“Opportunity Eyes” (Personal Ark book, Part 3)

by

“Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not.” Famous quote from the late Robert F. Kennedy. Very much on point as we answer the question “What is a rational person to do for a survival strategy in a world gone mad?”

The answer has, for more than 20-years for Elaine and me, to attempt building our own “Personal Ark.”  We don’t expect the Biblical rains, but the risk of other raining down on the world?  A review of headlines says that is a non-zero risk.  The Middle East is locked in battle over future energy and in Ukraine, the West/NATO is making “remote viewer” predictions of a NATO breakup in early 2024 sound not so far-fetched.

We’re not just serving a long chapter today – looking at home-based business ideas.  We also have this little matter of a Fed  rate decision after lunch plus the usual “world in breakup mode” to follow as well.

Pour a second cup and put notifications on hold.  There’s a lot to cover and like Booker T and the M.G.s used to play, Time is Tight.

(OK, maybe a 9,600-word reportis  a little over-the-top.  But this is part of a book, you know, Besides, if you don’t have time to read it all today, there’s the holidays just ahead…)

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57 thoughts on ““Opportunity Eyes” (Personal Ark book, Part 3)”

  1. G: put me down for read over Holidays. Rudolph -or- Grinch. My Ark plans are mostly tentative prep. Have supplies to make what’s needed then execute if/then. Ex: seeds and materials to build an attached greenhouse at need. Check. Water supply/filters (regardless of electricity). Check. Spot venison on the hoof and … have plenty of ammo. Check. Being a couple hours from Chicago we have no real plans for the big boom light in sky. Sunscreen and cocktails? Check. E

    • The deer will go quick.
      Most people do not reflect on the results of the great depression. Alabama did not have an open hunting season on deer until 1960, because the herd was so depleted. Deer in Alabama were restocked by bringing in trapped deer from Michigan. Georgia restocked from Wisconsin. The deer over there are about 20% bigger even now. Seasons were Buck only for years. Also, a gunshot might bring hungry people looking to share your harvest with you.
      Investigate pellets and air rifles for smaller game like pigeons and doves, rabbits (hard to find any more since you are competing with the coyotes) and squirrels. Air guns are now allowed for hunting turkeys, and there are large caliber air guns used even on deer and wild hogs. (There will be plenty of wild hogs, look for those before deer.) These have a pretty loud report but not like a rifle. A tin of 500 good pellets at the Big Box store is still about $5-6 bucks and the air is free, so you can do a lot of shooting and eating for a little money.
      And one point most don’t know is that most air guns, if you know how, are an order of magnitude more accurate than a .22 at the range you will shoot. I have even some cheaper brake-barrel springers that will put 5 shots in a hole a dime will cover at 10 yards with open sights. Your cheaper open sight .22s will usually be covered by a quarter.

      • the deer would go quick…

        hmmm..if all the studies say that there would only be a couple million survivors of a warlike what we could be facing . that everyone is talking about.. then the same holds true with wild game..the soil will be poisoned the air poisoned the only living creature are those in the deep underground military bunkers…
        and what they can scavenge ..resources would be available the knowledge of how to utilize them won’t..
        think about it.. and those in the DUMBS will run out of supplies that’s why there are seed vaults strategically located around the planet.. although how one would get to them is another journey on its own.
        these morons in office don’t care at all..everyone assumes everything will be the same..
        but coin is digital our grid is made to be vulnerable for a number in someone’s pocket..we have let our infrastructure get to the point of massive collapse.. borrowed ourselves to poverty..and dumbed down our youth..I love .y digital books but in a true SHTF event they will be gone.. I keep hard copies of those that truly matter..the take with in a bug out event have red bindings..

      • +1 on the air rifle comment. Most will out-shoot the shooter… Some of the China-made rifles are good, if you want to go the buy-once route, get a RWS brand rifle.

        re: squirrels – the large RAT traps work very well for them.

        • LOL.

          I use rat traps for chipmunks. I couldn’t figure out where they were going at first. Then I found a pile of them under a shed.

          It seems that packrats are attracted to the damn things and like to take them home.

        • I have five Diana’s
          Model 34 in .177 and .22
          Model 52 side levers in same
          and a Model 350 Magnum in .22.
          They may not be as powerful as a pocket .22 or .25 auto, but they are about half that and will knock a squirrel off a branch easy.
          I hadn’t thought of using a rat trap, not bad idea.

        • What was funny is.. most of my life I had thought that my great great great grandfather on their expeditions used black powder.. then one day I was watching a show on television that said they used those .. got them from france..

          https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/lewis-and-clarks-girandoni-air-rifle/#:~:text=Expedition's%20Secret%20Weapon-,The%20Girandoni%20Air%20Rifle%3A%20The%20Lewis%20and%20Clark%20Expedition's%20Secret,the%20Lewis%20and%20Clark%20Expedition.

          I did call around and asked if someone had it in the closet someplace.. but they said the NRA has it in a museum.. so I won’t ever get to shoot it LOL..

        • the other thing is just like any SHTF scenario.. where do you get the bullets.. where do you get the chemicals to make black powder.. if your going to make the potasium nitrate that takes a long time.. which is why they had a continuous method.. in Rome they had a urine tax.. if you didn’t put your supply in the pot so to speak.. interesting..

        • @LOOB

          “the other thing is just like any SHTF scenario.. where do you get the bullets.. where do you get the chemicals to make black powder.. if your going to make the potasium nitrate that takes a long time..”

          I wasn’t kidding when I said the smallest batteries on my junk battery pile weigh 32 pounds. That should yield enough lead to cast about 900 308, .300WMR, or .45ACP bullets.

          NOBODY would use black powder in a modern firearm. Smokeless is the rule, and that’s simple, stabilized nitrocellulose. The difficult bit would be the primer. The primer explosive is fulminate of mercury, which is also easy to make, but is very powerful and exceedingly unstable, and once you make it, where do you get the casing to put it in?

          The bullet logistics thing is the reason I also have longbows…

      • air is free,,, until you want to compress it
        break barrel and onboard pump are exceptions.
        For high power pcp you will want a compressor.
        hand pumping sucks, I have 2 of those
        I spend close to $2500 for my air compressor
        https://nuvair.com/mch6-portable.html
        there are cheaper ones
        search Yong Heng compressors

        to learn about air guns, Airgun Nation has a lot of experienced members
        https://www.airgunnation.com/feeds/
        another ,
        https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc212bd1c495509f40744d5759f2d652&board=12.0

        • can also utilize Ure bottled air from Ure scuba tanks.
          TOBD aint kidding about hand pumping a pcp rig..hot sweaty proposition in tropics, when on the trail of the green iguanas.
          BCN wont shoot the local BushWillies – the black and white ones. Locals love the eggs frm green iquana – and primarily key in on them when out hunting.
          I just like KILLING large lizards..and imagining I am KILLING annunaki/nephillium-elohims/”archangel” reptoids.

          Bringing down new red dot scope this month, picked up cheap from basspro bargin bin. OSOK – this be best practices ag managment (iguanas love citrus/orchids)…Hatsan .25cal

      • Air guns have been around for a long time. I was baffled to find out Lewis and Clark amazed the Indians, and just about everyone else, with their air gun that was basically a repeater in their day and time. It was all hand made and the reservoir was the rear part of the stock.

      • Big AL: good ideas on airguns. In my youth I had the best one made and it was wicked accurate (like deadly to chipmunks). A bud, who would probably be in the hunt, has that same rifle.

        When I was a kid, before allowed to tote or fire a 12g, the fellers here always got deer. Teams were sent from a couple miles distant as beaters (think Daktari) driving deer to a line of shooters. Worked a charm.

        I’m not worried about the deer population availability at all. There are hundreds nearby (including _on_ the property) and, a farmer friend has thousands of acres just a mile from Che Egor.

        Any who answer to a report would need to help dress the kill. If/then there could be meat to share. Like as not anyone showing up would probably be friend not foe. We are in a remote area. Under adverse circumstances lawlessness wouldn’t go well.

        Deer, small game, fish, and … farmers beef cattle would provide plenty of protein. Then, there’s a puddle chock full of fish out front. I have all the tools and no doubt we would eat just fine.

        Best, Egor

      • AMEN Ray.. AMEN

        I know.. how stupid I was when I was younger.. which is what has me really giving serious thoughts as to whether or not I should shoe the grandkids how to make hydrogen gas efficiently.. it is easy enough doesn’t take any real energy to do it..but the results if they played with it could be dangerous.. I want to just show them how easy it is .. but stir their minds to explore it once it is an acceptable fuel.. today its been done so many times.. and the powers that be don’t want it to affect their business model so it isn’t pushed forward.. you cannot have free energy at all.. it would negatively affect absolutely everything in the modern business model…. I made some of the cellulose LOL.. easy to make.. had a small amount of it.. and some other stuff I was going to get rid of a stump.. my stump remover.. put that little bit in there.. and dropped a fire cracker in there.. the results scared the crap out of me.. and to think I had that in my pocket. so nothing to dangerous anymore.. that was when I was young..
        The casings.. amen.. just like that dishwasher.. made in Turkey.. great system so far.. but all the parts inside of it are made in China.. shipped to turkey then shipped out for sale..and we have dumbed down our youth.. five HEMPS and we would be thrust back ten thousand years.. the govt. knows what the studies have said.. scary.. yet numb nuts and the Morons on parade are still pushing the envelope..
        Everyone I know that has prepped has modern conveniences that wouldn’t be around or usable in a real shtf scenario as their backups.. nice to have a light bulb but no lights.. what do you do.. can you make fuel.. can you reprocess the fuel.. hydrogen is an abundent fuel.. but then so is oil.. its nothing more than compressed sunlight.. there isn’t any secret that I adore coal.. great stuff.. what irritates me is that the changes needed to not only get more energy out of it is easy and relatively inexpensive to do.. that i find it frustrating to see that no one is willing to do that..instead they are all against coal and push to have it not used.. similar to a candle or a mantle lantern.. which one is better.. you get more use of the energy in a mantle lantern than a candle flame.. the changes that need to be made have to do with the business model..
        the day when the power companies or federal govt.. start distributing solar power systems to everyone that is willing to put one on their home or business is when you will know that there is going to be a change in the business model.. changing it to one of a secure grid not insecure as it is today.. solar towers.. hell I will gladly share how that works its a no brainer there.. so is greenscaping cities.. and putting up co2 filters.. the bad part is the fitting it in the business model of lets make money.. the god and idol of all mankind.. cold hard cash..

  3. One tool I didn’t see mentioned today is an air compressor. It’s essential to building/maintaining a property, from driving power tools to applying a finish or airing up tractor tires, it’s a darn handy thing to have.

    One of my ark-building skills is blacksmithing. That’s a hobby I picked up 5 or 6 years ago, and now I can make all sorts of edged tools, hammers, and ornamental items. Forge welding is also helpful if electric/gas welding is not available. Look locally for a blacksmithing club that can help you get started.

    • I have a few air compressors.. I have the one for tools.. and two for filling oxygen tanks.. for rescue air and scuba.. and one hand bicycle pump.. the thing is.. it takes infrastructure to run it..
      we didn’t do like china and put up solar towers starting at the furthest point and working back to the main power plant.. we kept our grid in a fragile state.. five hemps takes down the grid..
      a few years ago a freak winter storm hit texas.. and almost took down half of the power grid in the USA..
      https://www.npr.org/2023/12/13/1219153100/regulators-warn-much-of-u-s-power-grid-is-vulnerable-to-major-winter-storms

      https://time.com/5940491/texas-power-outage-climate/

      Now did the USA learn anything from this.. not a chance in HELL.. it would mean that they would have to go against the business model they have… and look after the security of the grid not the pockets of the elite..
      in the end it is all about the business model.. what it did do though is get our power company to ask every customer to consider putting in backup generators and solar.. whey they should have done is offer every customer a solar power system.. and start putting up solar towers starting at the furthest point from the power plant and work their way back to the power plant.. for the same cost of one big wind turbine.. every house in the whole system could have been given a five kw backup to ten kw backup system.. for the same money.. and instead of having a 3MW potential they would have had a 2.5GW potential.. each solar tower would have 3 – 6MW that could act as a mini grid in a shtf or winter storm scenario.. but then that is going against their present business model.. intstead.. we gave the money that could have been used to fix bridges build solar towers repair aging gas pipelines to Ukraine to destroy so some schmuck that has to much can continue to take more than what they give.. that is just my opinion.. we should be builting solar towers.. greenscaping cities.. puting up CO2 filters on every lamp post in every city.. instead of war and destruction..
      All it has done is left the USA vulnerable .. and now in serious danger because they have opened the borders to illegals that no one has a clue who they are from countries that have said so many times we cannot count them that that was how they would revenge attack the USA from within..
      Unfortunately for the USA McGregor was correct in my opinion.. we have real idiots in control..they have no real life work skills.. they have spent us into a financial death spiral.. and left us completely vulnerable..

      https://warnews247.gr/mcgregor-gia-bainten-dystychos-tous-amerikanous-tous-kyvernoun-pragmatika-ilithioi/

      • LOOB, you are right. All of our major cities are full of millions of people that have no practical skills. Give them a screwdriver and they will probably injure themselves. Zero skills.
        Used to be different. Now our replacements are so pampered by socialism they won’t do anything resembling physical work so the whole place is deteriorating. School doesn’t teach students to work.
        The lesson plan now is to learn ‘Socialism and social skills. Look at the young victims of public schools. Do you believe what you see? The young of today can’t even count to two, don’t even know whether they are boys or girls, and won’t work to support themselves.

        • “Give them a screwdriver and they will probably injure themselves. Zero skills.”

          So true Ed so true.. one of the kids lived in a nice apartment in a big city.. speaking about a screw driver.. LOL LOL.. we were watching the grandson for a while.. and went to take him home.. got there.. my first impression was.. the light bulb burned out in a hallway across from their building.. and a woman fell down the flight of steps and broke her leg.. no one put a light bulb in the socket.. I made it my mission to get the building maintenance to put in a light bulb.. they wouldn’t do it to much work.. god it was fustraiting.. and the people so lazy in the city it was amazing.. no wonder it keeps getting blasted by tornado’s.. gods trying to tell them something..
          anyway the daughters apartment had a loose towel rack.. my.. can’t get the idiots to put in a light bulb.. how hard would it bet to get them to turn a screw driver..
          I went to a local big box store to buy a screw driver that would fit.. and an allan wrench set to fix it.. I asked a store clerk.. where the screw drivers were.. no one had a clue.. what that was.. the clerk thought I was talking about some sexual position LOL … no skills is an understatement..
          then never did put a light bulb in.. so thinking about Government workers and the endless days off.. and prime benefits.. getting a law changed would be easy.. a simple letter to every member of congress.. if it takes two country farm boys to unload a truck.. it would take twenty to forty city government boys to do that same job.. the law would be changed over night .. thought getting rid of the pedo group that had so many important people involved was fast.. this would be faster and it wouldn’t make any difference who is paying them money.. a city that is non productive already and that would make it a stalemate.. gotta keep the illusion that they are doing some work going..

  4. Will the Ark plans be sufficient to battle the Antichrist?

    AN UPCOMING FILM, Leave the World Behind, will be the first fictional movie from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions company.

    The movie stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as a couple renting a vacation home in Long Island with their children when an apocalypse hits. The owner of the home, played by Mahershala Ali, and his daughter (Myha’la Herrold) seek refuge with the family as the disaster unfolds around them.

    https://joehoft.com/breaking-obama-come-out-with-first-movie-about-end-of-times-director-says-obama-scared-the-f-out-of-me/#google_vignette

    • I went to watch it..the response was not available in your country…
      I believe that we have no clue on what we are looking at..we are so caught up on our technological advancements that we would be lost without them. the kids today won’t walk across the street much less twenty miles.. people get bug out locations hundreds of miles away without ever considering g the how of the transportation..

    • It’s a great movie. All of the actors do a fantastic job of playing their characters. Julia Roberts does a good job of playing a character that is really unlikeable. Her dancing is remarkably bad. Kevin Bacon is in the movie too. Please don’t let politics stop you from watching the film.

      One takeaway from the movie is that confronted with the apocalypse some will retreat into their homes and watch Friends!

    • in the AM it said not available.. last night it was.. and I watched it.. good show.. but not very realistic.. they forgot SHOCK AND AWE
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8KimNtB9HI
      how would you do an initial take down of the USA.. it is like china and russia that has a lot of resources.. like IRAQ.. and the GAZA
      https://youtu.be/ZUz2z9TTstc?si=Qn5QQkuO0fiMTGeR
      https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2018/08/000_1885YS.jpg
      the majority of the people are on the coastal regions.. take out the power.. take it out in winter and let the weather do the rest…. most of the elite bunkers are in the middle of the country.. they already know that the USA didn’t do anything to prepare for the people.. the elite will go down into the bunkers.. let the weather do the majority of the work then come in as rescuers.. the people having the privialage of knowing that no one in our government gives a shizt about them.. would be like the dog locked in a trunk and being let out.. thank god you are here to save us… which one would you want to be.. the guy they rescue or the guy that said FY to the people.. hmm.. serious decision there.. now the grid wouldn’t be as easy to take down if they had built solar towers or handing out backup systems to every household its cheaper than what they want to do to LOL LOL LOL LOL.. LOL LOL then you have power everywhere.. instead.. shut down the pipelines.. stop the coal from being used.. and given away our future.. left the country in a turmoil and allowed in millions to complicate what was already a shaky foundation.. sounds pretty stupid to me..

      • distributed power generation ?- what are you a wise guy ? distributed ledger anyone ? hello, wakeywakey?

        nerp didnt think so – moar like wake&bakers .. outback bakey bakey?

        Stop bogarting that doob, Loob.

        • I know.. power distribution would be totally against the stuff big buck billies pockets business plan.
          the business plan also puts everyone including big buck billies numbers and national security of the whole country at risk. but then so does ignoring our infrastructures daily maintenance.

          here’s their marching son in the hallowed halls of the administration…

          https://youtu.be/YuRxmL6AcEc?si=xC3LJGHex8rWvLuA

  6. “What is a rational person to do for a survival strategy in a world gone mad?”
    The answer has, for more than 20-years for Elaine and me, to attempt building our own “Personal Ark.”

    lol lol.. so true..I am right on board.. what’s funny is I tried to talk the wife into joining an eco village in 92that was just starting to develop..she was to attached to technology.. then one day on a trip to check on an aunt with heart issues I got the pleasure of having full access to her uncles workshop..he was a construction worker that once he retired continued by making miniature homes.. as he travelled the world along the way his miniatures would get lost or stolen and the colonies offered them a permanent home..
    I was thrilled … some of the most amazing talent and was exposed to the the colony life..their cheese and dairy hut the winery the meat and the cannery.. the simplistic lifestyle that was all around.. if you ever get a chance and are driving by do stop in and be amazed..his Whitehouse and capital were all stolen or lost in transit but dam what’s there is amazing..
    the first thing I did was build a doll house..I have planned a replication of a lighthouse that I was allowed to vamp in..pleasant memories on that one..
    http://barnmuseum.com/videos.html
    well then my thought on joining was dashed..but now my grand daughter wants to build her own place.. since she remembers me building this house..I suggested the eco village I wanted to join..and the mini baler where I got the idea of mini bales is from my wife’s uncles farm he used mini bales to make a shed that’s now a bar..A few years ago I was dragged up to tell college kids how to construct a house. they built it in 4 hours and rammed earth bricks..in an eco village like that a building would go up in a day. A mac eating pump toilet to a biogas digester and grey water sump pump to a drain field below a garden area. rain water collection and a thermo envelope design with solar power..it would be a sustainable place..now if she decides to visit the eco villiage..she would have to go there with like minded similar aged young people with the community attitude.
    with a group..she could have her dream. the problem is her ex won’t give any support for the kids and low income rent is 2500.00 A month plus daycare utilities etc. etc. the building would essentially be free materials. the rest would be the electrical and plumbing.. I know a macerating toilet is about a grand the totes for a digester well I would give her those..the gas bag is cheap enough..
    and she could work in town..

  7. As long as one can access the internet, then one can telecommute, if one should stumble onto such an opportunity. That can bring in better cash flow than most agricultural or primitive craft work.
    I do like the gourd painting idea. That transforms a useless agricultural hobby to an arts and crafts renaissance deal.
    In truth, in a prolonged grid down situation, the only growth employment will be as manual grave diggers or subsistence farming.

    • ”
      As long as one can access the internet, then one can telecommute,”

      if this progresses the way that is being predicted..there won’t be any.. not that long ago there wasn’t internet..I remember reading urban survival on dial up..free blue light from Kmart..
      the USA IS NOT preventative maintenance but defensive maintenance.. our infrastructure is failing on every level so we can go to war destroy other countries just so some azzhole in another country can benefit by taking what they desire..we don’t pay for that either..we take out high interest loans for that on the backs of our great great grandkids so they can figure out how to pay gor it. the politicians could care less they don’t even have to go to work.
      if this keeps going the way it is this will be life changing for everyone.
      we no longer know how to do anything..we just run to the store.. our power plant are hundreds of miles away.. China on the other hand is preparing for the what if for the people..ghost factories and ghost cities. destroy one and they step off onto another..
      I always had a step off job so if one failed I could step off to another..
      one look at our factory cities will say volumes of the USA preparedness

      • UrbanSurvival loaded fast over a dial-up line.
        I’m living the existence I postulated and began preparing for 25 years ago. I doubt that I will last another 25, and what I now postulate isn’t necessarily survivable anyway. I’m hoping the telecommuting will extend my employable years at least another half-dozen.

  8. Yo G Dawg you old tool slut, after watching “Swing Time” for the umpteenth time, I have come to the conclusion that modern movies no longer provide entertainment. IMHO there is no comparison to the singing and dancing of Fred and Ginger. Ran across a video of old movie stars dancing to “Uptown Funk” that has clips of numerous movies that I would watch over and over again.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1F0lBnsnkE
    Good source of movie entertainment for the holidays, I believe the next generation needs to be exposed to “real entertainment” as compared to the garbage coming out of hollyweird. Enjoy out there in Ure town….

    • In the BCN household The Quite Man, staring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara is mandatory viewing over the holidayz – it is only thing allowed on TV..cept for Sports.

      Aint nothing like a good Irish donnybrook.

      • “Aint nothing like a good Irish donnybrook.”

        OTFLMAO……

        in the loob household only the wife looks at the Donnybrook..
        I prefer the SARAHBROOK and NANCYBROOK lol lol couldn’t help myself there BCN lol lol

      • I could watch The Quiet Man all day and night. I’ve got the book on how they made the movie, too. It’s been a few years since I read it but it’s a great resource on movie history and that part of the World. One of Wayne’s best movies. It was pretty much a family vacation and a return to their roots for his family and the others in the movie like Maureen O’Hara.

    • which one was the better dancer…Fred or Ginger..in watching them both it dawned on me..ginger does everything backwards with high heels on.. I vote for Ginger being the better dancer

  9. The “psychology” of Arc Building and Survivability – within a multi-year economic disaster. It can be a very heavy responsibility [family involved] that can weigh you down., and in some cases crush the spirit right out of you. When others are dependent upon you to get it right., and right the first-time., well, some rise to occasion and blast right through it., others falter and often fail. The right mind-set, combined with the proper knowledge is vitally important. And everyone I know needs to work on both of those aspects for a survivable “Arc”. It is a continuous, on-going education – it never stops.
    You can have all the “stuff”.., but if you lack the drive, or the knowledge on how to use that “Stuff” ., you have set yourself up for a disaster you and those around you may not recover from.
    And thinking that because you have nothing, they might want is nothing more than a bullet to the back of your head., way of thinking. If it gets bad enough – two guys out looking to scavenge food for their hungry families are not going to ask you if you have a couple extra cans of corned beef hash.., they are going to look for a weakness – exploit it – and look for themselves. And if that means leaving you dead on the back porch – so be it., that’s your
    problem, not theirs. [ May sound overly negative, I know – but I have seen the collapse of civil order and what mankind is ready and capable of doing in a disaster.]
    .
    The future may have two wings, but they are on the same bird . vote all you want but the current flight plan is not going to change.
    .
    Guess I am a little negative today…,

    • Whether it’s a family or a nation, you’ll never see everyone pull together until the danger is apparent to everyone. It’s like we were before WWII, but when Pearl Harbor happened everyone knew something needed to be done quickly. Best to have as many preps set aside to be used later rather than possibly used too soon.

    • I believe that is why god let the things happen to me to..
      I would like to believe that I am not a total box of rocks..an idiot maybe.. but not totally numb.. when I was young I thought I had the world by the tail.. great freferences at the time.. I thought for sure it would be easy.. my life goal at that time was to be the next ansel adams… taking photos of great landscapes..
      then the realization that I didn’t have the paper credentials needed.. one thing is it doesn’t matter what you know but who you know.. and the sheet of paper of power.. I worked with many of people that have their credentials.. but would never claim the position of power being a bag boy at the grocery store.. or janitor.. the reason if you made x dollars an hour.. a new employer would not want to over pay them.. I seen people switch jobs for less than a bottle of pop.. a nickle an hour.. at that time it hasn’t changed.. adolphs second secret book pretty much puts it in perspective.. make a house and the loan costs high enough that the majority will seek an apartment.. make the cost of the apartment so high that it keeps them bound to the company.. in Japan and asian countries.. the company houses the people.. and has a company store.. they don’t have to drive at all.. work where they live.. hospitals buy doctors homes it is a write off for them.. to do that.. most big ceo’s put everything in the company name.. it is a write off.. they can show little or no income.. its a win win..
      for the average guy.. I go from paycheck to paycheck.. my yearly budget I have to calculate the difference in costs and re evaluate the systems.. simple a challenge.. this year the biggest challenge is costs going up big time and taxes going up so big that it is almost un affordable.. so do I turn the house over to one of the kids.. and take up the apartment life.. big question there.. to much crap for one thing.. LOL.. the other is.. I know a guy that put away money in a 401K.. worked for a company that did offer their employees a retirement package.. his rent is two hundred more than he gets.. so what do you do.. you go by adolphs book and become a slave to the government programs.. it all makes sense..
      I learned to make the things that make a life a quality life.. I had to.. or go without.. I believe that was so I could show others how to do them.. and I try.. I am not unwilling to tell someone how to do it..

    • Zero to 60 in 2.8 is only impressive on a strip, after you’ve soaked the tires in the bleach. The Crown Vic Police Special I had for a while was, by far, the worst winter car I ever drove. The driveline put much too much power to the wheels, and the tires were much too wide.

      EVs and steam vehicles failed the first time around, not because the petrol-powered vehicle was better (or even cheaper). When you throw the valve or switch, you have 100% torque. When you are on winter yuck, you need, more like 10% torque, and perhaps a raw egg taped to your go-pedal. People who don’t know how to drive it (or mud, or loose sand) don’t realize if the wheels are spinning, you are not moving, and if your wheels are in crap, you’ll only dig in, making a super-slick “hill” you have to climb out of, before you can begin to move. Folks think they can spin the tires and “burn their way out” of being stuck in snow. If the snow is more than a few feet long or a couple inches deep, it doesn’t work. The snow they melt, destroying their transmission, flows under their tires and refreezes as polished ice. I can mod the Cybertruck for a couple hundred bucks, to make it a passable snow vehicle, but Elon will have to ask me, first…

      • We had a Crown Vic S, that was a Texas DPS vehicle in its former life, also but I’ve forgotten the year model it was. It was the boxy body style before the more streamlined variety. When it came time to trade it off we’d got our mechanic to set the variable venturi carb correctly and the 351W in it would do an admirable job passing anything on the highway. The twin spotlights were always a plus, too. The sales lady at one of the dealers I took it to for a possible trade-in took it out for a test spin and came back with eyes like platters. She said she had no idea a car like that could get up and move the way that one did. One of the cars I miss looking back on things.

        Another car was another old DPS vehicle. A Mustang with standard shift in it. We bought it at the auction in Austin and paid a good bit for it as it was painted red and the best of the lot they had. With the dual spotlights again everyone knew its lineage and it got a lot of looks for its time. All the Mustangs had been run into the ground, though, and it was no exception. It started to have a bad knock in the middle of the engine after a couple of years so I sold it. Wish we would have had the money to overhaul the engine.

        • Pre ’92 “Vickis” were “LTD Crown Victoria” models known as the CV-S. They had a 351 Windsor and some of the early SVO toys.

          The first CVPIs dropped the “LTD” model designation Ford had used since (1971 IIRC) and were called “Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. For the CVPI Ford replaced the 351 with their 4.6 (281CI quad overhead cam V-8). The 4.6 was a racing mill and in many people’s minds, the best engine Ford ever built. Ford de-tuned it and used it in the Lincoln Town-Car and the Mustang, as well as the CVPI. (The one I got to see the insides of, was in a Town-Car — an amazing piece of engineering and every bit as nice as the GM engines of the same period)

          THAT is the engine Ford “re-tuned” for the SVO Mustang (and their other ’90s SVO projects). I dunno if they put any of the GO back in the Vickis, but if they didn’t, it would certainly have been possible to do so. I know mine would move fast enough, and get there quickly enough, that even though it hugged the road really well, I would start thinking about my “3-ton car, movin’ real fast,” and back off.

          But seriously, with just “normal power” it was an absolute pig on winter crap. You simply could not tap the accelerator lightly enough to keep from polishing ice, unless you were on virgin snow the steering wheel was merely a “suggestion,” and if you happened to have the wheel turned, AT ALL, and touched the gas, you could anticipate doing several donuts in the road, even at 3mph — The car would simply not recover until it ground to a halt (or hit something…)

          Mine was a 2008 — the first year they put the bulletproof armor in the doors & seat-backs. I’d buy another in a heartbeat, if I needed a 2nd backup vehicle. It would be a “3 season” car though…

        • I loved the styling of the early ’80s Grand Marquis. The only new car we ever bought was an ’83, I think, but it had the 5.0L in it and was always looking for a place to die. Our son was an elementary school-aged wrecking ball inside the car and almost pulled the inside cover off the back door he always entered and exited through. The transmission went out after we had the engine O/H due to the oil forming flakes on the inside of the valve covers and finding their way into the crank case and plugging up the oil pickup screen. The most exasperating thing was I was finally getting into electronics and could pose some reasonably intelligent questions to the mechanics in the Ford house about what was going on in the electronic control systems and I could tell it all went over their heads. They had their testing equipment and relied totally on what it told them. The final coup de grace was hitting a deer with it on the highway one night. The insurance company and the Ford house actually tried to repair the radiator, which didn’t work, and I was too naive to insist on a new one. Live and learn, but they did a really good job putting the fiberglass nose back together.

          My dream car would be a Lincoln MkV rebuilt with a 5.4L in it. That is a very impressive engine!

        • 5.4 is the powerplant in my Expe. At 309k its timing chains had loosened enough that the passenger-side chain punched a pretty, rectangular hole through that sexy aluminum valve cover. No smoke, no rattle (except the “tick” that Ford valve trains have had since 1932), would still pull a 7000# trailer up 6% grades, but the timing failed.

          Neither my mechanic, nor any other garage in the area, would do a valve job (“We’ll replace your engine. The valve issue is endemic so we won’t “fix” it and don’t recommend a used engine — get a rebuilt…”)

          I said “okay” and eight months later, had my Expedition back. (My wrench failed to mention there were zero rebuildable 5.4 cores available, anywhere in North America.)

          The 5.4 is a beast, but AFAIK there’s not even a TSB on the timing chain. Be aware the chains and tensioners should probably be replaced every 120-150k and if they are, the damn’ things might run forever…

  11. “Imagine building a three-part wonder: Great Work and Professional life, a solid and loving family life, and a permanent home unlikely to be taken away from you.  Not a bad “mission” to attempt, is it?”

    Check, check, and check. Mission accomplished, Sir!

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