Get Home Bag, Walking and Life Update
We have been walking a lot lately. The weather is good now and it is a solid way to get out of the house and doing something. I do not recommend walking as a form of exercise unless you are A) elderly, B) recovering from a serious injury/ illness, C) crippled or D) seriously overweight and or out of shape and working towards running a la couch to 5k or a similar program. However that does not mean walking is not without benefits. Most of the benefits are not really physical. Getting outside and spending time with your family in the area you live in is a good thing. If somebody told me they walk as a form of exercise who did not fit the above categories I would try to coach them towards a better path, potentially with some mocking involved. If somebody told me they walk regularly to get outside and for active recovery from more strenuous workouts like running or rucking or for some additional low impact/ intensity cardio I would say that was a great plan.
My get home bag setup needs some work. The primary issue is that I really like my Tactical Tailor bag and use it regularly. I like that bag for the task but it can’t be in two places at once. This makes having it in the car with a variety of stuff loaded into it problematic. I have a couple of ideas. First a couple side pouches to hold 1 quart water bottles will help free up space in the main compartment for normal life stuff. (Regardless of what I do the bag needs this MOD anyway.) Second sooner or later I need to swap out that bag or get a replacement for normal everyday carry use. Something I have considered is putting most of the stuff that is in my GHB into something else like a wet weather bag or trash bag and then putting it into my TT pack if needed. Mostly this stuff is a full set of clothes with boots, socks, gloves and a hat. I keep this stuff in there because regularly I go on short trips in less than fully ideal clothing and the option to change into suitable clothes for walking is a good thing. I mulled this a lot but despite being an easy and ideal solution it came up short because while I carry the TT bag around a lot while using it as a normal bag it doesn’t ALWAYS MAKE IT INTO THE CAR. Inevitably the day I needed it is the day it would be in the hall closet. So the question is what to do. The short term answer is pretty much covered. I ordered a used medium ALICE pack awhile back for $10. It will be a very inexpensive solution and such will likely fit for awhile. Not as nice or comfortable but for $10 instead of $150 that is to be expected. Still a rugged bomb proof pack. Down the road a nice high end bag like the TT or something from Hill People Gear would be great in this role but I will not be able to justify the expense for awhile. Likely I would use the TT for a GHB and something a bit smaller for typical every day type use. Since I don’t see any traction on this for at least 6 months or more likely 12 there is some time to think about it.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Recharging The Batteries
There is only so much doom and gloom a guy can take. Sometimes you’ve just got to relax. Today we went to this festival thing. Every little town in Germany has at least one to celebrate something or another, if just Pilsner beer and standing around in a closed off street. It was pretty fun. Had some pretzels and checked out all the stuff that was for sale. Wifey got a wicker basket which she has been wanting. We sat around for awhile just enjoying the nice day.
Tonight we went out to dinner which was cool too. Had a nice walk to a quiet place with really good food and very reasonable prices. Haven’t been there for awhile though for no particular reason. Maybe we are creatures of habit but we always order the same thing. It was a really nice day.
Also Wifey said something new this evening. She said “enough crazy for today”. I took her hint and changed topics. I am sure that Wifey, while a great sport about this can use one. Even I can use a change of topic now and then.Suppose we all have times where we’ve just got to think about something else. I think we all need to think about other stuff and just live for awhile now and then. Recharging the batteries and all that stuff. Tomorrow I’ve got some stuff to do but just relaxing today was really nice.
Remember folks, this is a marathon not a sprint. Take some time to relax and enjoy life. It will help your efforts in the long run.
Random Thoughts On Living in Europe
Things I miss:
being able to listen to decent talk/ news radio or decent radio stations in general (my car doesn’t have a cd player)
decent television
Walmart
Generally being able to get anything at good prices
decent cell phone deals
lots of food: real McDonald’s, Arby’s, Teriyaki, Chinese, Taco Truck beef burritos, maple bars, Krystal, the list goes on.
being able to do most anything on the weekend or in the evening
Things I am enjoying:
all the beautiful scenery and history
great beer
traveling
Turkish food
almost nonexistent violent crime
Rural Living for SHTF Security
Yesterday I ended up driving some distance through rural Germany. To quote a co worker everything is so beautiful I just want to take pictures of it all. Anyway more importantly I want to talk about how they live. Rural Germans live in little villages.
Village is a term I will use in the future because it is to me more descriptive than the ubiquitous phrase “town”. There is a church, a couple little bars, a Gasthaus or two, a small market, maybe a couple random shops and then a few dozen houses. Between a village and the next it might be as little as 5k or more like 10+ in any given direction. In the middle are fields of all types and woodlots.
People pretty much everywhere have traditionally clustered together for collective security. In wild and crazy days that are generally past an isolated family farm was easy pickings for some brigands or bandits. However 5-30 families clustered together could put up a defense and make the juice not worth the squeeze. In Germany the local villages control who can and can’t build outside of the village area. Not saying it is right or wrong but well, German. Seeing a farmer driving a tractor with a trailer from his house in town to his fields a couple kilometers away is common place. Basically they live in town and go out to work their fields.
Rural Americans have for a variety of reasons (lower population densities, high gun ownership, sense of community, etc) gotten a pass from the violence that strikes elsewhere. Rural farmers in Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe and South Africa have had a horrible time. Most of them lived in large family compounds, were quite well armed and often had combat veterans in the family. These folks were driven from the land their ancestors farmed because they were killed or legitimately feared being killed. A steady nerve and an FN-FAL did nothing to protect them. There was a rather unique situation in both South Africa and Zimbabwe where what essentially amounted to gangs of armed thugs got a get out of jail free card for anything they did to rich white people who somewhat justifiably (though short sight idly since they fed everybody) fell out of political favor. This is a stark reminder that how much law enforcement helps or hinders you is at least loosely related to the political favor of whatever group (s) you are identified with. It isn’t nice to say and I hope it never gets that bad in America but it is something to consider.
One could say this situation is somewhat like that in the American Southwest near the Mexican border. I really wouldn’t want to be a rancher within 2 gas tanks drive of the Mexican border. In Argentina living rurally is a bad idea, a very bad idea. Will America every get like this? I certainly hope not. If our economy gets much worse and folks who believe violent criminals are innocent disadvantaged youths get/ stay in power things could get worse.
The idea of a reinforced family compound out in the hinder boonies is nice. However realistically in any place isolated enough to be a good family compound candidate jobs are a real issue. If Pa can figure out how to earn a living that is great. However the odds that sons John and Tim and sister Jills husband can find jobs at livable wages which they can commute to are not good. The idea that everybody will just show up if S hits TF is great for a couple of very limited and unlikely scenarios. The odds that 6 armed like minded individuals will be hanging around your house on a random Wednesday when 6 meth heads decide to pull a home invasion on the couple with the nice house and all the guns/ stuff who live alone way outside of town are slim. You are going to be alone watching TV with the Mrs and there will be 6 guys coming to your house.
We have talked about living rurally vs in a small town before 1, 2. There are potential advantages to both. However just maybe a modest house in a small town on a big lot and a field with a shed/ barn a little bit out of town is an option to consider. I just think it is worthwhile to consider history and how peoples who actually lived through centuries of very rough times live. Furthermore it is naive to think that all villages/ small towns will turn into tyrannical little fiefdoms but rural people will be entirely unaffected by said fiefdoms AND not see a major increase in crime of things go truly crazy. The real answer is that rural people could well have most of the same problems as those in town AND face a real security problem.
Thoughts?
quote of the day
“We’re never gonna survive, unless… We get a little crazy”
-Seal
One of the ‘joys’ of living overseas is a lack of decent radio stations to listen to. German music seems to be split between dance/ techno and bad random old American pop music so there isn’t much to be had there. I listen to the AFN station because I am too cheap to have a CD player in the car. The music is pretty random, otherwise I would not listen to Seal. However this quote is pretty good none the less.
Put The Gun Away Even Though Nobody Is Coming To Help You?
Glad I don’t live in England. Germany doesn’t have the greatest gun laws but it seems pretty darn safe. Of course if you flash a big wad of cash in a bar and then leave drunk through a dark alley there is a risk of being robbed. However if you apply a bit of universal common sense it seems like one of the safest places I have lived.
Winter Weather
Lots of folks have been writing about the cold weather. It is freezing in the South and Europe, in particular Central Europe have been a mess for awhile now. Rio calls it the Al Gore winter which I find amusing. Suppose this is my obligatory cold weather post.
Folks have already talked about putting extra clothes, food, water and sleeping gear in the car. Other folks have talked about winter driving. I see no need to rehash that stuff. I do however have a few other observations.
Cold weather is hard on skin and lips in particular. Keeping a decent stash of whatever your preferred lip chap stuff is prudent. Yeah chapped lips won’t kill you but if a tiny bit of planning and a few bucks will let you be comfortable it is foolish not to go that route.
My other thought is that in the winter you need to be more flexible about travel, running errands and the like. More than once we have had a plan to go here or there and adjusted it based on looking outside at the roads or the weather report. Even when we are talking about relatively short 30-45 minute trips it is just smart to use common sense. For example, earlier this week we had planned to go do a bit of window shopping and have dinner at a restaurant we have been wanting to check out. The weather turned nasty yesterday (and my wife is a bit sick) so we are pushing that plan to the right. We will either cook something here, order in or go someplace down town. This might seem overly cautious but I would rather err on that side than get in an avoidable wreck or get stuck somewhere.
On that note I think it is prudent to be willing to change your plans if the conditions merit, even if you are out. This might mean sleeping on the couch or floor at somebodies house or even staying in a hotel/ motel for the night. Having a sleeping bag per person in your vehicle is good but if a clean, safe room at the Holiday Inn is available to me it is an easy decision. For a hundred bucks or so to get a room for the night and some dinner you could avoid a serious wreck or even worse. My deductible is $500 so doing that 4 times to potentially avoid a wreck makes economic sense even if you do not factor in the huge hassle of an accident or getting stuck.
I recall once when winter weather socked a whole bunch of travelers in the sleepy NW town I was living in. Some of those folks got stuck for 3-4 days. This is where that savings account portion of the emergency fund comes into play. Last Christmas we got stuck in Philadelphia for a few days. Traveling long distances on a shoestring budget is never particularly advisable but in winter it is a downright bad idea. It is fine to plan to travel cheaply but having the resources to sustain yourself if something happens is the smart thing to do.
In short be prepared to be inconvenienced in terms of time, travel plans and a bit of money.
Aside from that I find the winter weather best experienced by looking out the window from my warm living room with a glass of something warm to drink.
Just Saying
The Hefeweizen in America sucks. I tried all the readily available ones and they pretty much sucked. Basically wrote off that category of beers. Tried the hefeweizen here just because and it is amazing. First of all they call it Weissbier and second of all it tastes like the most amazing thing ever. Seriously it is like heaven and will get you drunk. If you are here and you buy a beer that ends in weizen you are almost sure to be a happy camper. I am going to have to learn to brew the stuff because as far as I know a decent equivalent isn’t available CONUS.
Living in Germany 3: It’s Becoming Normal
No real reason this is coming out today but it is as good a day as any. As always it will be the good the bad and the ugly.
The Good: I got my USAEUR drivers license today. Hopefully if all goes well I/ we should have high speed mobility and some cargo carrying capacity by the middle of this week. Also we are looking at going to Praugue next month which will be cool. Our basic plan is to use COLA to fund travelling which should fund a nice long weekend every other month or so depending on how much we can bring costs down.
The Bad: The use of debit/ credit cards seems to have not caught on widely in Europe. Also a lot of businesses are small family operations where the cost to benefit of getting a reader is prohibitive and not lots of people seem to use them anyway. Not a big deal but it is sort of an irritation.
The need to keep two different types of paper currency has forced me to get a more traditional wallet than the minimalist front pocket one I liked more better. Since that transition is over there is just the mild irritation of needing to go to the ATM to get Euro’s.
The Ugly: First of all the Euro to Dollar exchange rate is lame. Hearing old timers talk fondly of the Deuchmark makes me wish I came here long ago. Then again some Communist assholes put up a big wall and generally made it so a lot of Europe would not be open for me to travel in at that point in time so I guess it is all trade offs. Yeah we get COLA but in the big financial picture we would do a lot better with the rate changing (though I don’t see it getting “better” for at least a few years). The good news is that we have positioned ourselves so the only think the Dollar really tanking in relation to the Euro would do is hurt our ability to travel.
Also anyone who says that Europeans are all thin and well dressed is a liar. Maybe at statistical levels looking at tens of thousands of people Americans are fatter than Europeans but walking around a store or a downtown area there are plenty of German fatties. Far more absolutely lots of them dress in a horrible fashion.
I have seen far more mullets here than I did in the deep South. I have seen way more Canadian Tuxedos here than in Canada. Also somehow the fanny pack is still in style here. If this is where fashion is going I need a cabin way out in the woods. Come to think of it I need a cabin way out in the woods anyway.
And the last ugly thing is the one that baffles me the most. A normal god fearing decent American door lock needs to be rotated either 90 or 180 degrees to go from locked to unlocked. German door locks need to rotate 1080 darn degrees to lock or unlock. So every time I go to open the door to get out of the house I must rotate the thing three full times. Every time I lock said door to leave I must rotate the key three full times. Every time I go to unlock the door I must rotate the key three full times. Guess this isn’t a huge thing but it is really pretty irritating.
So that is the update on our time in Germany. By the next time I write we should have done some more traveling. Having a car will really open up our local region a lot and give us access to better shopping and services which will be nice. Also simply not needing to worry about how heavy the groceries are will be great.
Oktoberfest
I went there. It is late and I am tired. That is all for now.
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