As preppers, we like to envision various big events that we prepare for; earthquake, hurricane, tornado, blizzard, financial collapse, etc. In my personal experience, there are many, many more personal SHTF events that happen throughout a person’s life. For instance, the last four months have been quite the upheaval for yours truly. None of them were planned for, and in some cases, one led to another. I don’t go into detail on personal business but I can share enough to get the point across.
A few months ago, I sustained an injury that could not be ignored. I tore a tendon in my elbow. It wasn’t a horrific tear, but it had to be fixed. So, then comes the surgery. This brought nearly all of my prepping plans to a standstill.
Up until the surgery, I was back to working out regularly. That had to stop because I couldn’t lift weights with only one working arm. The only thing left for me to do was run. While I have started back running, I’ve got some catching up to do to get caught up with where I was a year ago. Being limited to only one working arm, for several weeks, also limited much of the work I typically do on my own time. Yard work, brush clearing, winter preps with generators, it all came to a halt. I’ve only been back to my normal routine for a week or two. Needless to say, I am behind on many things at the moment. It looks like I’m going to be a little busy for the next couple of months while I try to get caught up on the work tasks that fell behind.
Along with the surgery came a considerable impact on finances. A little bit on money had to be paid out for the surgery and the appointments leading up to it. The biggest hit was not being able to do the extra work that supplements my income. Nearly two months of side income was missed. Ouch. And of course, the bills keep coming and the money keeps going. But hey, that’s life, right? The good thing is, all the bills are still paid, there still food in the fridge, and the extra work is back. Now that I’m back in full working capacity, I should be able to bounce back with finances in the next couple of months. That’s not too bad, all things considered.
Add into the mix several other issues that needed attention and life got hectic, fast. It just goes to show that things can snowball from one thing to another, and there’s nothing you can do to control it. Sometimes, all you can do is try to set yourself up to manage.
On top of all of that, the high temperatures have been in excess of 110 degrees for the past two months. That was a huge impact on just how much I was able to do, considering that most of it was outdoor work. With no air conditioning in my shop, working in there was severely limited. I was able to work on a few small tasks but nothing with true impact (basically just cleanup).
With as much as I had going on, I had to decide where to put my attention. I decided to put the blog on hold for a little while (partly because I was not going to type with only one good hand), but, also because I decided to put my attention elsewhere until I was back in a better place to post as regularly as I had been prior to these SHTF events.
Regardless, there were a few personal SHTF events that came up all, all at the same time. What was the biggest lesson learned from all of this? Put as much effort as possible into getting far enough ahead that SHTF events like this in the future don’t have near this impact.
My emergency fund will have to be completely rebuilt. When it is, it will be larger than before. I plan to save up a minimum of $2,000.00 in available cash. This will take quite some time but all I can do is a little at a time. Hopefully, nothing will happen in the meantime to take it back down to zero again.
Even if marginally, the temperature should start to drop soon. This will allow me to spend more time outside working on the seasonal prepping efforts. I’ll need to set aside time to make some big leaps ahead in getting everything taken care of.
The physical health aspect is already underway. I was able to start working out without limitations this week. I’ll have to start back at lower weights and focus more on cardio for a little while. That’s not a problem. I’ve been needing to do that anyway. Fortunately, I didn’t see a big drop in my level of performance. It will take just a little while (2-3 weeks hopefully) to get back where I was.
My goal is to post at least weekly from this point forward. I’ll keep updating with the progress and hopefully give a “real world” idea of what bouncing back looks like and realistic timelines of how this all goes.
Don’t just prepare. Prepare to thrive.
