Could the good folks of this forum do something for me? Perhaps this thread can clarify things. This day has been filled with harsh thoughts, many stemming from categorizing what other people think will happen based on information that is deemed either thorough, incomplete or imbued with deceit.

I have a request: Could the regulars of this forum, pollys and doomers alike, catagorize me based on my level of preparation, not on what I think will happen? By what I have done, will you say I am a doomer or polly? And just for kicks, where do I fall on the 0-10 scale?

Dad and mom living together with two kids, 7 and 10.

Small home on 1/4 acre in central California.

I have about 9 months of food, canned and some in white buckets.

I have a cord of wood for cooking and heat.

I bought a small wood stove.

I don't like flame so I have lots of rechargeable batteries.

I made a simple bicycle powered generator hooked to a dc motor, made the voltage regulator and will charge two deep cycle batteries. Have an inverter for low wattage/current devices.

I bought a kiddie pool on sale that can hold 5,000 gallons of water. Lots of bleach, too.

I have about 200 2 liter bottles with water.

I have an 870 12 ga. , a .22 and a .38 and lots of ammo.

I won't get a generator because I don't want to store fuel.

I have funds in 90% silver.

I have no other money except what I bring home every two weeks.

With this info, What am I?

Thanks to all for your insight.

Pete

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), October 12, 1999

Answers

You're a troll.

-- (yeah@yeah.yeah), October 12, 1999.

Pete:

Well prepared for any eventuality? (Although you might want to consider putting in a garden on that 1/4 acre and stocking up on mason jars and lids.)

-- just another (another@engineer.com), October 12, 1999.

Pete, you're a realist. Why worry what others think of you? Prep in peace, good conscience, and hope for the future.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 12, 1999.

Yeah: Not a troll at all. I have several threads with very serious questions that have received very thoughtful answers, even from Flint. This question is very real. Pete

-- pete (Phytorx@lanset.com), October 12, 1999.

...With this info, What am I?

A good husband and father.

-- Lilly (homesteader145@yahoo.com), October 12, 1999.

Yeah: Not a troll at all. I have several threads with very serious questions that have received very thoughtful answers, even from Flint.

You're a doomer.

-- (gotcha@now.sucka), October 12, 1999.

Human being.

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), October 12, 1999.

Gotcha: The answer given by Flint was regarding the 1972 computer fix. He had a very good answer that was neither doomer or polly. That question is still on the forum. Pete

-- Pete (phytrox@lanset.com), October 12, 1999.

Hello, Pete. You cannot be categorized as a doomer or polly, nor can you be rated on the 0-10 scale, based on your level of preparation. You could be a Mormon who thinks that Y2K is a complete hoax for all anyone else can know. To further this point, I think it's quite possible that Flint, Decker, and Anita Spooner all have more extensive preparations than many on this forum who would self-classify as doomers (IF we agree that a 5-6 on the scale is a doomer...though I'm not certain there's ever been consensus on that definition.)

-- (RUOK@yesiam.com), October 12, 1999.

I second you as a doomer. Level 9-10

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), October 12, 1999.

Yer a total doomer, dude.

I pay my children .10c a bottle to get those full 2 ltr bottles down into the basement. They fall for it. Heh. I have about 200 myself.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), October 12, 1999.

All of the above. With more money than some.

Adopt me?

-- silly (being@that.now), October 12, 1999.

RUOK: Interesting point about Flint et al. Have these folks ever told what they have done? BTW, not Mormon and most of my preps have been acquired in the last 8 months based on what could go wrong. Pete

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), October 12, 1999.

Yikes! I'm a 9-10?! All this time I have been trying to get others to see that the consequence of being prepared is nil--if all is ok, dump the water, eat the food, burn the wood. I am learning a lot here tonight. Pete

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), October 12, 1999.

kritter, 200 liters ain't enough! With all those soft drinks everyone is buying JUST to fill it with water, your going to die from sugar overdose. Why not just spend the same amount of money on a gallon of bottled water and be done with it? For a family of 4, I figure those 200 liters will last you maybe 2 weeks tops, and that's just for drinking only! If you have an alternative water source and purification system fine, but otherwise, your toast.

Hey, did you all hear about the two boys in Grass Valley, CA that jumped over the water treatment plant fence and dumped a vial of (they don't know yet), into the drinking water? They have them in custody...another wrench thrown into the BIG PICTURE of water safety or sabotage....

-- water dogg (water dogg@waterdoggg.xcom), October 12, 1999.

"What are you?" Better prepared than I am. Heaven's Speed.

-- Nana (drac@mediaone.net), October 12, 1999.

cURIoUS QUerY!!!! dIETeR iS NoT SuRE iF YoUR ARE a jaCKaL Or a hyENA!!!!! maHApS aN INfiDeL?????? baBoOn???? SCrotUm????

iS iT NOT So????? yEs???? nO????

oNE ThiNG ThaT DIetER iS sURE Of, yOU aRE NoT An idiOT!!!!!

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), October 12, 1999.

Dieter; Thanks,I think. Scrotum? Where I come from, we don't make scrotum jokes, ever since the vasectomy. Pete

-- Pete (Phytorx@lanset.com), October 12, 1999.

How about addressing the response to whoever, like this

kritter--

Pete---

need to know who you people are responding too, I don't want to be confused and answer the wrong response thinking it was adrressed to me, thank you....... and WATER IS A BIG DEAL!

-- water dogg (water dogg@waterdoggg.xcom), October 12, 1999.

Water Dogg--

Like this? Re: water. I am hoping that my 5,000 gallon kiddie pool filled on Christmas and bleach could do the trick. BTW, the 2 liter bottles are gotten from friends at work who think I recycle. In time I will. Pete

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), October 12, 1999.

Pete, Well hell yeh, I would say a 5,000 gallon kiddie pool would be my kind of pool. Lot's of water to play with, I'm a lab retriever and ize gotsa have my water!

-- water dogg (waterdogg@waterdoggg.xcom), October 12, 1999.

Pete, where in Central California are you? Just curious, as I grew up in Atwater, just about right smack dab in the middle of the state.

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), October 12, 1999.

Kurt--

I live in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento. Pete

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), October 12, 1999.

BE CAREFUL DeiTEr;

You wouldn't want me to get out my banding gun, now, would you????

Night Train

-- Jes an ol' archive-divin' footballer (nighttr@in.lane), October 13, 1999.

You're a family that will leave that swimming pool and much of the other preparations to move to a Hooverville camp, if you are indeed a pay day away from homelessness which is what it sounds like. Your wife should be working. You are not a man who can have his muffin and be living that close to the edge. She also needs to be working because she will probably have to be working if the economy starts to go cuckoo, and it is best to get back in the door during better times. Her income must pay that house mortgage as the back up. You also need to be saving some money up and getting out of debt to protect that house, and that means the kids are not going to spin the wheel of fortune this Christmas if you're a Christian who celebrates it.

If you are in an impossible situation with muffin working, than you best get a little trailer to hook to the back of your vehicle.

I don't believe in abruptly sending housewives out the door because they are not yo-yo's that can go back and forth like this is easy, but I do believe you could lose your job and that house as the economy takes a severe tumble, and due to the crises there simply isn't time for much sensitivity. Central CA is not a booming job market and more often than not sits in a recession.

People are talking about the stock market as you noticed and what percentage a crash would be to open the door to a depression. Take it very seriously.

What you are is a man who likes to feel like a man but this may not be the season for it. She's going to have to bring home some bacon too.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), October 13, 1999.

Geeeze Paula,

You don't believe in telling someone else how to run their life do you?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), October 13, 1999.

Pete:

Sounds pretty good,I'd say you're a middle-of-the-road Doomer, about a 6-8.

My only suggestion would be to get another cord of wood.

Godspeed,

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), October 13, 1999.

Pete--

You might want to consider, if you haven't already done so, how you're going to keep "stuff" from falling into your pool-held water supply.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), October 13, 1999.

pete :

as daddy use to say " somthing is better than nothing "

very simple/////////// you are doing more than most

rock on

-- j.d. honeycutt (showtron@monumental.com), October 13, 1999.

Paula--

Look at what I said--I have no other money-- you don't know how much I have in 90% silver, but it's more than a roll of quarters. My wife will work when she feels like it. I'm a man who likes to feel like a man? What on earth does that mean? Pete

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), October 13, 1999.

Pete,

I would say that you are very lucky.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), October 13, 1999.

Dear Pete,

I would say you are simply a prudent person who is preparing for whatever eventualities may come your way. Maybe Y2K, maybe earthquake. Whatever. As far as your level of preps, I would classify you as about a "5". You have enough to last thru any shotaged or dispuptions that might occur due to whatever event, but not enough to survive any TEOTWAWKI scenarios.

Tip of the hat to you, Pete. You sound like a level headed person to me. My critical or BWAHAHAHAHAHAing remarks are aimed at the anti-society, anti-american crowd who thinks anybody who doesn't believe it's TEOTWAWKI with the NWO martial law camps brought to you by TPTB is an idiot or a "sheeple".

Take care and best wishes to you and yours!

-- Genius (Codeslinger@work.now), October 13, 1999.

Wise, reasonable, prudent, family-oriented, far-seeing cautious individual trying as best one can to prepare against an uncertain future in the midst of a mass of conflicting and self-contradicting information (from all sides) who has been systematically brain-washed, whitewashed, and washed-out by a flood of propaganda, misinformation, and self-serving information from the supposed leaders of this nation and the world.

However, happy to say, you are more prepared than most. Less-prepared than others. And wise enough to continue to look.

Labels don't matter. Action does. Your actions (involving the family in the plans, encouraging self-reliance, in working hard enough to allow your wife to do the harder job of taking care of the kids) are what matter in th elong run.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 13, 1999.

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Robert- Thanks my friend, from all of us stay-at-home-working-HARD Moms.

Blessings...Mercy (Mom of 6)

-- Mercy (Prepare@now.com), October 13, 1999.

Pete, Flint said himself several times he has about a year's worth of preps. He's considered a "Polly" because he is in fact a trollish poster who just likes to get a reaction out of people.

I consider myself a "Doomer", but I have nowhere near as much or complete preps as you do. I just happen to have a spouse who won't help or even let me.

You're a lucky realist and prudent person.

-- (not@now.com), October 13, 1999.

Recap--

Those who have responded with a ranking have me as anywhere from a 5-10 doomer. Given this, do those of you who think of yourself in the same way, have you prepared differently than me? What am I missing?

BTW Paula-- Calling my stay at home wife a "muffin" is pretty low and is one of the most pejorative references I have heard made towards women.

-- Pete (phytorx@lanset.com), October 13, 1999.

Actually, when there are children in the home, unless the other spouse earns as much or more than the primary breadwinner, the family doesn't really gain all that much extra income.

The higher taxes and extra 'miscellaneous' expenses associated with the second spouse working doesn't usually add much to the bottom line. It does add to the overall family stress, and decreased time to make preparations. Been there, done that.

You are IMHO, better off having your spouse stay home and work on preps as she can when the children are in school.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), October 13, 1999.