Suddenly I am a bugging in advocate

[Boats]

I sustained a very serious high ankle sprain during a slip and fall during the heavy rains last week. Almost snapped my damn left leg.

I have had this injury before, playing high school football at 17. Back then, 4-6 weeks of taking it easy and was good as new. Now, at nearly 50, the doc says eight weeks to four months to "spring back" and maybe surgery is in the offering for ligamental damage.

One of the many thoughts I have had about these circumstances is that as I get older, bugging out is borderline fantasy. Even were I spry and youthful for my advanced middle age, my eyes get worse and the healing takes longer or doesn't happen as well anyway.

Unlike when I was a youth, I now have scads of money. I'm reorienting my prep away from getting out to the cabin east of the WV, and am instead going to begin prepping to stay put. Ammo weight, rifle weight, gear weight, all that, no longer matters. If anything is carrying that crap now it will be my jeep or some future mad max biodiesel project I'm toying with while my leg is elevated.

My ultimate mortality is casting a deeper shadow as I age. Bugging out is for youngsters. I'm making ready for a last stand from now on, or like in the novel The Road, someone and their kid keeping the fire alive will eventually thank my ghost for affording them a respite from the chaos by living high on the remains of my bugging in supplies.

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[Sgt Nambu]

Wow! That's poetic!
Welcome to the world of the old, infirm and efedd up!
I sincerely hope you don't have to stay here for long!

 

[BoonDocks36]

. . . Almost snapped my damn left leg.

snipped

Now, at nearly 50, the doc says eight weeks to four months to "spring back" and maybe surgery is in the offering for ligamental damage.

SNIPPED

. . . max biodiesel project I'm toying with while my leg is elevated.

My ultimate mortality is casting a deeper shadow as I age. Bugging out is for youngsters. I'm making ready for a last stand from now on, or like in the novel The Road, someone and their kid keeping the fire alive will eventually thank my ghost for affording them a respite from the chaos by living high on the remains of my bugging in supplies.

Welcome to My WORLD . . .
please understand, it took me 5 - 6 Years after becoming "Medically Retired" that I still had Knowledge to Offer the younger folks . . .

And so do You, you "old Salt" I know that Because I respect men of the Sea . . .

If the worst comes, I will sit in the Eagles Nest and use my 7.62X51, from my PTR 91 . . .

Until that happens, I will offer what I have in Knowledge, to those who will have it, in return of helping me !

philip

 

[45alive]

Yup, NO fun getting old ! I am 46 going on 80, busted up for sure after years of Manual Labor. The bones and ligaments are like a rubber band, when new they snap back quickly but when old they tear and break.

 

[mjbskwim]

I have always thought 'bugging out' was a fantasy. Not because i am late 50's,just because of the dangers that will be out there.
Bugging out will take you to hostile territory.Not a choice.There will be hostiles almost everywhere you go. And if you step foot into an area you don't know,there will be someone who knows the area better.And will either be there to protect it or take any goods from visitors.
Like folks who think they will cross the passes and go to the east side.
Yeah. There will most definitely be road blocks to let you pass or take your goods.
Now if you stay home,you know who belongs and who doesn't belong in the neighborhood,where you can go and the places that aren't safe,if you do have to go out to try to find something
As you said boats,there won't be any ammo to carry,more than across the property.All your stores are there.
Heck you can make up a costume for going out that makes you look disheveled and crazy,so others leave you alone and you don't look like your eating steak for dinner.
There are a small percentage of folks that would survive on the road,camping. Even in a motor home you really don't have much protection.They are thin skinned and most calibers would barely slow down thru both sides.
Staying home and piling bodies up on the perimeter will be my plan. It may smell after a while but that smell will be everywhere

 

[IronMonster]

Any reasonable person only looks at "bugging out" as a last ditch, no other option strategy.
Of course I have met a lot of "preppers" who are not reasonable people.

 

[erudne]

I'm a bit past 50 and though I have some badly worn bits I still manage to do some hard work. I'm sorry for your injury but I think you'll recover, if you keep-up w/your PT and watch your diet.

 

[etrain16]

Wait, I can stay home?! Does that mean I no longer have to answer the question "what one gun would you take with you?"

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

I'm a bit past 50 and though I have some badly worn bits I still manage to do some hard work. I'm sorry for your injury but I think you'll recover, if you keep-up w/your PT and watch your diet.

I concur. At 50 I was pretty bummed after a hernia. Then went the back, eyes and knees in short order. Thought I was falling apart but the Hernia operation healed well, the back I'm learning to live with and the knee pain I'm getting used to as well. Some days I almost feel pain free! Bifocals will fix the eyes when I get around to it.

I have no solid plan for bugging out or in. I have made some minimal preps though and keeping relatively fit is one of the most important.

 

[albin25]

I've generaly believed that if things have become so desperately desperate, so massively malevolent, that my mid-sixties wife and I need to pack a BOB and hit the bricks...we'd basically just be pack mules carrying some fresh weapons and supplies to the first roving band that wants it bad enough.

On the other hand, being retired we do have the advantage of bugging out early in a loaded car and not having to decide if it's time yet to abandon a job or career or pull the kids from school, over a false alarm or premature panic.

 

[transittech]

I like it! This is one of the first prepping threads I have read that actually made sense! Lots of good points here.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Lots of good points to staying put.
You know your home and people as pointed out earlier, you know where the stores (both your storage and the retail kind ) are and what's in them , on a grimmer note you may even know what your neighbor has and no longer needs ...
Also , at least for me , in a doomsday event the evil I know , may be better than the evil I do not know .
Andy

 

[erudne]

Now is the time to make range cards out as far as you can see, and beyond (google map)
so's you don't have to work as hard a few years down the road!

 

[The Heretic]

Weight of the gear you are carrying still matters because you may still be walking to get home if your vehicle isn't working or the roads are impassable by vehicles.

I live at my BOL, but I always consider that I may be away from home, and have to walk home from at least 30 miles (work) or more (when visiting relatives in nearby cities).

At almost 62, I am slower and out of shape. I've also had a few injuries that make walking a chore instead of the enjoyable exercise it used to be. Sometimes, when my back or knees act up, walking is a literal pain - just getting from my office to my car can be something of an ordeal.

So my GHB and its contents are chosen for the lightest weight possible - just the necessities and I often pay a premium for lighter weight items as these increase my speed and my chances of getting home.

I wouldn't neglect the possibility either that you may still need to bug out to that cabin.

 

[Joe13]

I've got busted knees, wife has some extra weight to loose and my teenage daughter is a princess - it's absolutely in my best interest to stay put.

I have water in a pool, a cargo container for a shed and more guns and ammo then I can carry. So yes, I will be hunkering in.

I also have 2 dogs that I couldn't leave behind and they are small so they can't even pack their own food! Good friends and alarm clocks but useless otherwise

 

[Hayshaker]

Yup!! Getting older does make one change his outlook ~~Turned 79 today and after 3 hips and two knee jobs ~~I can tell you it takes a lot of determination to bounce back. Gets harder every time. Still walk 1 1/2 miles everyday with a walker, but the days of carrying anything or going out to a BO is out of the ??. Roads/bridges and whatever else will stop you from moving very far away and after several days of total shut down of all services ~~you cannot trust anyone who you don't know especially if they have not had any thing to eat .
The gov will shut down ALL communications and confiscate any thing that they can't control as they will can only control people that don't know what going on. 10/20 miles away.
That's already a an executive order ~~ OB just needs an excuse to declare martial law.

 

[Medic!]

Take a tip from the millennial generation.

Just stay at home. Where it's good!

 

[Joe13]

Take a tip from the millennial generation.

Just stay at home. Where it's good!

1 vote for best post of the day

 

[Medic!]

1 vote for best post of the day

Thanks Guys!

I'll be sure to tell Mom the next time she brings me down a sandwich.

 

[Joe13]

Rotflmao!!!!!