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morning. I wonder how the people in the big city are managing
the cold nights without power. I doubt this storm will wake any of
them up.
    There is another storm brewing out in the
Atlantic. This one is a winter storm, a Nor’easter, which means
even more snow for the coast. What little snow that fell here
yesterday is now gone.
    I’m not sleeping well again. It seems that
every other night I don’t sleep at all, and the other nights, it’s
a toss-up between really well and fitful. It’s wearing me down. I’m
not getting enough rest.
    Spring Forward – Fall Back. We are now in
Daylight Savings Time, gained an hour of daylight, I think. I can
never keep that straight.
    I think this is going to be a very boring
journal, there is nothing happening in my life. I get up, check
email, straighten up the house, do some laundry, plan the day’s
menu, let Tufts out, then in, then out. Nothing exciting.
    I went for a walk today on my road. I like
walking in the fall better because my little ten acres here are a
blaze of color. I love the sharp, pungent scent of the pine trees
and the smell of damp, decaying leaves when I kick the carpet up.
The woods behind me are so grown that the breezes rarely filter
down yet I can hear the upper branches swaying and creaking when
the wind passes through, even with all the leaves down. These
sensory things are just not there when walking on a blacktop road.
It still may be exercise, though it is not nearly as enjoyable.
     
    * * *
     
    The news is too depressing to watch with more
riots, more crime, and now some areas out east are turning away
power crews from other states for the only reason that they’re not
part of their union! How stupid can they be?
    I called Dawn to see how her prepping was
coming along and if she needed any more suggestions, but they
weren’t home. So I called Kathy. I sure wish that I could talk her
into stocking even a week’s worth of food. She’s got lots of tomato
sauce from her Earthboxes and beans from her garden that now are in
the freezer. Cheese, crackers and smoked oysters are staples there,
to go with their rather extensive wine cellar. I worry about them
if they couldn’t get out due to a blizzard or if something worse
happened.
    I can only suggest.
    Watching the news coverage of the storm, my
anxiety level has gone up in some ways, and lowered in others.
Things went south very quickly. Criminals are opportunists and they
sure had the opportunity for looting and other crimes. Those who
evacuated the cities late and are now waiting in lines are of the
mentality that they cannot blame themselves for not having what it
is they need or desire. They, like everyone else, had both the
chance and the choice to prepare, and they chose not to.
    When the scenario turned into reality, and
they see they should have prepared, they must blame someone else.
To blame themselves is tantamount to admitting that they are
failures, and our current society has programmed us by telling us
that there are no failures because everyone is a winner. That
failure only gets reinforced when you've failed those you are
supposed to protect or those who depend on you, like children, the
elderly, or the disabled.
    I looked over my food preps and know I'm in
good shape for the winter, much longer if I stretch out my canning.
I could fill out some spots in my supplies, but toilet paper won't
keep me alive, so I'm not overly concerned with it since that's a
convenience thing. For what I have and what I need to survive until
next summer, I'm good.
    When I see on the news and in real life what
'civilized' people are capable of, even knowing that help is
on the way, that the power will be back on eventually, and that
this will all become a bad dream, what will they be like when they
find out that the power won’t be back on, or that help isn’t coming? That's when my anxiety spikes and I check my
ammo supplies.

CHAPTER
THREE
     
    It was a wonderfully casual morning with gray skies
and a