Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Today is the day Hallmark has prepared a selection of pre-approved sentiments to share with your love. Er, I mean, it’s Valentines Day!
Did anyone get any guns nestled in roses?
Hubby and I have an actual date planned for Friday. First one in a long time. *shakes fist at baby* We have a sitter lined up, and we’re going to go watch entertainment that doesn’t involve puppets or toy trains. I love my babies, but it’s going to be nice to spend quality time alone with my husband. He’s my prepper partner and one of my favorite people.
In fact, in a certain light, it could be said that prepping brought us together. I was a recent college grad, looking for a place to grow some veggies. He had a back yard with some abandoned raised beds. I started hanging out with him more, looking to score permission to plant in them. I did end up planting seeds in those beds. More than vegetables grew though.
I hope you do remember to take the time to strengthen the bonds in your life. I don’t care if you pick Valentines Day or Lincolns birthday or a random Tuesday. Make sure the ones you love know it. You never know when the bonds will be tested, and like the rest of your resiliency tools, you should keep the bonds close and strong and in good repair.
Are you a prepper pair? Or do you struggle to balance your prepping against your partner’s disinterest? Any good prepper dating sites? Sound off!
- Calamity Jane
PS – this being a holiday of love, I think Jason and GoneWiththeWind should both say something nice to each other.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Such a random day ehhh, honeybunz and I share the prepper view, we plan to spend the night together for V-day, Friday night is the real date night…. I often wonder why dawg’s arn’t used more in police tracking work, and how is it that the search, the water source is just a few yards further then where the person stop’s, oddity there. My dawg has led me out of the woods a few times when I lost bearing, just tell her it’s dinner time, she heads to the house, lol. Acruise without toilets/power, hmmm, messy indeed. A prepper would most likely have made a cook stove of sort’s, we have so many options from a rocket stove to fuel burners, borrow a few number 10 cans from the galley, go back and borrow some steaks and waa laa, picnic time, most cruise ship’s have swimming pools onboard and an ocean of salt water, surely makeshift portalets could have been erected out of shower curtains or such, 5gal. buckets etc., sounds like most of those folks were of the sheeple mind…. waiting around for someone to do something, rescue me I’m helpless here, what to do ohh what to do, maybe due to my trek’s into the woods that I know when I gotta go I know how where and when to go….. me and the sun deck would have had a nice challenge fitting in my campsite, be kool to try, using whatz aboard the ship, a few rescue boats may have the tarp missing but…. easy to be critical when not placed in said situation but I would not have just kept crapping in a toilet that is on the brink of overflowing, talk of bacteria/germs creating havoc, they seemed to have gotten off without an epidemic of the squirts or such… just one mans thoughts….
Jane, I love you – that was perfect! I had a huge smile on my face with all you wrote & to you honor, I will do it.
Dear Gone With The Wind,
I want to say ….. I can’t do it Jane – it is male pride getting in the way!
Ahem …..
As I was saying & prying the words out of my head, I do want to apologize for the strife I created in our conversations. The sooner you face the fact that I am always right, all will be better in your world. (I am laughing as I write such nonsense).
We are two people who have strong convictions & that is a good thing. Though we may be at an impasse with certain issues, truth be known I greatly respect your convictions & way you stand up for what you believe because it is a rare quality in this day & age.
I know I may, in very rare moments, display bits arrogance (more self deprecating laughter here), know that Jason is a writing character with which I experiment with & in my “real life” I am extraordinarily easy going, funny, social & you & I would be friends, of that I am sure of.
Lastly, I may challenge your views in the future but I will keep on point & do away with my character attacks however, more truth be known, you inspire some great thoughts & metaphors for me & truly thank you for that generosity.
To sum it all up, will you be my cyber Valentine? (Jeez, that sounds so gay, I hope nobody is reading this & thinking Jason has finally gone over to the dark side!)
I wrote my response below before yours was posted. So in response to your post “I heart you”!
P.S. I would have tried to put that in a picture of a heart but my HTML skills are weak and I suspect it would be an error and make no sense at all.
“The sooner you face the fact that I am always right, all will be better in your world. ”
When I say it , I’m dead serious ;)
Haha! Jason, you’re killing me.
I laughed all through your comment!
I don’t have an axe to grind with Jason. I enjoy a thoughtful discussion and often learn from them even when I disagree. Probably if Jason and I were to meet in a social setting we would find many things to talk about where we agree. It is the nature of this format that sublties and nuances of a discussion become lost or twisted and there is a temptation to resort to less acceptable tactics to win a point that would not normally happen in a face to face discussion. I am an imperfect person who has had to apologize more then once for a badly worded comment or thought spoken before well thought out. I tend to be plain spoken and outspoken and I’m OK with that. The biggest A-hole I ever worked for had the ability to make it crystal clear what he wanted and expected in very few words and that was refreshing after working for much nicer people who were unable to articulate a vision or goal. I read everything on this blog but only comment when I think I have something to offer. What I have to say may disagree with the feeling others hold but if we cannot deal with honest disagreement and discussion then maybe it’s time to learn that incredibly useful skill. Feel free to call me on any occasion where I resort to name calling or rationalization, but otherwise if you disagree then say so or show me where I am wrong or what part of my position is wrong and I am more then willing to modify or recant my position if your superior arguement proves me wrong. But I am not a pussycat (except to my wife and grandchildren) and I don’t expect to change. I prefer honesty, even blunt honesty over acquiescence or fear of offending.
So, if I read in between the olive branches, let me see if I understand you ….
You think I have been an A – hole. Where did you ever get that idea?
You love me. Sorry, but I am not turning the other (butt) cheek for you.
You think I disagree with you & resort to taunting in order to get a rise out of you. Guilty, guilty, guilty but love it. But you are right – I am a sick man. Three therapist visits per week & 26 types of meds taken daily is still not working.
**** break time, I am laughing too damn hard at the moment ****
You claim to not be a pussycat – wrong you are, you have great convictions & that is a separate issue. You are a protector type & that is an admirable trait. You are just a closet pussy. (I’m killing me)
You eat meat that has been …. well, labeled as “meat products” & full of everything from the laboratory tables of Dupont & Monsanto & still live to tell about & can write coherently. In your honor, today, I will eat a Big Mac & a large order of fries. (Though I do not eat that any more, I really loved most everything from McDonalds, Taco Bell & the rest of the fast food joints. The more the grease, the better!)
You think I am a hypocrite. Damn, you busted me.
You insinuate that I call you names. Bite me you pathetic jerk, I would NEVER resort to such childish antics.
***** Break time, tears are running down my face *****
You think people with mental disabilities are retarded. You are correct & you may include me in that group.
You think vegetarians are whacked out people with some hidden, fear agenda. I would agree with you but please keep that to yourself because I do not want to be exorcised from the F.E.A.R. vegan lobbyist group I donate all of my money to (aside from the Charlie Manson Educate America Foundation).
F.E.A.R. – Feed Every American Rice. I think that was started by the late Pol Pot.
You like blunt honesty – go suck a chemical filled weenie, you carnivorous pea brain.
Yes, GWTW, it is Valentines day & I still …. like you.
The things we do to make my dear Calamity Jane happy. I am hopeless.
“F.E.A.R. – Feed Every American Rice. I think that was started by the ”
Feed them as much bullshit as they can eat .
American media
….by the look of how many overweight people there are in this country , and how many hours they spend in front of the idiot box ,I would say they have been eating well .
IN your effort to disagree with what I have said in the past I don’t think you ever understood my position on vegetariansim or veganism. What I have said was “why”? If it is religious I understand. If it is fad, I understand. If it is health I disagree since a purely vegan or vegetarian diet would less healthy. If it were just a health issue I could understand cutting back on meat or eating meat you (correctly or incorrectly) thought was healthier. That’s it. You disagree but are unable or unwilling to explain or support your position so you resort to devisive comments. As far as I’m concerned then that ends the discussion. But you can’t stand that and keep bringing it up again…
What I wrote above was 100% humor my friend.
I won’t explain why to my diet choice other than it is health related & is very personal with extreme thought given to that choice. Will I eat meat, chicken or fish again? I can say without question, yes. I do not find it distasteful or immoral rather, I am monitoring several things & charting changes in blood chemistry.
I am not sick but did have emergency bypass surgery at 12 years ago at age 46. I nearly died & it was a huge wake up call for me. The surgeon who happened to be one of the top cardiac surgeons 100 in the US, along with the cardiologist & my Internist who is a friend suggested changing my diet which, at that time contained lots of processed foods. I decided to see if they had any merit to their opinions & researched for the following 4 months while I recouped & took time off from work.
I found some radical & real measurable changes so I stuck with it. My in-laws at the time were huge skeptics, gave me untold buckets of SHTF but tried it, probably to prove me wrong. Just so you know, I never told them it was the only way to eat, I simply made a change. They experienced identical blood results – 2 even lost 30-40 lbs. each.
It is all personal choices we make & whatever someone else does or does not eat is really ok by me. Am I right? For me, yes & guess I contradicted myself by saying I wouldn’t explain my choice so shoot me.
In my “real life” when I cook for my kids, I give them what they want, with some balance & at the same time I make my specific meals & do not think twice about lecturing them or pointing out whatever.
I bird hunt with my friends, kill duck, geese, quail or dove & give them the meat. I do not make any kind of issue of it & can separate myself from the rest without making some staunch Nazi stand.
Listen, there lots of people who smoke a pack of cigarets & drink a 1/2 pint of whiskey everyday & eat nothing that contains the color green & still live to be 90+ so, who knows? Fortunately, I am not the judge & jury.
Hopefully this works for you.
I sincerely hope your diet and other health choices work for you. I admit health advice is a maze and full of dead ends and misinformation. When you include the vast diversity of individual genetic and environmental factors it mostly serves to muddy the waters even more. I wish there were more good information. It is frustrating at my age to have so many family members and friends who have passed. But I do have a cousin who will enjoy her 90th birthday in a few days and it pleases me that such a good person has been given such a great life.
GW, you said – “I admit health advice is a maze and full of dead ends and misinformation.” I think it is totally the opposite but also agree with you – follow my reasoning ….
We have made tremendous advances in science & more comes every minute so the availability of information is abundant AND open ended. I think the problem is confusion which explains your thoughts about fads & I agree with that point of view.
Today green tea cures cancer, tomorrow it’ll be goji berries, next week it’s …. who knows what. You see it as misinformation & I see it as too much information but believe it is the same thing.
Then you throw in genetics, environment, zodiac signs & whatever else & the information pile is now enormous hence, confusing.
Who or what is right? It becomes guess work. Me, I do the best I can, try to eliminate confusion & I have actually reduced things to the simplest things, try it & if it works I stay with it for a period of time. HOWEVER, I do agree that diversity is important which is why I said I will eat the meats.
BTW, I apologize, I did not eat a Big Mac today because I forgot but fully intend to honor my word. That’s not a joke, I wasn’t to experience that flavor again.
Anyway, life is a crap shoot & we can be in perfect health & step off a curb & get hit by a bus.
Gotta run – Valentines date tonight! (With a female).
While I do agree that science has given us more facts and more information they have also muddied the waters. A great example of this is the debate on obesity. Generally you will hear that obesity has doubled over the past 20 years butwhat you will not hear is that in 1998 they redefined obesity and by redefinition alone the rate of obesity doubled. A similar situation is used and misused by doctors and special interests is the data on diabetes. A few years back the U.S. undertook a huge effort to find undiagnosed diabetics since half of diabetics are undiagnosed. The result was that they did indeed identify a couple million previously undiagnosed diabetics. The special interests used this to claim that we are having a diabetes epidemic. We are not. The rate of diabetes remains exactly the same. The special interests also pusded the meme that to “prevent” diabetes we should all eat special diets and avoid sugar and certain foods. Again not true. First of all IF you have diabetes a special diet will indeed help you slow the progress of the disease and alleviate some of the symptoms. But if you do not have diabetes it will make no difference at all, none, zip nada. So why the hype? Simple, these special interests get donations and power as a result of the propaganda. Diabetes is genetic. If you have it then get medical help. If you don’t have it then no diet, no matter how bad will give it to you. The worst misuse of information may well be laid at the feet of the cancer special interests. We have made some (a few) substantial gains in treating cancer. Most of these real gains are the result of surgery. Most pharmaceutical efforts merely delay the inevitable. (Yes I am aware of some “cured” cancer patients but that has always been true even when untreated. Simply one of the unknowns in medicine.) If you believe the special interests everything cause cancer. Look at the gas pumps in California (land of the fruits and nuts) and the government has declared gasoline causes cancer. Most/all of the science around everyday things that cause cancer is pure BS. There are of course the usual suspects, cigarettes, asbestos, etc. But the special interests would have you believe that coffee causes cancer, then the next year coffee does not cause cancer but in fact will prevent it, then next year they change their mind again, yada, yada, yada. Almost everything we think we know about what causes cancer is pure BS. The bottom line on cancer and the medical community today is: 1) if you get cancer today and it is operable and discovered early enough you “could” be cured. 2) If you get a type of cancer that is not operable or is so vigorous that by the time it is discovered it has spread throughout your body then you have a death sentence. This was the stae of the science 50 years ago!!! The war on cancer has pretty much been a failure. (Full disclosure; I am a cancer survivor, three surgeries, three different cancers.) The misinformation costs lives; Steve Jobs could have been “cured” if he had opted for surgery instead of witch doctors (homeopathic alternative practioners). So, all in all it is a very mixed bag with science and fact based medicine on one side and special interests and witch doctors on the other side. Are we all better off? yes of course, thanks to Western medicine life expectancies have doubled over the last 100 years and a large number of serious diseases have been eliminated or brought under control. But at the same time the huge body of intentional misinformation harms us and forces us to make poor decisions. Is Mayor Bloomberg correct and if we all stop drinking sodas and eating salt we will live forever? Are any of the quacks correct? Or are we all chasing rainbows and unicorns and it is our genes that are now determining our fate after medical science has done all it can for us?
Damn you GWTW, I cannot dispute anything you’ve said!
However ….. (Big Jason smile) I live in California, been here my entire life. Years ago, people said the residents are like granola – what isn’t fruits & nuts are flakes. I could not agree more. I am not typical of a Californian because I was raised by parents with strong mid-western values.
I do lots of business with the granola types & it is really bothersome the apathy, entitlement & lack of real community and family type values. It’s really a shame because it is beautiful, especially in San Diego where I live.
A huge, huge congratulations for surviving cancer – 3 times! You’re a good man GWTW.
Im dating a Russian woman ………have not been happier , the culture differences work in this case . As far as prepping , she does not , but remembers the hardships of the Soviet Union and is supportive of the concept .
Happy Valentines Day Miss Jane.
I understand the dilemma of getting one on one time with my wife. Our child is a cling-on, wouldn’t have it any other way. My gal is not a prepper, but she is fine with my obsession. I think it gives her comfort knowing that I have thought of all the scenarios and plan for them. I am grateful for the girls in my life and try to show it everyday.
Ahh the ole slap stick bantering as in the days of Lural and Hardy, Amos and Andy, Abbot and Costello yada yaaa, todays presentation has been brought to us by GW & Jason, bravo, I can hear the romancing words in each type written endearment, reminds me of corporate meetings when the exec’s say let’s all be family…. man I am one of 12 kid’s, we fought from sun up till sundown between ourselves, and to this day, don’t get inbetween us, it won’t be pretty, we become one for all and all for one, then we go back to squabling amongst ourselves… so keep up the banter it entertains us, LOL !!!