Why I'm Blue on Christmas Eve

The love of my life, the darling of my heart, the sunshine in my day, the sparkle in my eye -- who was supposed to visit for Christmas -- had to move far far away. Instead of playing with my nephew and showering him with Christmas gifts and chocolate and love, I have to settle for pics. I am blue and sad and pouting and barely holding back the indignant tears.

This one just came in this morning. Isn't that a face you'd gladly hock your house for?

The Perfect Storm: Emergency Plans in Place

If you've been following the current economic crisis, you know it's been building for years. I'm not interested in playing the ever-so-popular blame game, because the truth is that this mess is completely bi-partisan. If you want a particular person to study, however, check out Henry Cisneros, former Housing Secretary under the Clinton Administration. George Bush chose to continue those policies, however, calling it "Compassionate Conservatism." What is now being called "predatory lending" was once called "affordable housing." We're reaping a bitter harvest for wanting to feel good instead of demanding accountability, responsibility, and self-reliance. What some members of Congress are now calling "a failure of capitalism" and "the woes of de-regulation" was once called "eliminating prejudice in the banking system" and "insuring home ownership for the poor." Regardless of the motivations -- whether it was greed, stupidity, moral superiority, love for all people, or a marked misunderstanding of capitalism -- it resulted in the same mess: this perfect storm we now face. I just feel sorry for the people who are currently stunned by the stock market, housing market, and faltering economy, who are walking around blank-faced, in a state of shock.

If you've been staying informed, searching out alternative forms of news and information, you are already prepared. If you haven't, I'm not about to start crying, "The sky is falling." However, I tend to think one should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Neither a pessimist nor an optimist, I try to be a realist.

If you do nothing else, please make sure you have plenty of water (or ice), gas, and non-perishable food on hand. Cash in small bills is particularly important. These are the items you'll need regardless of what happens. Often times, it's not the crisis that produces the need for these things, but rather the panic in the face of possible crisis.

What you can do: Prepare

• The Federal Government has been pleading with us for several years to prepare.
• Popular Mechanics put out an interesting article in August of 2007. Read it. Prepare your home, car, and a backpack. Their .pdf file is an easy checklist of items.
• The LDS church has perfected organization and preparation; I found one of their websites that has some great resources. Check it out as well.
• If you type in 72-hour kit or first aid kit into google, you'll come up with lots of lists.

The idea is to continue to be as prepared as we can be. We may have to hunker down and weather the storm, but at least this way, when others panic, we can be calm and ready. We can provide stability for our loved ones when it feels like the world is falling apart. Because, in the end, the only things that matter are the people we love.

Just remember: Water, Gas, and Cash. With silver prices falling, you may find it wise to purchase some junk silver in the form of pre-1964 quarters, dimes, and half-dollars.

Five Things to Prepare for the Coming Craziness

I'm not here to debate Inflation or the next Great Depression. But I am ready to give you the top five things you should do in the next month. I know this is a writing blog, but it struck me that this is important enough to write about.

1. Prepare your house: store enough food, water, and supplies for a week.

2. Put together a back-pack that you can grab & run with. This should contain emergency supplies, copies of importants documents, and $300 in small bills.

3. Put together a "plan" for meeting up with family if something should happen. If you're traveling, there's usually only one post office per town, so it's a good "emergency" gathering place.

4. Go down to your local coin store and buy what's called "junk silver." You'll pay spot silver price for pre-1964 coins. It may seem crazy to pay over a dollar for one silver dime, but it's far more usable in a crisis than bullion or bars.

5. Continue to invest in gold and silver, especially silver. They both stairstep up. (I've heard that they 'take the escalator up and the elevator down.')