9 May 2009

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National news networks still out. Internet still sparse. Cell network still dead.

Ventured out today to make sure I could at least still access my money and that food was available for purchase without the need to be armed.

Both endeavors were only half-successes, and who knows if it'll get better or worse from here.

So first off, you might be saying, wait a sec. Untold amounts of destruction have just occurred. Who knows how many hundreds, thousands, or some multiple thereof are dead. The world has flipped itself 540 degrees, and you're rambling on about your day out?

To which I say: we deal with things as best we can. If I keep some semblance of normalcy, maybe I'll feel normal. As normal as I can. I don't want to think too much right now. I can't afford to. I kinda want to survive, and though it sounds a little melodramatic, I need to do these things TO survive.

Though on second thought, given the situation maybe that's not so melodramatic. Hm.

Also, come to think of it, is there anybody still reading this, or is this one of the sites others might be unable to access? I can only assume it's still up if I can still access it.

But what surprised me about today was how...normal...everything was. No anarchy. Very little chaos. Lots of people and long lines, sure, but all relatively well-behaved.

At first, I debated using my car. Gas is always the first limited resource to disappear in inconvenient times. Plus, the grocery store was within walking distance, though it was a bit of a walk. Still, I wanted to hit the bank first, as that was what I felt to be the longest wait and biggest risk. Putting that off might mean never touching what savings I have left again. So I drove.

Parking lot was jam-packed. Thought about using the drive-through, but I wanted to actually interact face-to-face with a teller just in case something strange happened. I parked across the street and jogged over. Signs were plastered everywhere urging people not to panic, saying that while it was natural and even a good idea to pull out some cash in an emergency, it would further the chaos if everybody withdrew their entire savings. Moderation was strongly suggested.

I wondered if, with national information networks down, there would be some issue with accessing accounts. And judging from some of the conversations I overheard, there were a few people having issues. Hard to tell who was more frazzled, the people trying to get at their hard-earned cash or the people busy earning their paychecks. Still, the vast majority of people seemed to be receiving adequate service, and the line moved along fast enough.

When I got to the teller, I was told up-front that they were asking all members to restrict themselves to withdrawing no more than 75% of their savings. Far as I know they had no legal way of enforcing this request, but it sounded reasonable to me. In fact, the reasonable calm and efficiency had relaxed me a bit, so I ended up only pulling out about half. All in all, from parking to re-entering the car, only about 3 hours had elapsed.

It was almost too much to hope for equal luck at the grocery store, but again I was pleasantly surprised. It was best-case scenario in my mind. Instead of driving to the store, I decided to just go back home, park there, and do the walk. Was just as well. Again there was no parking to be found.

There had been a hard run on food, especially the non-perishables, but there was still enough left to ensure I could feed myself for a few more days. Price-gouging was nowhere near as bad as I would have thought...rumor was that the government had sent out letters warning against gouging at the request of President Lee. Made me wonder how much of the ease of the day was a result of forethought and advice from DC. Sure, the requests would have to be sent via US mail, but there had definitely been enough time.

I checked out, noting that all the store was accepting was cash, and made my way back home. Made a point of checking gas prices at the station along the way...had jumped a dollar a gallon overnight, and judging from the lack of business was sold out. A note was posted on the pumps, a notice that gas would be arriving by the end of the week, and should be back to normal within two.

Should that be the case, maybe things will be back to normal far sooner than I thought. Hell, maybe I'll get some disc golf in tomorrow.

I'll save jobhunting for a bit...not likely to find many people worried about hiring just now.

Need to find a way to do some people-hunting.

Wait...maybe that's a bad choice of words.

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