🏕️ Concerning preparedness…

Howdy friends

This is completely off topic for my site 😒 topic wise. But I wanted to touch a bit on preparedness. I want to preface this as I am not an expert, this is not a prepper blog. I highly recommend prepper Reddits, such as TwoXPeppers – twoX subreddits are specifically targeted more toward women, as an note. There are a ton of city prepper channels too.

Feel free to skip this one if it’s not up your alley.

I am specifically bringing this into my orbit here because I’ve seen so many people in communities I am in be anxious for what is to come in the new year. With good reason. I am also anxious and upset, still. I actually wrote this way earlier and it helped me work through it a bit more. I like to do things to help my outside anxiety – get a passport for example. Practical prepping helps me feel better.

I just wanted to point out somethings I am prepping for specifically. The categories I am hitting are:

Privacy

Here I am prepping by removing a ton of my digital footprint, you may notice that if you’ve been here before. I removed any identifying information I came across on the site. If you see some I missed, I’d love to hear about it >>; I am working to remove it all over.

I also removed and cleaned up my Google Drive. Did a general sweep of my name off email list, using Aura – I did a free trial and did a general check. I also started using our VPN >>; which I was less concerned with on my computer but now I am down for all the privacy. I am backing up my data, and books on extra hard drives. Emphasis on books here ><; I am picking up books around politics, medical, rights and history as well. I may not read these right away, but if it was on a recommended list I tried to get it. I also have a ton of Pagan digital I am backing up.

I am prepping to have extra copies of my personal docs, this is kind civil related too. For us, that is passports, marriage certificate, birth certificate, vehicle stuff too. I am getting some emergency cash to lock up as well. We have a safe(s)- such as a fire safe – not a large one but we got one years ago because I am paranoid already. Recommend one for fires and floods for docs.

Civil

Keeping an eye on rights and news. I am specifically keeping an eye on woman’s rights, marriage, immigrant information and medication concerns. >>; things such as a mental health medication. I am specifically avoiding news shows at this time, as it’s just stressful. Ground news is a great platform to get out of your bubble if you are concerned about that.

Again, document prep here, some cash on hand and keeping an eye on finances. I also read keeping family photos on hand is a good idea, so doing that and ensuring the ones I have are digitalized.

I also found several sites giving civil disobedience books, banned books, etc away for free (legit places) and am picking up various practical ones ><; A lot of places are offering and pushing these at a discount or free. Example: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/ has 10 they are offering.

Local Support

I haven’t started this, but I want to join a local support group – and I am working in my friend group to emphasis the things here as well for them as well. I can’t make anyone prepare, but I can help someone get started if they are nervous or help get an item they may cannot get.

I also plan to donate to the ACLU, when I can. I was laid off recently, I work in tech its normal. I expect lots of challenges for them and want to support where I can. I also joined a few newsletters, I highly recommend (these will be Youtubes but they have emails, instagrams and patreons too): https://www.youtube.com/@UnderTheDeskNewsV & https://www.youtube.com/@LeejaMiller as well as ground the news or all sides news. I also like https://doseofdemocracy.com’s newsletter so far.

Social Services

I am worried about unemployment here, as I was just laid off. Sigh. I am doing job work every week and we are keeping spending to a minimal in case services are cut. This sucks, I was given good severance but tech hiring is down right now, plus the holidays. I don’t have faith it will be better in the new year as much as I did before NOV but eh it is what it is.

Food and Imports

I added to my pantry, as I am including any imports we might need or want in the future. I added a few larger bags of food to my preps – I added rice, flour and sugar. I am considering adding a ton of garlic – we like spices so considering stashing some of those as well. As a note, I recommend freezing our flour >>; also you can get a HUGE bag of rice from your local Asian store, recommend in general, but it makes me feel better knowing it’s there in case we need it. We live in the Denver area and are privileged in the both the options we have locally – and the variety of outside options.

I picked up some extra thread, snaps and plastic button type deals – for fixing our own clothes. We already do this but so many things are made elsewhere, I just wanted to ensure we had some on hand as needed as we will probably avoid buying anything new for awhile.

I also picked up some stuff for the rabbit – extra pellets and I plan to keep more Hay on hand to cycle in and out. I take for granted I can pick it up same day in bulk.

I plan to pick up a few extra things each grocery trip that has a longer shelf life, such as tomato paste. We also did a tech review for anything we want in the near future – upgrade wise, as those things are expected to go up. We replaced the PS5 recently, ours died and working with them was such a pain to try to get that fixed so thankfully that happened before they are expected to go up >>; We are definitely privileged and I know that.

We also plan to do less buying overall, I am really guilty of buying junk as I’ve said before, but it will be better overall. If we do buy we are going to try to buy local or small. From what I’ve seen several people are planning this as well.

Medications

I had a DR appointment right after the elcection, so I was able to request a few changes to medications, etc. I have some extras on hand and a new single pill for ADHD – which awesome. I requested extra birth control to have on hand. I stashed a plan B, did you know it has a four year life span?

I am concerned if mental health medications maybe targeted or throttled ><; and I got a few shots at the appointment so covered at least there. I also got back on a sleeping pill THANK GOD as nothing OTC is working currently.

I also have no faith in the new year that the bird flu will be reported accurately or handled, so I got masks and some antibiotics >>; I already had sanitizer left over. I reviewed the OTC meditations I have and have been really functioning on spite. Hoping it will fuel me and I can continue to work on health.

I don’t care if this seems insane to anyone else. If you are on the internet you can see the concern many people have you should be supportive. They are all concerned and providing support to each other see Reddit and other forums. People are bothered.

I’ve always prepped a bit, just how I grew up. Even if you feel this is an over reaction; the general rule is to ‘prep for Tuesday’ not a specific event. This means prep for the regular – job loss, snow storm, lack of power, etc not the doomsday.

Unrelated to what I normally post, but if you are really concerned right now, and not sure where to go from here, I hope this helps you with either inspiration or find some comfort in the idea.