The Solitary Man’s Refuge (8 page)

He had already got a 100 on his draft paper and
although the instructor noted some minor APA edit flaws,
she said he would get an A regardless if he turned it in
uncorrected, anyway. He had no worry in that direction; it
was the last forum question he had to dream up some crap
on about how this course gave him three things to be
thankful for professionally and personally and another
touchy feely set of questions. OH BS, answer honestly,
them young pups might learn from him but he couldn’t do
that. He wanted to say, I learned to acquire a lifetime of
debt from student loans I start paying back in 6 months, I
learned that my classmates can be dumb as rocks and still
get a degree, most of all I learned to bite my tongue or
raise immortal hell to defend my right to my opinions in an
academic manner. Enough said on that note, he would just
smile and write an acceptable submission and walk on by
forever.

Trees and plants were coming in to Janice’s
address, expensive ones he didn’t want to lose, but she
could just add water to them for few days if needed, until
he had a chance to pick them up and plant them at the bug
out location.

Don kind of figured since it was the last big spring
break of his academic and social life, why not go to
Florida? Yea, he was old and not a typical spring breaker,
but it was a right of passage and reward he wanted to try
one time so he was not regretful for not doing it when he
was older and grayer. Dumb idea yea, he probably
wouldn’t remember much of why or what he did, but
maybe a nice memory would present itself on this new
adventure. Florida was usually lucky or good to him and he
could get a new storyline idea loosely based on some
colorful characters he was sure to meet in his carousing.
His

Prepper shack had all brand new locks installed;
they worked all on one key now instead of the 12 he used
to have to carry around. He had paid his house insurance
and wasn’t worried except about a deer munching
something in his garden and that he couldn’t help that
much anyway until he got his fence up. Oh yea, he could
adjust his animal security measures, spread some
repellant or cayenne pepper around to make it less
flavorful.

“
Ok! Do that chore on the way to the beach; got to
go by the place and pick up a couple of things anyways”,
he concluded.

Check all the fluid levels on the old truck and make
sure to do the same on the return trip. Wash clothes
before going, etc., and this proposed trip might just be
possible.

Check how long you have been carrying the same
ammo in your daily carry piece. I am satisfied. One extra
clip in get-home bag? Plus 20 rounds federal in a plastic
box? That should be more than enough Don muttered to
himself.
He! He! Good to go then!

Old Max had been living on the hill across the street
from Don’s farm for over thirty years. He had seen various
folks come and go, owning that piece of dirt Don had
bought himself for a while, but this new fella had some
gumption about him he must say. That boy reminded him
of a woodpecker. When he put his mind to something he
would just keep hitting at it until it was done. He kind of
had fun watching him wrestle with trying to get his little
grubstake together over there. He had given the man his
years of wisdom about the land and the road the overanxious fella told him he was going to transform and then
merrily and quietly sat back and watched as
knowledgeable old cusses do.

This new landowner was more than respectable
enough and Old Max liked that. Came right over, shook his
hand and thanked him for being a neighbor before he even
moved in a stick of furniture. Had a woman with him too
that was sweet as sunshine to his wife. Said she was a
nurse of different sorts and that was something he felt
blessed by moving in next to them until he found out she
was some used to be girlfriend and not a wife or a lover.
He’d get to the bottom of that relationship later, but they
were close he could see that. This boy wasn’t any
greenhorn city boy in regards to knowing country ways...
Oh yes, the Man had asked a flurry of questions about
what grows here and or don’t just like most slickers do, but
he also had plenty of personal stories of growing crops on
other land in different counties. Max decided to just wait
and see what the new neighbor would do and was
rewarded with watching a one-man anthill getting things
done. Seems this new guy would pick a task, ask if
anybody knew anyone that could do it, and when the
answer came back a ‘No,’ he found the best available help
on his own and finished the rest with his own two hands.
Don might have been a bit slow on the uptake of chasing
that wheelbarrow of his around he thought, but the sucker
was tenacious and after a sip of coffee and a few drags off
a cigarette was a non-stop machine moving the mountains
of dirt and mulch he had ordered.

Pretty good ol’ boy too, gave Max some extra
tomato plants he had bought and mulch he had, like he
had known him fifty years as a regular neighbor. Donald
said, they was free and no charge to boot. ‘Might even
decide to like that guy,’ Max had been overheard to say.

Max waved at Donald as he pulled out of his drive
way headed for Florida. Max then reached over to readjust
his radio for the umpteenth time today.

“News said the sun was acting up again” Betsy
replied looking up at it like she might be able to see
something wrong with it.

Don was glad to be away from the daily grind of
working on his place but couldn’t help himself feeling a bit
guilty about the exorbitant trip expense and leaving several
things undone around the house.

“Ah, get over it, you got a lot accomplished so far
and three days one way or another wouldn’t hurt too
much” he mused.

He all of the sudden then perked up, applied his
brakes and pulled into an old country store/gas station he
had a habit of stopping at on his way to Florida. He
stopped in here 7 years ago for coffee with Janice who he
had just started to get into prepping. He bought them both
one of those little wooden single line complete fishing kits
you can find all over the south. You know, the kind that
has the line wrapped around a very thin piece of wood and
has hook, bobber and sinker already attached for you.
They were great for doing some impromptu dock fishing or
tying onto the end of a cane pole. He could count the
number of trips he had been to Florida since in his glove
box as the things accumulated after a visit. He was going
to get another one of those for 99 cents, as was his
customary addition to his Florida prepper thing; he didn’t
really even ask himself why he saw the need to do it
anymore. Just a personal good luck quirk he had gotten
into the habit of doing.

Today he had other possible items on the list and
gravitated towards the cheap tool table that was
prominently featured up against one wall of the store and
began to happily root around in the pile looking for
magnifying glasses. He had been dying to bump into one
of these big box jumble of Taiwan tools displays for a
month after he came up with what he thought was a great
prepper barter item to specialize in storing. He figured if
the SHTF did happen, the need for reading glasses and
magnifying lenses might increase. People’s vision gets
affected if you don’t have a good diet and vitamin count for
your body. The need to try to repair small things or get a
splinter out of your finger increased exponentially so
magnifiers were needed and hey, they could double as fire
starters. These cheap Chinese-made magnifying glasses
would get scratched easily and were not good for any
trying to use for long term reading but they were going to
be in demand, he thought, and gathered up 6 of them in
different sizes. Hey, at a buck apiece, he figured it wasn’t a
waste of money at all. He had already bought several
different pairs of cheap reading glasses from a dollar store,
too. Hell, he needed them himself oftentimes and they
could get used eventually even if he didn’t need to trade
them someday.

The clerk looked at him funny when he plopped
down on the counter what was probably all the magnifying
glasses the store had in stock but didn’t make any
comments. Donald carried his bag full of prepper products
back to the truck and started reflecting back on the week
that had been.

He knew he had been pushing himself too hard and
hoped this little trip might do him some good in his outlook
and attitude. Being stuck off by himself was sort of fun at
first. But then it got kind of lonely and what with all the
changes going on both personally and the world had
seemed to cause him to start drinking way too much. Oh,
he got the work done all right, that was also a good way for
him to not touch anything for days as he was just too tired
and dehydrated to even study a beer. His old nemesis,
Jack Daniels had crept back into his life and Donald
wondered why he ever thought about getting back in the
ring with that heavy weight champion of the world. Donald
liked coke and whisky but the whiskey did not like him.
Folks said he changed when he got on that stuff. Donald
had a bit of Indian blood in him and that might be part of it,
but he figured consuming a bottle of it at a time on an
empty stomach might have a lot to do with it, too. He
shook his head to himself in humiliation at the thought that
he had gone off the deep end a while back and went on a
two or three day mind bender drinking from morning and
into the night and had almost screwed up his relationship
with his favorite neighbors Michael and his girlfriend, Amy.
Thankfully, they had overlooked his drunken antics and
feeling sorry for himself and let it pass after promising to
swear off whiskey for good. Donald had had a girlfriend
who had to swear off vodka the same way and if he had
been acting half the fool he thought he had been, could
relate to how crazy some folks could get.

These two neighbors were great folks to have
around and they had sort of just hit it off at the beginning
as Donald started to settle into getting his place fixed up.
Michael was a retired diesel mechanic and Nam Vet who
was sort of a biker and hippie combined. He had helped
Donald on several projects and Donald was always
amazed at this man’s ingenuity. It was Michael who had
showed him the first day they met a really unique way he
was getting water for his garden from the creek in back of
him.

He had built a removable wooden box that could fit
into a lawn tractor trailer and mounted a 30-gallon barrel to
the box. His method was to drive his lawnmower down to
the creek and use a small emergency sump pump
powered by the tractors’ battery to fill the tank. He had a
solar trickle charger for the battery when not in use but
Donald had donated a Sears Marine battery and a small
briefcase size charger to the cause of upgrading the
system and seeing just what else Michael could dream up.
Donald was blessed with several extra preps from doing
manufacturers reviews and would often share some of this
wealth by giving it to Michael to help get him more
prepped. These gestures, Donald thought, also helped him
more than they did Michael in that Michael not only
showed him new techniques or uses for an item, but also
vastly increased his chances of survival by adding different
resources he didn’t have yet like the means to transport
water his friend possessed.

Amy was really cool too and had become friends
with Janice. Both liked gardening and sharing herb lore so
it was a natural thing to see them wander off to the garden,
although Donald suspected it was most likely so they could
talk about the men folk as ladies are wont to do
sometimes. He really shouldn’t always be thinking that
way, but Janice liked to talk and it seemed some of his
personal business always managed to get out and
surprised him at times when mentioned by another person.
The ladies were a blessing in his life though and he sought
their advice about many things.

Donald drove along the highway and considered
what all he had to do when got back and the order he
wanted to do it in. First thing he needed to do on his way
back was stop by the grocery store and get ready for Cat
and Lowbuck to stop by next week. Part of the reason
Donald had been so stressed out was that he had also
been competing against the clock to get ready to be on the
NatGeo Dooms Day Prepper show.

“What had he been thinking to agree to that?
Donald pondered to himself. He knew though, it was
money. He figured being on that show would have made
him a lot of book sales and had doubled his efforts and
expenses trying to put the dog on for them. The only good
thing about the binge he had gone on was he had done
enough self-reflection to realize that he had made a
seriously bad choice in agreeing to begin with and had
politely quit the show. The pressure was just too much for
him in itself. They were constantly asking for more pictures
of his preps or answer a questionnaire. Jeez, he had to go
get Michael and Amy one day to take pictures of his gun

collection because he had no way to do it and the
production assistant said she needed them for meeting the
next day. Donald had to think really hard about sharing
that confidence with the neighbors so soon, but figured if
he was going to show his butt to the world he might as well
ask and got them to do it.

Donald had about 7 rifles and 5 pistols plus
beaucoup ammo and they had looked at him in
astonishment as he brought out enough stuff to support a
small infantry squad. All in all it worked out well, as it
forced Donald to go all in and show his hand as a
confirmed dyed-in-the- wool Prepper. They got to see it all
plus a sizable part of his food stash and since he was now
all in, discuss the nature of willing to share his preps
should the SHTF. Donald and Michael had already had the
conversation about how if anyone was to survive some
sort of societal collapse that you got to have community to
survive. Donald had explained it to Michael quite simply,
he said “Who is going to watch my house if I am all alone
and out hunting or trapping? I would be willing to work out
some sort of mutual aid thing with you since I am prepped
better, but I suggest you start buying some extra food
now.” The two men had looked at each other and agreed
that they would travel this same trail together as simple as
that and no theatrics.