Why?

At some point in your life you are going to find yourself questioning you life decisions. Why did I do X and not Y is typically the most common question that will go through your head. This will likely happen on a Saturday at 8 in the morning while you stand on line outside in the cold at the department of motor vehicles trying to get your expired licence and registration renewed.

Everyone else on the line are currently asking themselves the same question, and its highly likely that they are not discovering any answer other then the fact that a hurricane destroyed life.

So how exactly did I get into this situation and what choices could I have made to avoid this?

Well, we should begin at the beginning. Four weeks ago i got my renewal forms in the mail. My reaction was that of most people, "Shit, I've got like two weeks before I need to worry about it. I'm going to work on my D&D campaign and play Halo in chronological order"
Three weeks ago I was packing for a businesses trip to Ohio, and the to Chicago, I would have been back in NJ on the 11/1 (the day my things expired). Again I had a reaction similar to most people when waiting for the renewal day, "Is it Ok to eat this meat i found in the back of the fridge?"

Well then Sandy decided to be a royal bitch and and piss all over NJ.

I know that people had their lives devastated by Sandy in many different ways and as I said before its important that you donate to the relief effort. But there are people like me who have been fucked by that storm in other ways, mainly she has taken a very precious commodity from me,time.

What follows is a short list of how this storm has spent my time:
4 days with out power
2 1/2 hours trying to get to work on Wednesday the 1st.
1 1/2 hours getting gas
3 hours total driving back and fourth to Hillburn NY
10 total walking back and fourth to my parents house to use/help maintain their generator
1 hour waiting to renew my licence and registration and listening the the obnoxious 17 year old , more concerned about getting to football practice then getting his licence, and is ignorant yuppie mother complain about waiting on line like the mother has never renewed her licence before. (They also sat right next to me while waiting to get the picture taken)

Fuck you Sandy you goddamn bitch, fuck you for destroying homes and fuck you for putting these yuppies next to me.

I'm moving

Another election has come and gone and depending on what side of the political fence you're on, you feel great, or you feel like Donald Trump (UI on my phone doesn't let me put the link in so just search Trump and election reaction in good old' Google). Whatever the case is there's one very important thing you all need to remember, Washington State legalized marijuana for recreational use.

That's friggen huge, let's forget everything else, healthcare, taxes, the economy, and really look at this, a state said fuck the federal government and made it OK to have an ounce of weed plus smoke it in public. This is astonishingly great and here's why. (Thought this wasn't going to be a list didn't you)

1. Job creation - with the amount the vote passed by more then half the residence of hipster-ville USA will be needing weed. Now since its being regulated, and grown and distributed by the state, you're going to need a lot of manpower to be able to run this operation. Trucks to ship the stuff to your stores, buildings to process it in, inventory systems to manage the supply, and of course people to run this all, which means jobs and when you have more people working, you are collecting a more taxes which means....
2. More state revenue - let's forget for a second that more workers mean more tax money coming into the government, and let's look ate the raw numbers that I could be potentially making up. On average you can spend $20 bucks on 1.5oz of weed (this comes from a forum not from personal exp, cause I get me weed for free) if taxed the same way as alcohol which is taxed by proof and volume you could stand to make a sizeable amount per dime sold. But along with making money, Washington will be saving money....
3. Less petty arrests - I'm all for the war on drugs, cocaine and heroin and speed and all that shit and that's because they really really fuck people up in ways that will ruin their lives. Weed on the other hand does not, but the police seen to think it does so they arrest and prosecute you the same way or a little more leniently, I don't no I'm not the police. By getting rid of these petty arrests,you save money on processing the accused person, who is likely going to go right out again and get hi, and give law enforcement the chance to focus on important things, like figuring out who keeps stealing my pens at work.

Bottom line is that despite the best efforts of people stuck in a prohibition era America mindset, weed is now legal in Washington State and that means I'm going to PAX Prime.

-n-

Back on a bus

My stint in Jersey City has ended for the time being, and now I find myself traveling to Manhattan a week after the worst storm in the history of the east coast.

Let's talk about the storm. It fucking sucked there is absolutely no way else to say it. I can't even begin to understand how it must feel to lose a home and all your possessions in a flash. Its devastation I'm sure. I was lucky, I was in lower bergen county so I didn't get hit that badly and only lost power for about a week. I've donated all of my unused bottled water and some clothing to the relief shelter for the residents of Little Ferry and Moonachi since they were the hardest hit by us. If you are able to give anything please do.

Now on to what I try to pass off as humor.

As we know I'm a bit of a prepper, so the only good thing that came out of Sandy was the chance to learn several things...

1. I have not prepared enough for disasters that could potentially involve my wife. Where I have a go bag for here but I have forgotten that she is cold pretty much 24/7 and thinks I'm crazy. Just something I have to work on.
2. I have developed a taste for cold soup and cold baked beans. This is actually wonderful because heating things create a delay in the practice of getting food into my mouth, and this kills that delay.
3. My combat boots are the best thing I have bought in the last year. I lived in these, I was warm, and had dependable foot ware.
4. If I'm going to get a generator I need to make sure it's propane or at least I need a three week supply of gas ready to go.
5. The dog needs a go pack. Dogs are useful in surviving situations (I'm not sure how useful a 2yr old puppy would be but I'll cross that bridge when I get there) but you need to make sure you have enough provisions for them, specifically water, which I don't want to carry.
6. I need both a bigger knife and axe. This should be self explanatory.

All and all though, I think I did pretty well and would have managed to live fine either in my house or the on the road, and am prepared for the next storm that going to hit us Wednesday.

-n-