then I will! Among the many reasons for being ecstatically happy and relieved that the infrastructure held, I just found a new one and wondered why nobody mentioned it. Too mundane, I guess.

I opened a can of hash for breakfast and I"m opening a can of Dinty Moore for dinner. Don't worry, I prepped for a year, I won't run out.

Not only will we get out of most of our grocery shopping for a short to very long :-) while, if others prepped as heavily as I did in canned goods, we will get out of COOKING for a while, too. I love it!

God, I'm happy!

-- Scat (no@more.spam), January 02, 2000

Answers

Scat,

I feel the same way. Struggling with MS has been hard enough. My grocery store is my home, and I don't have to drive and worry about getting one of those scarce handicapped parking places! I'm set for a year or longer! Just had tuna salad with water chestnuts and almonds on the side for lunch. Yum! Tried vanilla soy milk on my cereal! Yum! Yesterday, I made a wonderful tuna noodle casserole with sharp cheese (expiration date Aug 2000) and packaged it for single servings! Yum! I had enough extra to give my mother some in my small baking pans for her for a meal or two. Stretching her Social Security further! I feel so good!

Have enough medication (I'm currently on 26 a day, 30 during my twice a year exaccerbations(quite the management issue). I intend to rotate and always have an extra supply for emergencies. Smart, Yes?

Thank all of you so much for the support over the past year and a half. This community has become special to me. Hopefully, I can contribute a bit on preparation for unforseen medical tragedy, grief and trauma, aging and death, right to die, etc., etc. Because of my MS, cervical spinal stenosis, asthma and age, I'm pretty well prepared for both. Also have am well educated and certified in the area.

That is, if it interests you all. Sure enough, someone you love, which includes yourself, will have a medical tragedy, grief or trauma issue, or problems coping with aging and death. IMHO, these are areas of preparation our culture avoids whenever possible. Understandable but tragic. No one should have to learn how to cope with these without any preparation while also coping with the illness, disability or death.

So let me know if this area of preparations interests you. It's OK if it doesn't. Representative of our culture.

Thoughts?

-- Leslie (***@***.net), January 02, 2000.

Leslie - Thank you for your offer of information and support with health, death and dying issues. I am afraid that I may be needing some of that help with regards to my mom. She has severe respiratory problems and I have backed up her medications with 6 months supply.

Just knowing this prep forum has so many loving people that have so much knowledge is a great comfort.

-- Sammie (sammiex0@yahoo.com), January 02, 2000.

Well, gee, I checked back to see if there were more simple little happy thoughts like my own, to which we are surely entitled today. Wow. Sure burst my bubble.

Leslie, I rather doubt that the intent of the Prep Forum is likely to change that drastically, but maybe I'm wrong. Few of us are hale and hearty, IMHO, at 60 - but I don't post the ways I am not. Speaking only for myself, I really don't want to discuss medical tragedies, illness and death right now; I've been scared and miserable long enough. If others do, they may not find your invitation on my happy comment thread. Nor will they feel like adding happy comments of their own, in all likelihood.

Someone once said "Happiness is the first few minutes after the alleviation of some especially intense misery." It must also be representative of our culture to wish it to last more than a few minutes. I can't fault that. Sorry.

-- Scat (no@more.spam), January 02, 2000.

I enjoyed all of your comments. Along with my preps I also researched many recipes to use my preps. All along I had in mind having to do all my cooking on or wood stove or camp stove. I found some great recipes. I bought mostly canned goods along with rice, and some dried beans and peas, but not in huge quantities. If you are interested www.delmonte.com has great recipes to use some of your canned goods. Check the "Can Do it" section. I have others if you are interested.

We did not buy a generator before the rollover. But we would like to buy one now, hoping to get a good dealer. On Dec. 26 our 23 year old submessible water pump went out. Fortunately, we were able to get it replaced the next day. I asked the pump guy when he was here about putting in a manual pump as a back-up. We normally have loss of power on a regular basis. He said it is not cost effective, especially if you have a very deep well like we do. He said we would be better off buying a generator which would have to be 220 to run our pump. He also suggested buying one that runs on Propane. I read, with much interest, the posts below on generators and thanks all for the URL's. I will check them out.

I have mostly lurked here and on TB2000, but I have learned a lot and am not at all sorry for any of the preparations I have made. Happy New Year all.

-- Hope (hope@spirit.com), January 03, 2000.

Scat,

Sorry, didn't realize this was a "happy only" thread. Thought it was about real life preps. I'm here to attest that it is possible to find happiness while coping with these issues. If you're prepared. Ah the grasshopper and the ant.

Peace and blessings to your "happy only" thread.

-- Leslie (***@***.net), January 03, 2000.

FWIW, I've had rotten health for years (in large part due to a serious car wreck), and I've always tried to keep at *least* a month or two of food -- a large part of which didn't need a lot of preparation to use -- on hand at any time.

I've had more than one occasion to use it, when I was barely able to walk around the house, let alone shop and cook.

To me, it's insane to *choose* to live hand to mouth. No one ever knows when catastrophe -- or tragedy -- will hit. Storms, job loss, illness, or other crises can happen without warning. How foolish to be unable to eat, because you didn't bother to set away some food!

Food is *cheap* and *plentiful* in the USA at the moment. We don't know how lucky we are.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 03, 2000.

Scat--I am fully in line with your exuberance! I too have multiple health problems and it has been difficult to make myself go to the supermarket and purchase sale items before the limited stocks were depleted. From now on, for a long time, I can just ask Sweetie to stop by on his way home and pick up bread, milk, some fresh veggies and things of that sort.

After this, I shall always keep at least three months worth of stuff on hand because it's such a treat not to have to go to the store or PetsMart when I'm not feeling great--and, as you so joyfully state, to heat up a quick meal instead of rolling up my sleeves and laboriously cooking from scratch. I DID so love to cook and even taught cooking and edited recipe books, but I must recognize some growing physical limitations. But there's a sunny upside--the extra time it gives me to read and surf!

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), January 03, 2000.

I agree with all the foregoing, but wish to add one note of caution. Do hold onto your preps for awhile, because we don't yet know what may happen to the supply chain. Seeing what happened to Hershey, Revlon, Fruit of the Loom, etc., etc., and knowing that small businesses and suppliers may STILL not be able to deliver promptly, and knowing that the stock market bubble may still burst, causing a recession, we should still be being prudent. Saturday on "Inside Washington" my favorite member of the panel, Charles Krauthhammer, stated emphatically that he still expects a major terrorist bombing in the USA in a major city in the next few years. Today one of my execs called frantically on my voice mail even before I'd reached work, to say that an airline didn't have his reservation, when clearly American Express and I did have hard copies of it...it got "lost" at the airline, apparently. That surely has to be a Y2K glitch...never, ever happened in my umpteen years of making travel for numerous execs. So don't let all of your guard down just yet, please. I love you all and want you kept safe!

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

Hey!

Scat, I'll have you know, my wife doesn't even know where the forks & knives are in MY kitchen! Take back that sexist remark in your thread title! I do all of the grocery shopping and cooking in this family, thank you very much! My wife is a Brit, you see, and therefore doesn't know how to cook properly. With respectful head-nod to Old Git, of course, no offence intented...

-- Spindoc' (spindoc_99_2000@yahoo.com), January 03, 2000.

Honest, O.G., no offence intended, but one gets so tired of Shepherd's Pie, day in, day out. In recompence for all the Yorkshire lass has had to put up with from me in the past year for y2k preps, I used some of your recipes for our New Year's eve dinner. Hence, I've been forgiven.

-- Spindoc' (spindoc_99_2000@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

OK, I admit my old mac wordperfect spellchecker is noncompliant (gotta blame it on something). Offense, intended, etc... sigh....

-- Spindoc' (spindoc_99_2000@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

Hope,

you mentioned that you are in the market for a generator. Check out the latest page from The Epicenter

It has generator construction, and by going back in the archieves you get articles on converting a gas generator to propane and even how to make a generator from a lawnmower and an alternator.

If nothing else, good basic information.

Another good reference is The Juice Page

Hope this helps you in your decision.

de

-- (delewis@inetone.net), January 04, 2000.

Ouch ouch oooowwwwccchhh!!!! Boy, came over here to prep forum to see if I could get some feel of the ole tb2000 forum...Old Git!?! no one will come to the rescue of Hope? two days no one has? Hope, I have a friend with MS...your post WAS UPBEAT!!! Scat don't know nothin as they say here in East Texas I don't think anyone's here except scat....well SCAT!!! I'm back to TB2000...gotta put my gloves back on though...wait a minute...Scat did say ladies...oh well Hope, maybe it was a misprint er uh typo....anyway I'll say Ta Ta! Lurker 13

-- lurker 13 (lurker13@nowhere.here), January 04, 2000.

Leslie not Hope, sorry about that.

Lurker 13

-- lurker 13 (lurker13@nowhere.here), January 04, 2000.