Weekly "everything else" If it's in the spirit of prepping, but not "news" or "intel"

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Wytch78@reddit

Ummmmm

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/comments/1td31ni/friend_in_quarantine/

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Suggestion. The flairs need an update. I find the geographic categorizion not relevant enough for labeling and searching posts. It's more of a global news media convention. As it is, the categories don't really make sense either.

I think categories like politics, environment, finance, health, etc. would be more useful.

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happy_appy31@reddit

A very liberal STEM professor at my local university is telling people to prep for the upcoming summer and beyond. In my area prepping is considered something that only right-wing militia type do. I am hoping that the liberals in the area will heed his words.

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International-Sink64@reddit

Are ya'll seeing all the predictions of a really hard fall and winter in the US because of high grocery prices, not enough fertilizer, high hay prices and energy shortages? I'm wondering if it's my algorithm or if other people are seeing this as well.

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hera-fawcett@reddit

those are predictions that have been happening since the strait lf hormuz closed.

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improbablydrunknlw@reddit

The amount of old cars (not classics) just shit boxes coming out of the woodwork is astounding. Around me it's like someone found a warehouse of Toyota Matrix and vibes. I see them everywhere and they were exceptionally rare a month ago

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Dylan-uSOB@reddit

Tell the overlords to release the lumina and cutlass Ciera stockpiles, I’m looking for a methed out work beater.

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MoistLog4360@reddit

I MISS my Pontiac Vibe, best car I ever owned.

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Dylan-uSOB@reddit

Best car Pontiac ever made.

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iloveschnauzers@reddit

Just getting adapted to Cubas culture. IYKYK.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

I keep hearing about fuel stations running out of fuel in Dayton / Cincinnati.

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fruderduck@reddit

How did Trump threatening to kill Americans get missed?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-USCT-Strategy-1.pdf

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hera-fawcett@reddit

flood the zone works effectively well. esp if u control all major news streams

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MurkyCartoonist9944@reddit

My local Goodwill had a sign at the donation door -"Full. Not taking donations" Never seen that before

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symplton@reddit

My area car rental place, in my 20+ years living here has never been dead on a Monday. But - a beautiful Monday, in May?! Never. Ever.

Two cleaners, their roving driver, and the front desk clerks were ALL in the office with nothing to do, and REALLY happy to see me.

This. Is. A Real. Fucking. Problem.

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Pontiacsentinel@reddit

Mid-Atlantic area and I noticed that the parking overflowed into the grass for the rental car place in an area where there are multiple federal agency locations and there are usually only 6-8 cars available. Looked to be literally 3 dozen or more.

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splat-y-chila@reddit

didn't some of the rental places just institute those super aggressive camera imaging things, and are charging people out the butt for damages based on them? I know when I read that a couple months ago that it put me off renting a car when traveling ever again.

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Pontiacsentinel@reddit

I do not know about that, but it does make it harder to consider rentals. I am just not going anywhere I cannot drive my car these days. Family and friends visits.

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jednaz@reddit

Saturday (yesterday) was the annual postal carrier food drive. I live in a well-off area with older, more expensive established houses with a lot of original owners from the 70s. In years past more mailboxes than not would have a bag of food out. When walking the dog I was struck by how few houses had food out. Instead of every other house it was every third or fourth house.

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Abileewho@reddit

I didn’t see a single advertisement for that this year in my area. So I didn’t have food out like normal. Had I known I would have. I know times are tough, but I’m wondering if a lot of people didn’t know?

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jednaz@reddit

I didn’t get a postcard for it as I usually do, but there was a scan of one in my informed delivery digest. I did receive the bright yellow Stamp Out Hunger plastic bag in my mailbox on Thursday.

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Abileewho@reddit

I didn’t get either this year.

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jenakle@reddit

I had to look it up to confirm the date, and my informed delivery also said a post card was delivered we never received. Since it was also raining I put a load out and covered with a trash bag labeled STAMP OUT HUNGER. Whether the post picked it up or someone else did, hopefully it gets used!

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Abileewho@reddit

I’ll pay better attention for next year. People can really use the help now. It’s too bad so many missed it or weren’t able to participate

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Puzzled-Berry-2450@reddit

socal area. It was $5.99 last week at my local gas station. Today is was $6.49. Ouch.

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reedmanisback@reddit

Well, everything else around me is getting more expensive, but at least the bread store is still relatively cheap. Employee said they haven't seen price changes much at the past few months. Spent $7.50 on 3 loaves of bread, 1 pack of hawaiian hotdog buns, 1 fruit leather roll, 1 half-pound box of chickpea shell pasta, 2 4oz bags of freeze-dried skittles, and 2 packs of ramen. Probably would have cost about $1.50 more if I didn't have their 60 cent bread loaves.

Though I will admit I've seen more foot traffic as of late.

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2quickdraw@reddit

That's like 1970s prices!

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reedmanisback@reddit

They're called thrift bakeries these days. Highly recommended.

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2quickdraw@reddit

Don't have any here, so I make my own bread.

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Saturn_winter@reddit

this is the most mundane thing but man I feel like greens are getting slimy way sooner. Idk if they're being picked at different times, or stored differently at the store, or maybe people aren't buying them as much so I'm getting them closer to expiration because they're sitting on the shelves longer, idk. But I'll buy some salad greens and they're getting funky after just a couple days when they used to last like a week or more. Just a mild annoyance I've been dealing with lately, especially because I absolutely hate wasting food and it really bothers me when I have to throw away half a container because it went bad in like 3 days

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Striper_Cape@reddit

Start cleaning your veggies with a vinegar based cleaner instead of putting them away right away.. Bacteria on the outside of the veggies makes them go bad faster. Pat them dry after.

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Serious-Ad2573@reddit

recommend white/cane vinegar

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radandsadgal@reddit

Here in Australia I’ve noticed this about all the produce for the past probably two years now. Potatoes, onions, and garlic barely last two weeks now when they used to last for ages in the dark!

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International-Sink64@reddit

I have noticed this here in the US....

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missbwith2boys@reddit

I’ve grown arugula for years because when it starts growing in early spring, I can rely on it as a salad green through most of the summer. It also comes back every year or sprouts in other places from the seeds the plants drop.

I also grow sweet potato vines (from a sprouting sweet potato) in my raised beds. Those work well as a spinach substitute (sautéed) and don’t go to seed in the heat of summer unlike actual spinach.

(And I know that lots of folks don’t have garden space or a green thumb. Just offering some tidbits up for folks that are inclined).

I still grow spinach and lettuce in the spring and fall. I’m able to keep a greenhouse at 50 degrees from late fall to late spring, but I have to give those up for the summer because it gets too hot.

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1776FreeAmerica@reddit

I've noticed a ton more people running red lights. I think it's partly cognitive dissonance pushing people, a lot of people where hoping for a release valve to be thrown on the societal pressure of things getting worse, but instead the pressure is just building at a faster rate instead.

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stopusingyallweirdo@reddit

Are people afraid of mice because they're aware of the diseases carried by mice? I've always been surprised by the pandemonium people go into when they're told "there's a mouse". They don't do that with most other dangerous wild animals. In fact many people immediately express wanting to pet the wild animal even when they look intimidating. Mice don't look threatening, and pet mice are common.

I just learned about hantavirus. Is it the awareness of rodent diseases? Does the average person have, or used to have, that knowledge?

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KateMacDonaldArts@reddit

Rodents carry many diseases, including hantavirus, and are small enough to get into every nook and cranny once they’re inside your house or camp. If you see one, there’s more you don’t see and they’re also having babies. They will nest in paper, bedding, shavings, soil (yes, potted plants) and chew through every pantry item in your stores and kitchen, leaving droppings and piss throughout. This is why people advise using 5 gallon buckets - they’re a lot harder for them to chew into. They also chew into some types of electrical insulation creating a fire hazard.

Am I more afraid of them than I am a mountain lion? No, but mountain lions don’t sneak into my house and have babies in the walls. A mouse is not a cute animal that should live in your home and there’s more than just evolutionary reasons to fear and despise them.

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Zealousideal-Ice-985@reddit

100% the disease factor. Not afraid of rodents but disgusted by them. Love seeing snakes around the property, go get em guys!

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splat-y-chila@reddit

I think it's one of those instinctual things that are phobias because of millennia of existing has taught you to be cautious of it - like people who are coughing and obviously look unwell, or something that looks like a snake.

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OBotB@reddit

It is not so much prepping but an awareness of an in trial biopharma method of delivering alpha radiation treatment into any solid tumor that if a cancer impacts someone in the group you care about, maybe seek out trial availability until it is approved (vaguely medical prepping). Alpha Tau posted some interim results of a tiny study that was trialing their Alpha DaRTS on GBM, brain cancer, and they were 2 of the 3 patients had a complete response, 1 of the 3 "only" had a 30% decrease in tumor dimension. They have other trials for pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and approval for face/neck skin cancer in Japan. https://www.alphatau.com/single-post/alpha-tau-announces-groundbreaking-interim-results-from-its-u-s-alpha-dart-regain-trial-with-100 It is very easy to doom and gloom with everything in the world, but even only in trials for GBM and others, beyond Japan, this is a positive outlook for some people that had virtually no valid treatment options, and others with difficult to treat cancers due to the locations. Love science, love to share positive advancements.

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Affectionate-Cup9108@reddit

I’ve noticed a lot, lot more elderly folk coming to food banks and struggling to buy very basic food items. I’ve seen many elderly retirees looking for work to help buy groceries or pay for bills. I’m concerned about the elderly in my neck of the woods. For now there is still help, but with the rising cost of everything, and benefits being cut… it’s feeling grim. Lots more people going local gleaning websites. Lots of chatter on the free pages. My parents and I have considered consolidating households and becoming a permanent multi gen house. Gas, electric, water, groceries and insurance have all had insane rises here (Idaho)

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2quickdraw@reddit

That's an excellent idea, that's how it used to be and it worked well. There would be three and sometimes four generations sharing a dwelling. It's not only splitting costs but also splitting workload in the household.

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International-Sink64@reddit

and sharing childcare. I wonder how we got so siloed

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2quickdraw@reddit

Making everybody feel like they needed their own house and to be independent created more consumers.

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hailene02@reddit

I feel gas in my area (NC) will hit $5 by EOM.

Alot of my coworkers are wondering if we will have full remote again, and while not directly discussed w management I feel its something simmering just under the surface in everyone's mind.

Im personally traveling to a global south country next week and am anxious about being able to return without having a delay/cancelation several weeks from now. Also, as an US citizen, for the first time in my life I feel scared about admitting as much- im thinking on saying im from Canada for personal safety.

Other than that good news: Slowly befriending the neighbors who will water my garden while im gone. Gifted them 3 leftover tomato saplings and extra veg this summer. As an introvert I am happy to have gotten this far 🤣

Water barrels are paying off, NC is in a massive drought despite having cooler temperatures and rain so far in May than we did in April. Landed on a electric water pump and while not the strongest in pressure it works well for hand watering.

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bwaters1894@reddit

If you have a southern accent, they may think you are from the UK. I’ve had that happen multiple times in Europe where people assume I’m from the UK.

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hailene02@reddit

I grew up in metro detroit and our closeness linguistically to Canada has definitely had others think I was Canadian in my past traveling ventures thank goodness.

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EastTyne1191@reddit

I live in Washington, gas ranges from $5.69-$5.99 for regular in my area. It used to be about $65 to fill up my tank, the other day I paid $92. I drive an older Subaru Outback and it's not fancy but it does get decent mileage. Paying almost a hundred dollars to fill it up feels fucking criminal.

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2quickdraw@reddit

$160 and up to fill my 16yo F150. Im old, on a fixed income, I need to haul livestock feed and dirt periodically and I love the truck so I don't want to get rid of it. But I don't drive much, maybe once a week a few miles to the store and feed store. We put a used shell on it and rigged the bed for truck camping, but looks like that will be unaffordable. The partner's car is the gas saver, and can haul bagged feed but not hay.

I feel like gas is going to go up to the point that it will be the equivalent of the 1800s and only going to town once every two months for a 50 lb bag of flour and 20 lb of sugar and 100 lb of beans and a few yards of gingham.

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keinezeit44@reddit

Upvoting for the first gingham reference I've ever seen in the wild

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DisastrousHyena3534@reddit

Upvoting out of respect for your honoring of the use of gingham

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2quickdraw@reddit

I'm an old autodidact and insatiable reader so I know things. 🤠

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missbwith2boys@reddit

I have to say the phrasing tickled me too.

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2quickdraw@reddit

Thank you. Finding somebody else who understood gingham was a treat for me as well! 🥳

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No_Possible_7108@reddit

Every once in a while I will see a car that has had a rear hitch added to their car for towing small trailers. Is that an option for you? No idea what the cost of getting that set up would be unfortunately

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2quickdraw@reddit

Both vehicles can tow. I need the FX4 because I need four wheel drive to get up my hill in the winter in case of emergency, and it's able to go up my driveway through 20 plus inches of snow with no chains. I was looking at trailers and now might be time to get one, but I can rent one in town for $40 for the day. So if I needed more skips of dirt for my gardens I could haul it that way.

I would have had plenty but my partner didn't listen when they went to get raised bed soil and didn't get the number of skips I wanted. I kept explaining I needed enough to fill all the beds I added, plus more in order to have a huge pile of extra to allow for compaction and for adding more if needed in the near future. Instead I just got 30 bags of Kellogg organic, because I mix that in anyway, so now our soil is going to be mostly rabbit poop with some hay, tree leaves, the Kellogg, and then I add in perlite. Additionally I have a lot of coco coir to add to my soil with extra perlite for my vegetable starts. I wanted to have enough of everything stocked ahead of time to save on shipping fees and prices rising. Only one of my neighbors gardens, and I always prep enough to help neighbors if shit goes south in a hurry.

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hailene02@reddit

I am not looking forward to future prices, and I dont even go alot of places (work 1-2x a week, nearby grocery store, and brothers house for sunday night family dinner).

I am concerned esp for those who have families/kids and having to drive them around to school, events, etc- it will add up fast!!!

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International-Sink64@reddit

so there are pumps for water barrels?!? I had no idea—I need to get on that.

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hailene02@reddit

this is the one i landed on - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XC615GC?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k4_1_10&amp=&crid=390WV324BH3BV&sprefix=water%2Bpump&th=1

like i said it isnt strong and you do need to prep it (get water flowing from your rain barrels - i have found by moving/twisting the connection hose to be enough) to work. You will neeed an adapter b/c its a female to female end connection.

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International-Sink64@reddit

thank you

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Pontiacsentinel@reddit

Fire in Florida: https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-fire-map-miami-broward/ has live updates

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1ta00ig/there_is_currently_a_massive_fire_burning_in_the/

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International-Sink64@reddit

a 40 year diversified restaurant owner, just closed almost all their restaurants....had a burger place, a tex mex, upscale dining, doughnuts, a deli....closed for non payment of bills.

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Background-Pin-1307@reddit

Thrift stores are still packed most days in my area when in years past it would be the occasional SAHM or retirees roaming the aisles on weekdays. Facebook marketplace is also full of people offloading (not junky) things for as low as $5 just to get a few bucks, it’s wild. In other news, we planted our garden this year and took the time to lay it out, do it right, and fence it up to avoid the wildlife stealing it. Hoping to have a decent harvest to can this year, and planting a huge pumpkin patch to prep for a cheap and easy fall themed birthday at our home for our daughter this October.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Guys... my bills are going up at a concerning rate, 30% for nearly everything across the board and I'm getting pretty damn concerned about it.

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Suspicious-Cycle2678@reddit

How's your pantry these days?

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Deep... too deep.

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Suspicious-Cycle2678@reddit

I hear you on overdoing it - but it's good that you're making use of things! My pantry is definitely keeping me steady through all of this.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Oh without a doubt its saving me tons, but I'm starting to doubt I can get through it before it becomes unsafe to eat.

Sure I looked at dehydrating, but most of my food revolves around freezing, even things that would be canned / jarred ....freezer. Only thing I still can't figure due to taste / cost is dairy.

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Suspicious-Cycle2678@reddit

Dairy is the one that makes me nervous to have to cut, and I hope I never have to. My freezer is full to the brim too! This summer I'm learning to pressure can meat to take some burden off the freezer.

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AromaticCod9430@reddit

You can shred cheese and freeze it + freeze butter!!

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Unique-Sock3366@reddit

I feel this! It’s so hard to resist the temptation to overbuy.

I had to walk through my deep pantries yesterday because I found myself thinking about adding more #10 cans, which we don’t need and definitely have nowhere to store!

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No_Possible_7108@reddit

Never been more thankful that my utility company is owned by our city and doesn't try to screw people over

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Wise-Force-1119@reddit

SMUD?

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Impossible_Range6953@reddit

It's more expensive to truck goods these days. It's not just the airlines that are struggling.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

No, I'm talking my main bills.... Utilities, internet, insurance. In the last 60 days i've been slapped with the largest increases I've ever had.

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MagicHugsforThee@reddit

Call to cancel your internet and they will give you a better rate.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Yeah... thats looking like it's going to have to happen. I need to shop around.

Insurance is the boggling part, I've paid more into insurance in the last 20 years than all the cars combined are worth. At this point I'm tempted to drive around a tractor with trailer uninsured/farm use rather than have a road truck legal for how much it gets used per year.

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2quickdraw@reddit

Same, I have my truck on the lowest tier of mileage with Auto Club and it doubled over the last 2 years.

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Impossible_Range6953@reddit

Ah! In the northeast, we got hit with gas bill and health insurance increases at the beginning of the year. I had to move to a higher deductible plan to keep cost the same.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

I love how everything has doubled in the last 8 years or so... but the wages are only up like 30-40%

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splat-y-chila@reddit

Anecdotally from my life: 'Normal' people are now looking for whole grains in bulk and grain mills, now that grain mills have been out of stock and back ordered since Thanksgiving.

They had $1.79/lb cherries at one of the local stores, so I bought a few lbs and spent all of today canning maraschino style cherries mostly in 1/4pint snack packs. They weren't top quality cherries - a fair few brown spots and small doubles and mushy ones that I had to sort through, but it's good enough for canning. Glad I grew up around home gardening so I know what's ok to save and what has to go. Also glad I got a 40pack of diamond pattern quarter pints from a no name brand from Amazon last Fall for a decent price (27.99, looks like it's the same price still). One of them won't seal with 2 different kind of lids I tried, but at the price it's at, one down isn't bad. Also glad I got the 800pack sets of lids from forjars.

I've been eating down my canned stuff from all of last year and have a good pile of empty pints and halfpints, so I'm ready for hopefully a bountiful onion/tomato/strawberry/pepper harvest this year for sauce, salsa, pickles, relish and whole canned berries. Maybe might make pickled bean salad if the beans turn out well too this year. No matter what I make more of because of what I ate more of it the last year, it looks like I'm just not consistent in what I eat year to year. I guess I'll just keep making any and everything I have ingredients for that I know recipes exist. What I have done consistently is prefer pickled things with cider instead of white vinegar unless it's straight up just plain dill pickles, so I sub 5% cider instead of white in everything. The white vinegar is just way too sharp.

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sadiebrated@reddit

I've been talking to some younger people I work with and told them about how you knew things were bad during the 2008 financial crisis when fast food restaurants started selling hot dogs. Our regional chain that was known for great roast beef sandwiches started slinging hotdogs as part of combo meals. I've been watching the deals now that beef is more expensive than bacon expecting them to be back on the menu soon.

It got me to think of other downturn food, like gelatinize everything in the 60s. But that was more at home style food that a fast food place wouldnt do. I saw that chipotle is just doing $3 cup of meat.

Any predictions on cheap foods that fast food places will start selling? Back to hot dogs again? Beans and Rice McBurrito? Even more super cheap chicky nugs?

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NotDinahShore@reddit

In late 2008 and 2009, the Denny’s nearest to us started “Buy one entree get the other for half off”. They already had “kids eat free”.

We used to go have two cheeseburger meals which were $8.99 full price and $4.49 for the second one. Our kids would order breakfast meals and total price was less than $15. Outrageous value obviously.

We weren’t hurting at all, thankfully, so I would leave a $25 tip.

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SuccessWise9593@reddit

McDonald's brought back their dollar menu.

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2quickdraw@reddit

The classic BRC burrito, beans rice cheese, will probably be more prevalent

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RootCauseEffect@reddit

I live in an affluent tourist area with some large businesses that pay many people very well. I have noticed two of the more upscale restaurants in the area (not chains) are heavily advertising lunch specials. One was $12 and the other was $16. I have never seen anything like that before in this area. Especially from the upscale restaurants.

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Impossible_Range6953@reddit

shrinkflation changed the outlook for fastfood. the food per $ is not the same anymore.

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SquirrelyMcNutz@reddit

Maybe more nacho-type platters with beans? Tortillas are cheap and chips are just frying those things. Probably no guac though. More quesadilla-type things too, I'd think.

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existing_for_fun@reddit

You would think, but tortilla chips have been wildly overpriced lately in my opinion.

I'm not talking about Doritos because those are now in the, "I'm not a millionaire so I don't buy those" category of expensive.

I'm talking about plain tortilla chips at the grocery store.

Now, what you can do is go down to your local Mexican food establishment and ask for a few bags of chips. I can get a huge bag for $2.00 or less and it's good for a few meals.

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SquirrelyMcNutz@reddit

I've found making them at home to be easy and fun. Get a bag of like 30 or so plain corn tortillas. Get some peanut oil going in a nice size pot on the stove. Quarter the tortillas. Once the oil is to temp, dunk the quarters in. Let fry for a minute or two. Drain on a wire rack. You can then customize whatever flavoring you want on them, while they're still hot.

There's honestly nothing quite like a tortilla chip that's literally fresh out of the fryer.

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Illustrious-Nose3100@reddit

As a side note.. homemade tortillas are also very easy and 1000 times better than store bought. Only need 5 ingredients.

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BelAirBabs@reddit

Thanks for this recipe. Makes me hungry, and I am gonna try it.

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SquirrelyMcNutz@reddit

Be careful with the frying. As always, don't overfill the pot with oil. Honestly, get yourself one of those fryalator-type things. They tend to have markers to indicate the level of oil and temperature control gauges. The one I've got has a drain in the oil basket that lets you filter the oil as it drains into another reservoir.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Indiana / Ohio, theres a rumor going around guys were out mushroom hunting and finding shoe boxes full of ticks in the woods in multiple locations and believing its some form of bio-terrorism.

Probably the most wtf thing I've heard from the old farts in the last year.

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Awasaday@reddit

I had a couple morel foragers trespassing on my property tell me that tale…they say it’s because Bill Gates has a new Lyme vaccine.

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2quickdraw@reddit

People are so fucking stupid that they don't even bother to look up Bill Gates and all the humanitarian work he's done, or George Soros and all the humanitarian donations he's made.

Not saying I'm a huge fan of Bill Gates but the man has basically stated that he wants to spend all his money on good works before he dies, and has already been working on humanitarian efforts for decades. If he was in on population reduction of any kind, he wouldn't have been working to eradicate polio in Africa, or to give every village sanitation and access to clean water. 🤦

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

Agreed. Bill Gates can be both generous to humanitarian causes and an Epstein class pedophile. They’re not mutually exclusive.

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2quickdraw@reddit

I have not seen anything that ties him to the pedophile side of Epstein. He was always looking for people to contribute to his causes. He's also always been a handy target for conspiracy theorists in right wing circle jerks.

Can you link me some actual proof?

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

His ties to Epstein are why Melinda left him.

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/03/nx-s1-5697080/melinda-french-gates-reacts-to-ex-husband-bill-gates-being-mentioned-in-epstein-files

get medication to treat an STI from "sex with Russian girls."

Whether those "girls" were legal or not will likely never be known... but they were girls Epstein trafficked.

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2quickdraw@reddit

Yes he cheated and that's why she left him, I knew that. That's a pretty common issue with men.

Whert does it say specifically that he fucked kids?

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

So we're just ignoring the "russian girls" part? Cool ^cool ^^cool

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2quickdraw@reddit

Not at all, I assumed that you were going to give me proof of him being a pedophile...?

I'm genuinely interested I'm not defending. I would like to know if there's actual proof. I haven't checked any of that for a couple years.

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Lopsided_Elk_1914@reddit

Gates choose to hang out with a known child sex offender. that crosses a line. to what extend is unknown, but at this point, i trust no one after discovering what those people were doing and are continuing to get away with.

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2quickdraw@reddit

I can't say I trust any of them either. I do tend to be more inclined to believe what Gates has described than I do anybody from Epstein's side. Gates is ASD1, so I can see him being focused on getting funding, which was how he was pursued from Epstein's side, he was offered a great deal of funding which was a lie. Epstein says he cheated on Melinda with Russian women, but Gates says was Microsoft employees, which rings more true to me since that's how he ended up with Melinda. He would tend to stick to his patterns because of the neurodivergence, he has a very particular and regimented personality.

I also find it not as easy to reconcile his desire to keep children from being injured by polio and unclean water and wanting them to be educated, with the obscene desires of people who wanted them as something to use and throw away. I'm neurodivergent myself, I don't have an agenda here, I just am having trouble trying to fit his known personality, proclivities, and inclinations in with the personalities of the people surrounding Epstein, most of whom are psychopaths and idiots.

That's just my personal observations, I'm not trying to tell anybody what to believe.

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

Lot of effort into defending what I linked above about Epstein's russian girls. Simp elsewhere.

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boomrostad@reddit

Amazon started offering day one of employment healthcare.

If one remembers the fact that rich people distrust the government just as much as us filthy casuals...

I'm not saying any of them are saints. I don't believe billionaires should exist... but... they could be doing much worse on the trying to help society and the general public front.

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Anxious_Chemist8727@reddit

I've read this too. Is it to make more of us allergic to meat? What's the end game?

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Excellent-Source-348@reddit

The end game in this conspiracy is to get us to eat less meat because meat uses a lot of resources (water and land) and expels a lot of greenhouse gasses (cow farts) contributing to climate change.

Sounds fanciful to me; i mean, I'm already eating less meat because it cost so much now.

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DLegghead@reddit

buh how am I gonna be a red blooded American if I dont stuff my arteries with animals fights whenever I feed

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2quickdraw@reddit

Honestly it's so much easier to raise the price to get people to cut back, and at the same time they make more money doing it, instead of spending money for clandestine tick bullshit.

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thisbliss7@reddit

Who do you think is the “they” here? Meat producers don’t want consumers to cut back. They also want to gain market share by undercutting their competitors’ prices.

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2quickdraw@reddit

The mysterious clandestine evil catch-all "they" behind every conspiracy theory.

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Excellent-Source-348@reddit

Maybe it's SIT (Sterile Insect Technique)?

"Releasing sterile ticks is an experiment aimed at controlling tick populations—specifically Ixodes scapularis (deer ticks)—by releasing sterile males to mate with females, resulting in no offspring."

I know they do this with mosquitos in florida.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Would they at least label the boxes at that point though?

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Excellent-Source-348@reddit

Probably not in the budget to get custom boxes printed and made if you're just going to throw them away essentially, if you look at the CA county doing the mosquito release, they are using what looks like a regular toilet paper roll:
https://www.sgvmosquito.org/sterile-insect-technique-sit

This other org uses what looks like a water bottle with the top cut off:
https://www.worldmosquitoprogram.org/en/learn/how-our-method-compares

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2quickdraw@reddit

Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is sterile ticks being released.

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HomoExtinctisus@reddit

They were in a box, how is that released?

Occam should use his razor for a different purpose.

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2quickdraw@reddit

Dumb old guys out in the woods would just say "a box", they wouldn't think about checking the entire thing over for the actual opening was if it was an intentional release of sterile males. They would have just opened it up themselves.

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HomoExtinctisus@reddit

I don't need to waste my time arguing details with somebody else who also wasn't there.

Why do you have enough time to agree with made up BS in the first place should be the question you are asking.

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2quickdraw@reddit

👋

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NoTerm3078@reddit

shoe boxes full of ticks in the woods in multiple locations

Take this how you will but rConspiracy has been talking about this for months.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Raises eyebrow *

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Vegetable-Board-5547@reddit

Houses in my area are taking significantly longer to sell. It was a hot market for the last ten years. Now it's taking months to sell, often with a lot of price cuts.

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Brief-Roll-2259@reddit

I pray everyday that houses become affordable for single working class people. If that means landlord have to actually get a job and provide real value that would be icing on top.

The over-comodification of a basic human need is disgusting to me. Because when everybody wants to turn a profit, there no incentive to build or provide affordable home options.

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DLegghead@reddit

I was just telling my spouse how I think comodifying everything in this country (because of capitalism) is ruining everything.

Even the dumb shit people care about like sports is just crammed to the brim with endless advertisements

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Brief-Roll-2259@reddit

Seriously. Like csnt we re-route all the taxes being farmed from us towards general happiness shit like housing school cost of living. The fucking parasites at the top are bleeding us dry.

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NoTerm3078@reddit

Mr and Ms Nextdoor have been trying to sell their house for 15 months. They listed it then unlisted it. Then that happened again. While it was unlisted, they put a roof on it. Now it's listed for a third time. The roof was months ago. It has not sold. I have seen all their pictures, it is a normal house that has nothing overtly wrong with it.

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DLegghead@reddit

Did they try and reduce the asking price?

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NoTerm3078@reddit

Yes every time.

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DLegghead@reddit

Damn! Im in a pretty hot housing market so houses are still moving pretty well. Definitely seeing some sitting but most arent getting dropped in price

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bristlybits@reddit

the flippers are struggling in my neighborhood. they had it good for a while but now the price is too high and nobody wants it. like one place they bought at 200k, cleaned and painted and want 400k for it? two months after they bought it.

it's been empty 6 months now. it will stay empty until they lower the price. it's not a super nice neighborhood, best looking places are like 300k-350k with like old wood and cool landscaping and stuff.

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DLegghead@reddit

Absolutely love flippers struggling. So sick of the people "flipping houses." I consider that as much of a real job as being a realtor

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Pando5280@reddit

Theres a split between lower priced homes and higher priced ones. In my area the $185-275k places sit on the market while $600-800k places (typically small farms or cabins with land) sell fairly quickly. Basically people with money looking for retreat places are buying while working class fanilies cant afford their starter homes. Lower end property either sells for flips or gets abandoned once it gets below a certain quality point.

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EscapeCharming2624@reddit

Yes.

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modernswitch@reddit

I’m noticing fixer uppers in my neighborhood sell almost instantly at $400k (3 in the past 2 months), however the 2 homes that are well maintained at $600k are just sitting for months. I’m not sure yet if the 3 cheap ones that sold are in process of being flipped as only one has signs of rapid construction.

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Pando5280@reddit

Lots of folks want lower overhead hence smaller homes. Guessing you're in the suburbs and not rural. In my rural area its the reverse with 185-250k homes sitting while the 600-800k houses on 40 or 100 acres sell pretty quick due to outside people with money buying their retreat place with land.

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Ashamed-Knee9084@reddit

In the last 5 years, in my county, you pretty much had to know the house was going on the market before it hit the market to be able to get it. Now, I've seen houses sit for months (well I started noticing about 3/4 months ago) to sell. Sellers are still asking ridiculous amounts for homes 5 years ago were half the price.

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barredman@reddit

Same here and I am in a highly desirable area to live.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

I was in a Yankee Dollar store just yesterday and saw this sign:

I didn’t realize the situation was that dire!

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NovelPermission634@reddit

Walmart.com has a $1 food section now. I don't remember ever seeing that before.

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Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit

My local Walmart has a 58 cent pasta selection now

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SuccessWise9593@reddit

All walmarts carry the mexican pastas at that price. It went up from .46 cents.

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Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit

That is true in some cases

But now it’s front and center and not in the international aisle with like 3 bags, now it’s in a larger section

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

It was the whole “FOOD…. Grab It Before Its Gone!” thing that made me chuckle.

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MrD3a7h@reddit

A game I subconsciously play while driving is "older than me," referring to the car I'm driving. While I have a newer car, I usually drive my 2000 Buick PAU.

I am noticing a lot of 90s and early 2000s cars out there. More than usual. And not nice survivor cars. They are looking rough. I think we're seeing people get desperate.

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Impossible_Range6953@reddit

Someone mentioned a couple of weeks ago that they see more and more of damaged cars needing repairs on the road. I am starting to agree with that assessment. There are noticeably more duct taped cars on road.

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DLegghead@reddit

Ive been mentioning that around here and I will double down, Im not even just seeing cars that have like obvious dents or messed up bumpers. Im seeing the kind of cars that I am accustomed to only seeing in peoples fromt yards out in the boonies. Like large portions of the car seeminlgy missing but still ripping down the highway

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2quickdraw@reddit

Because the work is too expensive, and because in a lot of cases you can't get the parts for months, if at all.

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no9lovepotion@reddit

I'm actually considering buying a older used SUV.

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Unique-Sock3366@reddit

I have a very small 2016 SUV. It has been a phenomenal vehicle for me, is long paid off, is reliable, gets fantastic mileage.

I’m going to drive her until her wheels come off!

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no9lovepotion@reddit

Mine's 2016 SUV too. I plan to keep it too. I'm just considering an older vehicle too.

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Ashamed-Knee9084@reddit

My daily is a 2005 expedition that has been well maintained, 1 previous owner with complete service records and I get work done as needed as well. I opt to drive my 2003 mini Cooper that smokes a little and looks like its been ran off road because it gets 30 more mpg than my expedition

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2quickdraw@reddit

But the Expedition is more likely to save your ass if you get hit by an uninsured motorist. Please drive as defensively as possible, and maybe add a dash cam if you don't have one.

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Practical_Hippo6289@reddit

There's talk that the car market is going to tank soon as dealers become overwhelmed with repos. Of course cars are so overpriced right now that it would take a serious price correction to actually make them affordable again.

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1776FreeAmerica@reddit

What's going to eventually fix the car prices is competition like this, which is comparable to US EV's in quality but only around 12k, even with a 100% tariff and some shipping costs, it undercuts our market massively. https://apnews.com/article/china-byd-auto-seagull-auto-ev-cae20c92432b74e95c234d93ec1df400

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stopusingyallweirdo@reddit

I noticed this too a few years ago. It's still going on, feels like even more than before. I paid some attention to car stuff for years and it seems a big factor is the broad trend of many people meaninglessly chasing "vintage" and some old irrelevant thing that was never a raging trend but was exposed to recent lemming circles.

A certain '90s car model started showing up in town several years ago. They're all driven by younger people.

Quite a few people around here DIY their car and they just have poor taste and skills, not necessarily lack funds. Most of these cars seem to be from the '90s and '00s.

Some people don't care about road safety at all and their cheaping out on car maintenance reflects that. I've heard eyewitness accounts of that kind of stuff as well as seen them myself. They can afford to do better, but they don't want to.

Some people have multiple cars, new ones and old ones. There was someone around me who had a nice new reliable car from a luxury brand and an old one that was basic, not in demand on the market, always had problems, was very loud, and filled the whole block with thick smoke whenever it started up. For some reason they kept it and used it normally for a long time despite having the other car. The owner was older and in a two-people household that didn't go out much, and when they did it was usually the both of them together. Maybe the old car held sentimental value. But it was a huge nuisance to everyone, including the owner. Eventually they got rid of it.

The rest I assume are due to actual economic reasons but there are quite a few that are not out of financial desperation.

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Correct-Avocado5426@reddit

I'd be curious how old the drivers are and if there was a bump in the population around 16 years ago. My neighborhood has a lot of kids who all hit 16 this year and they're all driving older cars.

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MrD3a7h@reddit

I'm bad at guessing ages, but they typically look older than teens.

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International-Sink64@reddit

I haven't seen empty shelves yet but I have noticed, that instead of different varieties of items, it's the same item taking up all the space. The same crackers taking up space that would have had 6 different kinds and the stocking is not deep, there were one or two on each column.

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International-Sink64@reddit

Has anyone else noticed something similar?

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SuccessWise9593@reddit

I have. My Sam's club near me has stopped carrying a variety of chips. Now, I have to ship to home the one's that were normally stocked at the store. They even started making me ship crispy fried french onions now and flossers. They stopped carrying other things all together. Things are getting limited too.

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funke75@reddit

I've noticed this at my local Costco (middle TN)

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modernswitch@reddit

I think so too. I was asked to donate some classroom snacks and I thought I would grab a few different snack pack boxes but all my Costco had was goldfish. I don’t typically buy the individual packaged products but I know in years past I would be able to find all kinds of crackers and snacks in different varieties. My kid specifically asked for cheezits and I know they used to have them in the individual packets but didn’t see any this time.

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jazzbiscuit@reddit

Midwest area - this has been going on in my local Walmart for a while. Lots of things that did have several varieties now only have 1 "name brand" and maybe the Walmart brand as a choice. I also never had much trouble actually getting everything on my shopping list - In the last couple months I haven't had a single trip I didn't have to carry at least 1 or 2 items over to the next list due to no stock. I've had to do a lot of restructuring to maintain my deep pantry.

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tinygiggs@reddit

In the Midwest, noticed the same thing this morning.

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Any_Needleworker_273@reddit

In the NE and I've noticed this same subtle shift among some product sections in the grocery store.

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Early_Army_3352@reddit

I have. Less variety available all around.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

People are upset that people are testing negative for hantavirus(the klm flight attendant, other people on some of the planes). I mentioned it on another sub and had people telling me the tests are probably wrong 😑

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Any_Needleworker_273@reddit

It's wild the people that seem to want another pandemic.

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Amazing-Routine-9793@reddit

It could be that people are scared that there will be another one and they don't trust the governments information.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

Remember “Two weeks to flatten the curve”?

I do, and I believed it.

That two weeks became months on lockdown, where you couldn’t have a birthday party or other large gathering (wedding, funeral, graduation), and kids were schooled remotely.

We were told by the experts this was necessary because you were going to kill grandma if you did any of those things. I believed the experts.

But then the experts said if you wanted to protest racism or whatever en masse that was completely OK because that was important, grandma be damned I guess.

You can only lie to me so many times before I stop believing anything you say.

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thisbliss7@reddit

And let’s not forget the political elites and their “do as I say, but not as I do.” Like Gavin Newsome enjoying private parties at French Laundry, Gretchen Whitmer locking everyone down and then escaping to her vacation home, the head of New York’s public health department closing churches but secretly attending sex parties.

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thisbliss7@reddit

And let’s not forget the political elites and their “do as I say, but not as I do.” Like Gavin Newsome enjoying private parties at French Laundry, Gretchen Whitmer locking everyone down and then escaping to her vacation home, the head of New York’s public health department closing churches but secretly attending sex parties.

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Boring-Philosophy-46@reddit

Outside spread was basically negligible but they jammed the kids indoors in schools as soon as they could and then said kids weren't a meaningful risk, when data now shows that they were a major vector of transmission. Something every teacher could have told you, classrooms are petri dishes.

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Upstairs-Chicken592@reddit

2 weeks of flatten the curve was an obvious placating lie seeing as China was locked down for months at that point. I worked in Covid wings of hospitals and saw a lot of grandmas die.

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StrategyMany5930@reddit

This! I am personally worried since the US dropped the ball so hard on covid & decided the economy is more import than saving lives. Since then the US has gutted the CDC and pulled out of the WHO. Hantavirus is a hemorrhagic fever and that personally scares me.

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Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit

I remember not being worried about Covid when other places were starting to take real measures because the government was very “it’s basically a cold” still

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Dapper_dreams87@reddit

Ya there was far too much back and fourth on everything that I think we all have ptsd from it

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GeneralOrgana1@reddit

This is the category I'm in.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

The people that were tested are all from different countries but the people that are disappointed are most American and British(supposedly anyway).

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IntoTheCommonestAsh@reddit

I think people are just rationally worried about underreaction from governments that value the political risk of properly dealing with an epidemic above the risk of the epidemic itself. I agree that it's probably nothing, the issue is trust in authorities is at an all time low.

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bwaters1894@reddit

This. Trump under-reacted to Covid and called it a “democratic hoax” and we saw how that all played out.

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1776FreeAmerica@reddit

It really isn't that people want the virus and health issues, for many the lock downs forced a slow down in life. It's last time I really felt like I had a day which was boring, no pressing chores or tasks that had to get done, where I woke up and had to find something to do. Go for a walk or bounce out to a creek and fish. Life feels unbearably fast, even with focus effort to try and set boundaries to slow down, the list of chores and to do items, just keeps going. Objectively, there's a lot that has been cut, but it's still a struggle to keep the basics going and find a little time to get an haircut, eye exam, or other necessary self-care items like that. I'm not sure why that is. Unless it's just the mental overhead of manipulative advertisements, enshittification, and AI induced decision fatigue.

Roads and traffic were dramatically better as well. Where I'm at in a medium sized town, the road infrastructure is so poorly designed and overloaded, there's sections that have weekly wrecks and even the side road intersections take two or three cycles before you're able to get through.

People tend to forget the worse parts of a time in their life and keep the better memories.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

They’re accelerationists. There are three flavors of it; religious, political, and dumbass. Like some sort of idiot Neapolitan ice cream.

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No_Possible_7108@reddit

Neapolitanitwit

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No_Farm_2076@reddit

I dont think its "want." Its that people are trying to embrace rhe worst case scenario to be ready mentally. Its easier to have low expectations and have them not come to be pass than it is to be super positive and then have the emotional fall out of the worst case scenario happening.

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Any_Needleworker_273@reddit

It's just that I've seen chatter in some threads about certain jobs that got a "boost" under the last pandemic...So as usual, like a war, there's always some pocket of people that can only think of profit for themselves...that's more what I'm alluding too. I don't think this Hantavirus situation is going to amount to amount to a pandemic unless something radically shifted in how the disease spreads.

But I do believe that if we were to have another pandemic under our current leadership, it would be a complete and utter sh*t show, even worse then the last time since we are steadily jettisonning all of our scientific expertise out the window.

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Dapper_dreams87@reddit

Want? No. The info is just so limited on this that I worry if someone tests negative now that they will test positive later and that will be after they have been around family, co workers, etc. Covid spread so quickly and it feels like any attempt to actually quarantine this properly has been ignored

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Boring-Philosophy-46@reddit

European countries are allegedly right now scrambling to find a way to legally enforce quarantine on the travellers from the ship that are about to arrive. Hantaviruses are not on lists of things they can mandate quarantine for apparently, allegedly, I have no way to check, because the European ones don't have human to human transmission. So currently it's allegedly entirely a voluntary quarantine that depends on the people and their employers agreeing.

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Wytch78@reddit

I don't trust PCR tests AT ALL. I had full on Delta wave covid, fever of 102, and pneumonia.... tested negative three times... even at the Urgent Care!!

It wasn't until I paid out of pocket six weeks later for an antibodies blood draw that I was able to confirm I had covid.

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Wise_Artichoke6552@reddit

I mean, I have no reason to trust a single thing in the news. In fact, it seems best to assume the opposite of whatever mainstream headlines say. Hantavirus isn't going to be a pandemic because that's not how it works, but I believe that because of what medical professionals say, not because of anything in the news. Anyone who isn't inclined to learn how hantavirus works must either trust the news or not trust the news, and trusting the national news in the states is frequently a bad idea.

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jazzbiscuit@reddit

I'm not upset if people test negative, I'm upset I been forced to feel like I can trust the information we're getting. I should be able to be excited they're testing negative - instead, I have to wonder if they'd tell us the truth if they tested positive :(

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Boring-Philosophy-46@reddit

I am not an epidemiologist nor a doctor, so take this completely unqualified opinion for what it is, but I don't think we'll see a pandemic level outbreak with this.

The long incubation time makes people think they're infectuous the whole time but that's not necessarily true. There have simply been like 300 cases ever so data is limited but so far, non close contact transmission happened when people already had symptoms. A long incubation period is only a downside if you're very infectuous during it, otherwise it gives you time to find people exposed in the infectuous period before they become infectuous and can pass it on. The R0 of this virus, comparable to flu and covid, makes no sense if people were very infectuous during the entire incubation period.

With covid, the average time to transmission was about 4 days and so was the incubation period. With covid, every week your infected pool quadruples at that rate, and half of them are still asymptomatic at any given time. By the time you see the effect in hospitals is about 3 weeks from infection, you have (4)+(4x4)+(4x4x4)= 84 (eigty-four) times more people already headed to hospital irreversably even if you lock down immediately because they are already infected. With this thing here, on average, first symptoms and average transmission interval are closer to 3 weeks and hospitalization more quickly follows symptoms based on known data. Even with an R0 not far under covid, that means once you see the cases in hospitals, only about twice as many more are coming if you lock down right away. Totally different picture. The reason they lost the contact tracing battle on covid was because of the quick turnaround, not the R0. Everything known about this virus suggests contact tracing is a viable strategy here to prevent a pandemic.

The 3 weeks, R0 etc for hanta, one cluster: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2009040

Serial intervals of 2.1-5.2 days for covid: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12879-023-08407-5

Covid wildtype R0 of 2.6 in England: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10352350/

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Wise_Artichoke6552@reddit

My doctor's (general practice through a local clinic) office has a new payment protocol. I don't have insurance this year, as I didn't year before last. The appointment portal now asks three times if I want to pre-pay, and the wording implies that my appointment is predicated on pre-payment, even though it isn't. I expect they're experiencing a surge in people, uninsured and insured, not being able to cover their bills.

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jednaz@reddit

I left a large medical network associated with a local hospital system because of its pre-payment policy. I have a HDHP and they always estimated the amount incorrectly, usually in their favor, so that I’d overpay and have to call and try to get refunded. I say “try” because calling took hours of time off my life because the billing department was staffed so poorly. I’d have an appt lent in May and they took forever to file claims so that I’d be in the refund process as late as October or November. That coupled with the fact my PCP changed five times in three years due to turnover and appointments for an annual exam were eighteen months out and regular office visits were six months the or more made the switch worth it.

I’m an adult and I pay my bills. So I switched my whole family to a different network that doesn’t make me pre-pay.

I do understand why providers want their payment up front. I own a small business (architecture) and we usually get a deposit but often we bill after a project is done. That’s the way the insurance companies want it. And it can take months to a year or more to be paid. So I do understand as I have felt that frustration of waiting for payments and having to float along until they come in. It’s frustrating on all sides.

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CouldBeLessDepressed@reddit

I'm getting advertisements for "Prepper" scams on youtube now. Like one was some dude giving some vague warning about some problem, explaining nothing, and trying to get you to buy something. I wanted to throw my screen across the room as soon as it came on. Also, the number of ads created solely by Ai is.... alarming. They're generating "people" and you can tell they're Ai because they don't talk quite right. Considering that we're bombarded by advertisements every possible second of every day, it feels like that practice is going to be hypercharged now.

All of which is hilarious to me because the irony is, everyone can run as many advertisements as they want until we're all blue in the face, but even if I actually wanted what they were advertising I still couldn't buy it because I have ZERO excess cash for anything whatsoever. If by some convenient unlikely event that the power grid stayed up after we're all gone, these advertisements would continue for eternity advertising to skeletons. It's all so senseless and pointless.

But for those of us taking the world seriously, it does feel like a slap in the face to be patronized with products. It's like 1 giant "fuck you" all the way down.

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

Which channel? One I used to like seems to be going in that direction.

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CouldBeLessDepressed@reddit

I don't remember what I was watching. I don't think the commercial was for another channel though. That said, I could be wrong there. I wasn't willing to click their cancerous link to find out lol.

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Soft_Walrus_3605@reddit

Saw on the news another oil refinery explosion occurred. I know they happen occasionally, but does anyone in the industry know if it's any more than usual? The news said it was the third one in a few weeks, iirc.

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UND_mtnman@reddit

Not in industry, but some of what I've heard: like in many industries, management is generally always kicking the maintenance can down the road to save a buck but now they're running things at 100% which is tough on plants if done for a long time. Those two factors combined make accidents more likely

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Serious_Yard4262@reddit

I'm a stay at home mom in the midwest, so in grocery stores I generally run into a lot of "random" chit chat. The little old lady who thinks my kids are cute, they old man who says I remind him of his dead wife when they were young, the other SAHMs who are trying to survive the grocery trip, whatever, it's generally pretty positive. Lately it's been a lot of comments on how expensive it all is, jokes about how I should be glad my kids are little and not teenagers with big appetites at these prices, questions about what my husband does for work to afford it, asking if I've been to other stores and if their produce is better. People, especially the elderly, are also trying to talk more which makes me think they're feeling lovelier. My local mom groups are also constantly having posts with other moms asking for food, diapers, and formula. There's a lot of posts with women who have been stay at home moms looking for part time work as well, generally in odd hours or at daycares so they can avoid childcare costs. There's a lot of families who have admitted they're forgoing daycamps for their slightly older kids this summer and letting them have a "90's summer" instead, a.k.a the tweens will be home alone.

A positive side to the price increases and state of the world is that my local community events have been blowing up. If it's a free social event the crowds are nearly doubled from last year. Even local food trucks have said their early spring sales, a generally slow time here, have been through the roof! My city has been working hard to support local from what I've been seeing. Our farmer's market and co-op have been busy, and Walmart and target seem slower. Some of the local businesses are still struggling, but they're generally more related to "secondary" products. Things like our local tea leaf shop and vintage clothes. People have been choosing to walk and bike more around town too, likely due to the cost of gas and our city has started charging for parking.

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kheret@reddit

I can add to the summer camp discussion. Lots of popular camps still have spots around here which is absolutely unheard of for May.

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GunnCelt@reddit

I’m in rural southern Illinois. Gas went from $3 two and a half months ago to $5 a week ago. Food has been creeping up, quietly. No immediate bumps, just slow creeps.

The good news, I’m getting ready to close on the house on a half acre next door for $13.5k. It was foreclosed in the beginning of February. I’ve got to pull all the walls down to replace all the wiring, breaker box and copper (with pex). I’ve been pricing out material and am flabbergasted at the price of lumber and rock.

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Practical_Hippo6289@reddit

Wanted to buy an electric vehicle that is not readily available in my area. Found a dealer across the country with one at a good price but it would cost $1600 to ship it to me. (CA to AL.) That was a deal breaker. I don't know how that compares to what shipping would have been before all the nonsense in Iran began but it feels really high.

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ScotchyMcScotchface@reddit

That price is very normal for a high-quality line like Reliable and via a closed carrier. I’ve shipped many cars between Detroit and CA for work and round trip cross-country with Reliable is usually around $3000.

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Practical_Hippo6289@reddit

Thanks!

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SquirrelyMcNutz@reddit

Could hire someone to drive it for you. Just make sure he's not a multi-personality that'll keep your car or wreck it up. (IYK the reference...)

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Pontiacsentinel@reddit

I was thinking it sound like making it a vacation to get it might be worth it.

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Striper_Cape@reddit

I'd do it lol, what a job.

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RhinoPillMan@reddit

I live out of my van. I’m redoing the whole solar setup that I’ve used for almost 5 years because panels and batteries have gotten so cheap. Quadrupling the solar panel wattage on the roof and the quadrupling (or better) the battery capacity. Probably a good idea for the regular folks that live in houses to start thinking about with the cost of energy rising, while solar components are still affordable. I’ve mostly gotten all of the new stuff from AliExpress and haven’t been burned yet; all of it is directly from the brands and shipped from the US. Just waiting on a day off work to throw it all together, and hopefully start running an AC unit off of it before El Niño makes this summer unbearable (every summer already is unbearable here).

I’ve upped my food storage with a decent amount of rice, lentils, and beans in Mylar. Already staples in my diet. Considered getting a dozen or so #10 cans from Augason Farms until I saw how expensive they’ve gotten, even directly from their website. Looking at their Amazon price history is insane; some things are up 3-5x. So I’m considering trying out the Mormon place with #10 cans since there’s one nearby. Last time I looked, they were really cheap in comparison to everyone else but I’m sure they’ve also gone up some.

Everyone I interact with at work or out and about seems stressed about the cost of living. It has always been high here but it’s getting unlivable for many people. I’ve gotten more “practical” questions lately about living out of my van, how I do it, if I’m comfortable, cost, etc. It ain’t a fancy “#vanlife” setup, but I get by just fine with it and people that are struggling seem drawn to building out their own old shitboxes. And at this rate, many people will have no choice. People used to say that the middle class was gone. And they were right. Now lower/ working class is vanishing and we’re going to be the homeless peasant class if there isn’t a massive shift.

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Own_Cardiologist_989@reddit

Still need to test out my solar setup that came in last week, but I'm anticipating the need for more panels. Just need the rain to stop and for a day of free time

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raven3lise@reddit

We lost about a dozen clients in my work group this quarter who can no longer afford CPA because their companies went under, they had to cash out all of their investments so now their returns are basic 1040s they can do themselves, or because they just don't have the cash to pay us. Been in public for 8 years, never lost this many people in one season, and some of them were so apologetic that I had to remind them that we have no hard feelings towards them for doing what's best for their situation.

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marioncrepes@reddit

Grocery store, nothings in the system right now because everything's going up in price. Starting to see changes in habits like an uptick in cans, rice, and general big staple hauls. People are talking about the conflict and gas prices frequently now. We are in a totally different place since even the beginning of the ceasefire, it's crazy to me it took quite this long honestly