at once for what will be a much more expensive dinner this year due to escalating food costs.
5. Also, along similar lines, now is a great time to start Christmas shopping as well since spreading out the costs, a little at a time, is much better than buying all of your gifts the weekend before Christmas!
6. Since we are on a preparedness kick, here is a good list of fall home maintenance tasks that should be done soon.
7. Here is a good list of end-of-the-year financial tasks you might want to review.
8. And here is a good list of things to do to get your car ready for fall and winter.
9. For those of you living where the winter weather can be treacherous, now is a good time to review your winter storm preps as well.
10. Finally, here are several other things I am doing this month: I signed up to participate in our community's annual CERT exercise which will happen this fall, I am back to walking now after a long, hot summer of minimal walking outside, and we will have several guests for the month of November so we are stocking up on groceries, particularly loss leaders like the pork chops we got today for 97 cents per pound, so we can feed everyone for the month.