OK, *my* canary has officially sung. (my local its time to prep canary)

As we were driving around today, my wife asked-out of the blue- if I had stored all the water yet.

I said no, not yet.

Could you please?

I asked her if it bothered her that we didnt have any water stored yet.

She said yes.

My wife also walked up to me with last week with a $1000 and said, OK, here, where are we going to hide this?
This led to a short discussion of why did you take out $1000 ?
anyways, for me in my area (Evanston ,IL) this comment about the water was my signal , not to start prepping, but to finish up FAST.

So far, the publicly visible signs of prep in my area appear to be concerns about HEATING

Home Depot here is now out of those radiant/convection Kero-sun style heaters AND all the kerosene AND all the cases of Exxon Clear-Lite.

They are also out of all torpedo-style heaters, kerosene and propane (though these need electricity to run). No convection heaters either.

There used to be a large end-cap display that contained single and dual-burner propane radiant heaters. this display now has about 20 heater units left. (theyre small boxes)
As I stood for a moment looking at the remaining propane radiant heaters, three guys, in their 20s walked past and one of them stopped the others to point out the type of heater, Those are cool, he said, but do I look worried? he had a big smile on his face as they continued to walk on down the aisle.

Im not sure what he meant by that comment. It appeared to be related to concerns about Y2K, but was his comment about not looking worried because he prepped (I doubt it) or was it just youthful bravado?
I suspect it was the latter.

also- After sitting since the summer, ALL the 20# BBQ tanks (2 pallets worth) were gone. Noone has apparently touched the 50# and 100# tanks.

And of course, as I was standing in the BBQ aisle, an actual HomeDepot employee was actually helping a couple find adapters to run the cast iron stove-top they were buying (or had bought) on either 20# tanks and 1# tanks.

I just cant imagine why someone in our area would want to cook on a cast iron stovetop with Propane in the middle of winter.
hmmmmm.

also noticed, the husband carrying the stove top around also had two 1# tanks in his cart. The Home Depot guy noticed that the guy was going to buy 2 tanks of OXYGEN instead of PROPANE. No No No he said. This customer was either illiterate or he had never used propane before.

aiii yiii yiii it will be interesting indeed.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 13, 1999

Answers

Plonk, I don't know if you saw my thread from earlier today, but to reiterate, our Home Depot had PALLETS of 20 lb. tanks not long ago, and today they are SOLD OUT. They now only have three 11 lb. tanks in stock.

I wouldn't wait much longer to fill them up, either...

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), December 13, 1999.

yes I did read your earlier post, and the replies.

I was going to paste this into your thread, but decided to start a new one and see if anyone else has any "canaries" that they are watching.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 13, 1999.

Ouch! Plonk LOL

Now happy campers let's light up our oxygen tanks ... egads.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 13, 1999.

Sam's was low on baking stuff, which is typically the LAST aisle folks in Hampton Roads Virginia are likely to walk down. I was sluggin' a 50# bag of rice in my cart, and someone actually backtracked and then stopped a gentleman to have him put a bag in her cart. I figured she had backtracked just to make one of the many jests that are consistently directed at my shopping selections; go figure. I am so happy to see folks grabbing storeables! That's one less family in the streets scrounging. No other news here.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 13, 1999.

Hey plonk!,

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, K-Mart on the Northside (on Peterson) had a decent stock of the small propane containers as of a week ago. They're in the camping section if you're lookin'. Kindo pricey, but they got 'em.

John Ludi, (juggling tanks of propane with a lit match in his mouth).

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), December 13, 1999.

thanks Ludi, I did read your post earlier.

I have enough propane tanks...well, lets just say I have as many as I can deal with.

My preps are essentially done. All I'm doing now is watching the herd and wondering when they will stampede.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 13, 1999.

Sam's Club in Lynchburg now has 7500 watt generators, the first time I've seen them that powerful in the store. Usually they have the 5000 watt models. At Lowe's, a home hardware chain, they had three or four on display, but then I saw a forklift bringing seven more out front. Big Lots, a remainder/close out store, had several pathetic, "Be ready for Y2k" aisles -- cheapo oil lamps, batteries, flashlights.

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), December 13, 1999.

Yup, and Mrs Drivewr asked when the gas was being delivered....

c

twitter twitter

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 13, 1999.

My local survival store had two dozen British Berkenfelds in stock last week. Today they are sold out.

-- (RUOK@yesiam.com), December 14, 1999.

and spouse had propane tanks refilled after just a few weeks..ah..but the electricity will be on! hmmmmmm

-- More Dinty Moore (dac@ccrtc.com), December 14, 1999.

Finance bro in LA & real estate mavin bro based in OC were willing to talk turkey about water storage today {& ephemera}. Very cool & low key. 'Scuze the pun, but it was a watershed day for me.

-- flora (***@__._), December 14, 1999.