Will The Heavens Open Up?

Rain is forecast, and tomorrow, I may muster enough pioneer spirit to set up a second rain collector. I need the water, but honestly, my sense it that the forecast is hyped (like all news). I would hate to go to all that work and then see 1/100th of an inch of rain.


I'm thinking about getting a good carbon filter so saved rainwater can double as emergency drinking water. If the power fails, the 240V well pump stops, so I'm quickly out of water.

Survivalists are now called preppers, and YouTube is thick with idiotic videos by self-important prepper morons. One guy was discussing what to rush out and buy at the last minute, if there was a little warning of some impending disaster. In the comments, some people with sense correctly pointed out that you don't ever want to drive to the store and compete with thousands of crazy desperate people.

Old Times

This is the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway, which was first transcontinental highway. History buffs are putting old maps online, so I can see exactly how the Lincoln Highway ran through the neighborhood. People are also posting pictures, circa 1925, of the neighborhood. That weird crumbling structure across from the now abandoned store was once an early auto garage and service station. Gas was 11 cents a gallon.

A century ago, this place was more lively and built up than it is now. The dead-end avenue that passes my house was once a main drag, and now, what is left of it, stops and starts for 10 miles in each direction. When I work out by the road, I can tell it was once wider, and find patches of asphalt where grass still doesn't grow.

Postscript: A neighbor in the know tells me that the old service station is fully stocked, as is the old store. There is two inches of dust on everything, as the reclusive woman still living behind the service station simply locked the doors when her grandfather died, many years ago.