Four Seasons Total Landscaping

[Nubbins]

The lack of trust for my fellow humans is strong with me as well. In fact, I'm downright afraid half the time. We've had three murders here in Bethesda in the last month (there hasn't been a murder here since I was a kid). I've been attacked in the street both physically and with people swerving their cars at me five times in the last eight months. I feel more ill at ease when someone starts following me closely here than I do in New Orleans, where shit is definitely sliding into a third world situation.

Jesus Christ... do you guys have any plans to get out? I have a couple friends in metro areas (one in NYC) and they've at least thrown around the idea of picking up and moving. My other friend in rural OH has a farm he's been trying to work with his wife the last 4 or 5 years, but they're ready to give up. Between the opioid crisis that has junkies shitting in their gravel driveway, New Richmond white supremacists, and general Ohio shittery, they're ready to cut their losses and head to the upper peninsula of Michigan and live as far away from people as possible.

Although we settled into a much larger metro area on the outskirts of ATL than we were in Cincinnati, I feel like we're far enough out in suburbia that we haven't seen any real significant shortages of anything. The grocery stores were bare last week because of "snow", but places like Costco had thousands of pounds of rice, pallets of water, TP, paper towels... no shortages whatsoever.

I told my wife I'm probably going to be setting up some of our shelving again soon so we can start to stock more dry goods, etc. I feel like this Russia shit / November could mean dark fuckin days ahead in the relatively near future. 

[nacho]

Yes, we're planning to go rural in 2-3 years.

An interesting book is Four Lost Cities, which is actually about the death of urban cultures in prehistoric times. Scientists are piecing together this fascinating pendulum of how the Human race has glommed together into big cities and then simply walked away (for a variety of reasons, from dramatic and horrible to just gradual "I'm over it") for most of out history. The author (and many other scholars) have been talking about how we're in a "de-urbanization" phase right now after an ultra-urbanization swing. All this thanks to increasing violence and the pandemic.

Bugging out to the country was on our minds before the pandemic, but now it's starting to feel like a priority as the supply chain collapses and we see now almost daily incidents. We just had twelve police cars on our street today dealing with some sort of vague "Go back inside, sir" situation. And DC had those cop murders that are going on in every major city now. Which just makes the cops go crazy on everyone...

[nacho]

Wait...

I feel like this Russia shit / November could mean dark fuckin days ahead in the relatively near future.

What do you mean by November?

[Nubbins]

Wait...

I feel like this Russia shit / November could mean dark fuckin days ahead in the relatively near future.

What do you mean by November?

Just mid-term election shit. Maybe it's because I live in GA now and all the libs are going nuts over the new voting regulations and every vehicle is a truck with a Punisher sticker on the back, but I feel like these elections could be hyped enough that we may want to stay indoors for a few days/weeks afterward. Of course, I thought that about the 2020 election and everything stayed pretty chill, so what do I know.

[RottingCorpse]

RE: Rural bug-out...

Team RC left DC after Trump was elected, not specifically related to that, but all the agency (FBI/CDC/Army) work I had been doing dried up because Trump was at odds with those people. I was sitting in a studio 12 hours a day recording educational videos. Great people to work with, but highly uninspired. The WV job fell in my lap when the Missus and I had already been talking about the next place. (L.A. and Austin were top of the list.) About a year in we started to have some buyers remorse. Then the pandemic happened and we couldn't have been happier to have made the move.

In a place like where we live, scarcity is something of the norm. The pre-COVID supply chain status quo was one where people serviced in this area were massive hoarders anyway, because they were one bad storm away from an Overlook Hotel situation. Our supply issues have been more about luxuries. (Pie crusts... The grocery store hasn't had pie crusts for months.) Or all the other in-demand shit; toilet paper, rubber gloves, etc. A collapse here would still be a major collapse, but it feels like a less steep drop than, say, Bethesda.

Again, it's hard to imagine a Walking Dead situation. That illusion of normalcy will continue.

RE: November fears... I also wonder how emboldened the Punisher sticker crowd becomes. In 2020, we had those ridiculous Trump caravans with 20+ trucks waving Trump and Blue Lives Matter flags that would loudly roll into town, and it was fucking scary. There's active KKK here who have shown up to small BLM and Pride events that have been held. The ISIS/al Qaeda comparisons are apt because it feels like Lord Humugous and his cronies rolling in to let the plebes know who really needs all the guzzoline.

The idea that just because my wife still has a Hillary16 sticker on her car means we're going to get run out of town seems ludicrous, but maybe not completely out of the realm of reality. Again, I'm not saying a MAGA posse runs us out, but broken windows, denial of goods and services, and just general harassment making it unpalatable to live here? Seems a little more plausible than it once did for sure.

[Nubbins]

Glad you guys were able to escape. I feel you on the "out of the frying pan, into the fire" feelings about moving from urban into rural, though. You give up the hip, clustered living of a city for a rural existence that feels more manageable and the tradeoff is that you're living with militias and white supremacists doing their thing in your backyard. 

It's just crazy to me how 10 years ago, urban walkability with barcades and microbreweries on every corner was the wave of the gentrified future. Now you couldn't pay me to stuff myself into a packed IPA release at my favorite brewery, even for free drinks. Just a complete realignment of priorities, at least for me... on almost every level.

We're likely in this house forever, or at least that's what I keep telling my wife. I never want to move again if I can help it. Ever. We have a lake, over half an acre, plenty of sun, lots of room. Only way I'd consider moving is if it was further out into the middle of nowhere.

[nacho]

We haven't told RC this but we mocked and mocked his WVA move and took bets on his demise.

And then, yes. The pandemic hit. And by the end of 2020 we thought... Fucking RC was fucking right! And then we started mapping out back routes to get to him as DC burned.

[RottingCorpse]

We haven't told RC this but we mocked and mocked his WVA move and took bets on his demise.

I can count the people who *didn't* mock our WV move on one hand. I had more than one concerned "What the fuck is the matter?" conversation. In the end though, we looked like god damned Cassandras. ("Looked" being the operative word.)

[nacho]

We figured you just had a full on nervous breakdown. So you should probably own this and not suggest that we were right! Fortuna favored you.

This time... Now, when you move to that former NIKE silo in North Dakota...

[Nubbins]

At this point, someone could tell me they were building a carboard rocket and preparing to bug out to the moon and I'd be like, "Hang on honey... let's hear them out."

[nacho]

At this point, someone could tell me they were building a carboard rocket and preparing to bug out to the moon and I'd be like, "Hang on honey... let's hear them out."

We're totally in the armed compound outside Santa Fe train. Maybe throw in some sex Jesus cult comet apocalypse stuff.