What have done towards your prep?

[Grumpy Grandpa]

What have I done towards my preps? Well in truth, not a lot just recently. I don’t know about you guys but I feel afflicted by the general malaise that seems to have (temporarily!) struck at the Forum.

It’s exactly 80 days today since I came across SUK and I felt then as though the blinkers had been taken off. “How could I have been so blind for all this time?” I thought, “But it’s not too late. You’re not that old! Get in there!”

So I did! With SUK (and the thoughts and posts of the many more experienced than I,) for guidance and the many prepping sites that I soon found were out there, I began to learn; I began to communicate with people of like mind (though the Forum); I created lists (plenty of lists!); began to build a library (and began to read from there, instead of my usual fare); bookmarked many sites of value (my new values!) (and refer to them regularly); old skills were dusted down and new ones begun (mentally at least – I’m not in the best of positions to work practically, although there are many things I can do!).

So 80 days on, what’s happening now? As I said, not a lot really. Having ridden the crest of the wave, I find myself now in the trough; it feels harder now to maintain the discipline. I feel tempted again by my companion of old – the TV in the corner. I have held on to the joy of watching Formula 1 but it’s a simple click of a switch to change the screen back from monitor to television and there were so many other programmes that I enjoyed too – followed slavishly even. They seem to be calling me back. My books – in a box in the corner, they call me too. They were moved off the shelves to give me more storage for prepping related publications, printed downloads, stored water (at the bottom) and some small pieces of equipment that I have managed to gather. Climbing and mountaineering history books, motorsports, science fiction, they’re all crying out to be re-handled.

NR relates that the Forum does have its summer lulls but quickly recovers as autumn approaches. In the same way, I know that this low is only one part of the cycle - after all, without the lows, how would we know the pleasure of the highs? While the cycle seems to be stalled at the moment, it will carry on and I’m quite sure that the Scottish Meet next weekend will prove for me to be the trigger. In the meantime, while bringing back some balance with the old interests, I’ll plod on – reading here, learning there – doing something each day, no matter how small, always remembering why – I have a family that I’m responsible for...