Grayfox54

Prepare for the worst. Hope for the best.

Advice for younger people. Set up an automatic payroll deduction through your bank or Credit Union. The money is automatically taken out of you paycheck and deposited in a savings account every payday. You never see it, so you don't miss it. You very quickly adjust to living on what you actually bring home. Resist the urge to dip into that account unless absolutely necessary. Start small if need be. Say $20 per paycheck. Gradually increase the amount as income and time increase. I did this through the County Employee's Credit Union when I started working for Bartlett. When I retired I was putting $300 per paycheck in the account. More than once having that money stashed away saved my butt when sudden, unexpected expenses hit.

I think the real difference for me was that I managed to pay off my house before retiring. No way I could have retired when I did if I still had a mortgage. I did keep my city health insurance until age 65, but paid double for it. At 65 they dropped my insurance completely. However they did add an extra $200 per month to my retirement to help cover the cost of a Medicare supplement. I got medicare at 65. One piece of advice I can offer is that when researching Medicare Supplements, seek out an independent insurance agent who specializes in health insurance plans. The lady came to my home, laid everything out and we spent about 4 hours going over the various plans and options. In the end, I actually got much better coverage than I had with the city at a considerably lower cost. I got a Plan F supplement which is the best. It ain't cheap, but with no mortgage, I can afford it. Naturally, .gov decided to end Plan F this year. Those of us who got it get to keep it, but its no longer available to new enrollees .

Retirement was the best thing that ever happened to me. You'd be surprised at how quickly you can get used to not working for a living.

Hipower makes a good point. In the EOTWAWKI scenario, its most probable that despite our dreams and fantasies, most of us will get killed. My plan is to take as many of the bad guys with me as possible.

The Blue Angles C-130 support plane "Fat Albert" used to do a JATO take off as part of their show. Its impressive!

Yep, we've seen this before. There will always be those who take advantage of a bad situation and unfortunate people. I learned my lesson about two shortages ago. I'll get through this one and add more when supply and prices come back down.

That's exactly what Antifa wants. I blatant display of fascism in action. Or at least that's how they and the liberal news media would twist it. Its a no win situation which is just as they planned it. It would be a major victory and recruiting tool for Antifa. The only real answer would be for the good people in these troubled areas to stand up in mass, demand and get action from these do nothing politicians. So far that ain't happening. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I have no doubt that however the election turns out that there could be riots the likes of which will haven't dreamed of before. If Trump wins, the already crazy and violent left will get much worse. I can only see Biden winning by massive election fraud. That could set the right off. However, keep in mind that when both Clinton and Obama were elected, the right pitched a fit, but we didn't resort to violence. Not sure if that will hold true this time. I am certain that every city and police dept in this nation is putting together plans now to deal with trouble if it should occur. Things could go either way. We'll just have to wait and see. While I'm not overly concerned with my little city, we do share a border with North Memphis. An area that has been steadily slipping for decades now. I worry about spill over from there. Especially since I live in the western portion of Bartlett. If there is any threat from Memphis, it'll reach my part of town first. On the positive side, what demonstrations that have been held in Memphis have been fairly peaceful up to now and have stayed downtown. I hope it can stay that way. One more precaution I plan. I normally do my grocery shopping once a month and usually shortly after I get paid on the first. Usually during the first week. However, I will get that done at the end of October rather than early November this year. I will be freshly stocked up before the election. I have faith that our Mayor and Police will stand up to any trouble. However, I honestly can't say for absolute certain. I'm prepared to ride it out if necessary for up to a couple of months. I have good neighbors and if it comes right down to it, I'll arm all of them.

Well done Sir! I know you'll love it. I sorta have a thing for the Walther PP series myself.

Yep, guess I'll forget the baton thing too. I still might pick up a small can of pepper spray next chance I get. I like the idea of having a less lethal option available. But am well aware that its use can backfire on you. Especially in a confined space.

Probably some drug dealer's pet that got loose. I do hope they can catch it unharmed. But, I'd load up the .45-70 just in case.

For years I always carried my Colt Commander and 2 spare mags. But admittedly over the last few years I've gotten lazy. More often than not I just carry my little S&W 642 or Colt Mustang. However, considering the current state of things, I've gone back to my Commander with the extra mags. I've also given thought to a less lethal secondary weapon. I don't want to shoot anybody if I can help it. Maybe pepper spray. Some years ago, I somehow acquired one of those collapsible batons. I've never carried it, but now I'm considering sticking it in my back pocket. Anybody use one? Thoughts on the subject?

I always thought there were way too many emojis anyway. The legacy ones were about all I ever used. The rest just got in the way and were annoying. I'd like to see you dump all of those. BTW: need a legacy version of the roll eyes emoji. I like that one and would use it pretty regular. The other versions offered just didn't work for me. :rolleyes

Bubba has no limits. When he hits bottom, he just keeps digging harder.

Nothing happening in Memphis that I know of. At least there's nothing on the local news. There were a few demonstrations a few months ago when all this started, but they remained fairly peaceful. A few arrests, but nothing serious. Some squatters tried to set up camp in front of city hall, but they got run off. These antifa/BLM nuts haven't tried anything serious in a red state yet. It'll be interesting if they try. Memphis may be a democratic stronghold, but I kinda doubt they would put up with that stuff.

Shelby Country seems to be over the hump. 1825 active cases. That's about half of what it was just a week or two ago. However, 397 deaths. Gonna be interesting to see the numbers in a week or two after the Labor Day weekend.

I have thought about getting CC insurance, but really don'r know much about it. Please, name names and give recommendations. I think many of us would be glad to see some open discussion on this topic.

If looking to stay with what you already have, I'm quite fond of the .308. Its an excellent "do it all" caliber. If you're in the market for something new, what do you intend to do with it? BTW: everybody needs a good .22LR rifle. I don't see that on your list.

I've seen some articles where doctors are concerned with the coming of the normal flu season. Symptoms are very similar to Covid and there are worries of misdiagnosis leading to major problems with both diseases. Back in July I lost a filling and chipped a tooth. Before I could get to the dentist, it got infected. The infection spread to my sinuses and somehow triggered a serious COPD episode. I was sick as a dog and barely able to breath for several weeks. I was scared it might be Covid there for a while, but tested negative. I'm just now getting over it. Weird how one small ailment can lead to other much more serious stuff. Trust me, I'm an expert on that and it sucks.

I think I may have found something. [url=https://www.windhamweaponry.com/firearms/rifles/223-556-caliber-rifle/a1-government/] WINDHAM WEAPONRY A1 GOVERNMENT[/url] Looks to be what I want and seems to sell in the $800-850 range. Some minor differences such as the barrel profile ain't quite right or the stock is a hair longer, but I'm not that nit picky. Of course, right now nobody has one in stock. I really don't know one brand from another. What's good or what's bad. Anybody got any opinions of these?

The Brownell's rifle is pretty much what I'd want. But I'm just not sure I want to spend $1200 on what would be just be a nostalgic toy. No way I'll spend $2500 on a pony. If I remember correctly, most of the rifles I was issued in the Army were made by General Motors. I don't think I ever had a Colt. These were also the rifles that turned me against the M-16 for 40 years. Good shooters when they worked. The problem was keeping those A1 POSs working. I've seen M-16A1s do some really weird malfunctions. Most unreliable firearm I've ever had. Not just mine, but many others as well. The only reason I own the S&W M&P 15 now is that at the time they were pushing the ban real hard again and I just thought "why the hell not?" Like I said, I'm not much of an AR guy anyway. Again, I have no idea why this notion has struck me now. Maybe I've just been locked away from the world for too long. Gettin' bored and crazy. IDK, maybe if I can stumble across the right rifle at the right price? We'll see.

Ok, bear with me here. While I own a M&P-15 Sport II, I am not a AR kinda guy. Honestly, I don't really like the things. However, sitting here with my mind wandering in isolation boredom ( and I mean really bored as Hell!) Its occurred to me that if (really big IF) I were to get another AR style rifle, I wouldn't mind having one similar to the M-16A1 I used back in my Army days of the early 1970s. I'm talking 20 " barrel, forged in carry handle, solid butt stock, tri-angular handguards, pretty much G.I. semi-auto clone from days gone by. About the only thing I might want different would be the A2 style rear sight with easier to adjust knobs. But I'm not totally sold on that. Anyway, my googlefoo isn't the best and attempts to search mostly turns up millions of current style ARs with all the bells and whistles. Frankly, I don't feel like sorting through all that crap. So, does anybody know of a good company making a rifle like this at a reasonable price? Honestly, if its too expensive, I'll just forget it. This is just a random thought rolling around in my head and not something I'm seriously committed to. I'm sure if I looked enough I could find an older rifle from years ago in this configuration, but what price could I expect to pay? Anyway, like I said, just bored and spit ballin' here. Bear with an old man.