A Stark Realization! (Revised)

Being up in the mountains and out in the country a bit, not on city water or sewer, Maureen has been concerned about our ability to manage in a disaster. She had me get a portable generator when we first bought the house and now she's working on a hand pump for our well for when the generator runs out of gas. Facebook occasionally has a reoccurring story about a prepper who buys and buries a large steel shipping container and turns it into a fallout shelter/bunker. I occasionally kid that my prepper efforts consisted of getting one of those large shipping containers, packing all of my stuff in it, loading it on a truck, and then moving out of earthquake country. I then had the driver drive through tornado alley and stop before he hit the hurricane coast. I understand the national head quarters for the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are in Asheville, NC because this area has the fewest natural disaster events in the nation. That was good enough for me and that was the extent of my prepping.

And then came "A Stark Realization!" We don't live anywhere near a Trump Resort property. Should the unthinkable happen there is nothing within hundreds of miles to attract enough attention to ensure that we would get federal aid. When Erma hit Florida, the home of Mar-a-Lago, FEMA was all over it. However when Maria hit Puerto Rico, over 1000 miles from Mar-a-Lago, all they got was Trump touting how great a job he was doing, but no real aid.  It's been months and 75% of Puerto Rico is still without power, water and just basic needs for survival.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the guy. And whether you are in the Secretary of State Tillerson's "Trump is a f***ing moron" camp or not, you have to admit, Trump has a talent for taking care of his own! 

Trump has openly professed that "Global Warming" is a hoax. He recognizes the climate change effects of man made carbon in our atmosphere has only affected one location in the entire world, Doonbeg, Ireland. What is unique about Doonbeg, Ireland? It is the home of Trump's luxury golf resort, the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel. On his application to construct a sea wall to stem the erosion, Trump cited the effect of rising sea levels due to man made climate change as the primary reason the sea wall was needed. (Read about Trump's "other" wall here.)

After the tragedy of 9/11, it was reported that Trump successfully filed a "small business" claim for $150,000 even though his business netted several times the revenue ceiling that defined a small business. (Politifact small business claim article.) In 2005, Trump was also able to collect on a $17 million dollar insurance claim for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago, damage that few actually remember happening, with some of the excess money he admittedly transferred to his own accounts. (AP article about questionable hurricane damage claim.) Throw in the reports about Trump using RNC and Republican Donor money (Vanity Fair article) to fund his legal team for his Russia Gate scandal defense and his self proclaimed business acumen that allows him to pay little or no taxes and it becomes very apparent that Donald Trump has a talent for taking care of his properties and his wallet. 

And what about this new tax bill? I know that Trump professes that he and his pals will be losing money but by the most conservative estimates Trump is set to make millions! And if you include everyone in the top 1% the number is in the Billions!

Then there is his latest Trump proclamation eliminating offshore drilling restrictions for the entire eastern and western seaboards of the United States.  Of course afterwards he did exempt the Florida coast where the restrictions will remain in place.  Trump does not want to have to look out from Mar-A-Lago and see oil drilling rigs ruining the view from his personal resort.

Everyone seems to be concerned about Trump's proximity to the nuclear button.  I don't know why his advisers haven't considered this yet but if someone would just point out to "The Donald" that "Nuclear Winter" would be horribly bad for his resort properties Trump would likely become the biggest proponent for nuclear disarmament!

After considering all the evidence above I just want to be under that "Trump Umbrella" should an unlikely but unfortunate disaster strike in the Western North Carolina mountains.

I don't think I could afford the fee that Trump gets for naming rights and I really don't think our apartment downstairs that we promote through Air B-N-B is grandiose enough to attract Trump's attention. Maybe if his deal with Putin to build a Trump Tower in Moscow falls through and he is not too in debt to the Chinese I could sell Trump on the idea of building "Trump Tower Asheville." Or, for expediency I could try to sell him on an existing property, something like "The Trumpmore Estate." Or if the Biltmore owners don't want to give up the estate proper, they might be willing to part with the real estate and shops outside of the estate. We could have "The Trumpmore Village."

Sam's club sells a bulk "Emergency Food Supply." You can buy different packages that will feed 1-4 people from 1-12 months. And the food is advertised to last in storage up to 25 years. I think my next project might be to build shelves to house our new emergence food supply just in case "The Donald" is too distracted playing golf in Florida to send help our way. And just to hedge my bet, while Maureen is researching and arranging for our new hand pump to be installed on our well, I think I'm going to circulate a petition to try to get our local Planning and Zoning agencies to consider a new resort project somewhere between Asheville and Weaverville. You can never be too prepared for an emergency!

Ever Throw A Party Where No One Came?

It's not as bad as it sounds.  We had absolutely "FREAKISH" weather for New Year's Eve.  Not only was it cold, about 10 degrees F (at least not single digits), but just after about noon it started to sleet.  Now I took credit in my family's "who saw snow first" competition, but sleet is not snow.  Think BBs, like you would use in a Red Rider BB gun (for you Christmas Story fans) only about 1/8th to 1/16th the size, and little round frozen balls of ice.  Now think about how difficult it would be to walk on a thin sheet of little balls of ice.  Maureen put together what promised to be a great New Year's Eve party.  A fare number of people that we've met here in the Asheville/Weaverville area and a good number of neighbors had RSVP'd that they would attend.  The party was scheduled to start at 8 PM.  About 2 PM Maureen sent me out to pick up something at the grocery store that we'd forgotten.  At that time the sleet was coming down but you couldn't even see sleet sticking to the roads.  However, it was so cold that the sleet was sticking to the windshield of my truck.  I had to crank my defrost until my truck cab was a sauna before the sleet would melt on my windshield and I could use the wipers.  During that trip to the store, even though the sleet was not really visible on the roads, I lost traction with the rear wheels of my truck at least a half dozen times only driving about 20-30 mph.  I lost some traction with my front wheels almost every time I had to make a turn.  It was scary slippery out there.  The only responsible thing to do was to let all our guests know, that although we still intended to have our party, if they had to drive we would understand if they chose not to come.  Sometime around 6 PM the Highway Patrol had closed at least portions of I26 & I40 (the main north/south and east/west freeways), either due to accidents or because the sleet had made them un-navigable.  Of course by that time all our commuting guests had cancelled.  By 8 PM the sleet was so thick on the ground you could hardly walk down my driveway which is flat.  However the incline of the street leading to my driveway is steep and so by 9 PM it became apparent that our neighbors had the good since not to attempt to navigate that hill to our house.  

So there you go.  I threw a party and no one came!  The upside is that we have all those hors d'oeuvres that you love to have at parties but that you never make for yourself during the year otherwise.  The downside is that we'll be eating chili (enough for 30 guests) for days.  And I have a "drinking problem"! OMG, I have so much beer in the house.  I need some of you to come over and help me with that.  If I try to drink it all I'll end up weighing 300 lbs before Valentines.  I still had a great new year.  I stayed up to toast the New Year with my beautiful bride and my son (who can now drink legally (and hopefully responsibly)).  What else do I need?

Yes, Liam has turned 21!  Can you believe it?  We spent his birthday and Christmas in Cleveland with Maureen's family.  Liam has cousins in Cleveland closer to his age which must be infinitely more fun than partying with your mom and dad when you turn 21.  A couple quick anecdotes about Liam's 21st:

His cousins and their friends took Liam out at midnight on December 22nd.  They arrived at the bar a little early.  Apparently, for some reason, a half dozen police officers were congregated outside the bar they chose.  Liam is standing outside the bar and the bouncer had to negotiate his entrance to the bar 6 minutes before his birthday.  The cops were cool and let him in early.  By all accounts he had a great birthday, except;

The next day Liam and I are running around trying to take care of a minor issue with one of his birthday presents when he asked if I could take him to the grocery store.  Which was fine but when I asked what he needed, Liam indicated he wanted to buy a beer.  At a grocery store?  Apparently when you turn 21 everyone goes out of their way to buy your drinks.  Liam was 21 and all he wanted to do was show his ID and pay for his own beer, just once.  It's funny what might be important to a person.  I assured Liam he had his whole life to by his own beer and to enjoy the attention.  If it was really important, I told him we'd stop at a bar and he could buy me a drink.

As cold as it is here it did get down to single digits in Cleveland.  I've been fairly disciplined with my running and exercising since we landed in NC.  But it does get cold in the winter.  I've built up a fair amount of cold weather running gear.  All of that may be on its way to the Good Will.  For Christmas, Maureen got me a nice recumbent bike.  I have it out in my shop which only has a portable heater but no more running the hills and blind corners on the narrow mountain roads in 13 degree weather (remember, 12 degrees is too damn cold).  I have it set so I can just open the door and see the downstairs TV and pedal away for an hour.  Much better than pounding the pavement with frozen fingers (I can never seem to get my hands warm when it's that cold out).

What else?  I've moved into fourth place in points with my on-line poker group.  And I've played fewer tournaments than the three above me, 20-25 less than a couple of them.  I've signed up for an oil painting class.  I did a little painting in high school.  It will be interesting to see if I've retained any of the old talent.  And last, if you've noticed the gap between now and my last posting, I did write a blog entry during that period but I was forbidden from posting it.  You see it had a slight political bent.  I won't say who forbade me but her initials are M(aureen) B(rooks).  With the political winds, the way they are blowing, I may just revise (update) and post it after all.  It was just a little passive/aggressive but I thought it was pretty humorous.  I'll have to think about it!

Maureen, Liam and I hope everyone had a great holiday season and we wish the best to all of you!  Or as the Irish might say; May the best of your past be the worst of your future!

Take care and have a great New Year!

Rick