Wild flowers on my back fence.
On Thursday there was a large cell phone outage across the US. Here’s a FOX News article: Cellphone outage hits AT&T customers nationwide; Verizon and T-Mobile users also affected. So far there’s been a lot of speculation about what caused this outage and it’s under investigation, but thus far no definitive answer.
Last night I watched a prepper video, by Mike Glover, discussing this outage and he discussed things he’s thinking about now and ways to be better prepared. He included statistics on how few Americans still have landline phones and mentioned that’s something he’s considering. Always being reluctant to get rid of things I’m used to, I still have my landline phone. I do have a cell phone too. He mentioned various radios and other things to consider and I found this video informative, even though I’m completely clueless on technology stuff. I skipped by some videos about “The Collapse Is Upon Us” “type headlines. This man discussed the situation calmly.
I had a medical appointment Thursday morning in a city an hour away and I had never been to this location before. I had asked the receptionist where this office was located when I scheduled the appointment and she had given me general directions and told me to watch for the CVS store on the left-hand side of the street and their office was directly across from that on the right-hand side. Having landmarks to watch for has always been very helpful information for me with directions. When I saw the news about the cell phone outage on my PC, I googled a map with directions from my home to the location of my appointment and printed it out. I figured that if the GPS in my car stopped working, having this printed out map would be useful. My GPS worked, but it felt good to have a back-up map.
Yesterday, I was thinking more about this outage and GPS. I googled road maps for my state and ordered two for free print versions from my state’s Department of Transportation. They had downloadable maps available too. I do have a Rand McNally Road Atlas book of the USA, but I thought a new GA road map would be good to have.
The more I’ve tried to learn about emergency preparedness, the more I’ve realized there is to learn and the information overload can feel overwhelming, especially if you consume online preparedness content, where lists upon lists of items you need and more and more critical skills get discussed. I’ve realized that I’m only one person and that I can’t become an expert on everything, nor can I afford to buy everything mentioned in prepper lists or videos. I’ve been narrowing my focus to one or two areas at a time. By steadily taking steps toward learning more and working on my own preparedness, I can see definite progress, especially with my attitude when something out of the ordinary happens. Some people are naturally calm, cool and collected, but even though I usually can maintain an outward appearance of calm, inside my head my default reaction is momentary panic and feeling unsure of what to do.
No matter what point you’re at in life, your life can take unplanned turns and you can find yourself facing challenges you didn’t expect. I’ve been learning to do some of the things my late husband handled, but I’m also learning to ask for advice and help sometimes.
This cell phone outage didn’t affect my cell service and I haven’t spent time pondering what caused it. In the video I watched, there were arguments made for it being due to a solar flare, an argument for malignant actions and perhaps even some sort of equipment failure, but truly I’m totally clueless on technology and I could listen to persuasive arguments for all three of those options and think, yes, that’s it. I don’t understand enough about cell phone technology or solar flares to make an informed decision on what actually happened, but printing out the Google map directions to my medical appointment location seemed like a good thing to have in my car, in case my GPS stopped working and I thought having a new state road map might be a good thing too. I’m not going to rush out and buy a ham radio set-up or other expensive communications equipment, that I know nothing about or even how to use.
Violas sprouted in a crack in the concrete slabs of my patio.
I’m working on my container garden set-up and trying to make improvements with that and I’m spending some money on some hobbies too. I learn so much on YouTube and I’ve been watching an older man who does videos on drawing and an older lady who does videos on painting, so I’m working on that. Plus I’ve always wanted to learn some calligraphy, so I’m reading up, buying a few supplies and I’ve begun practicing on improving my handwriting too.
I stuck in a few flower photos, because flowers make every day brighter.
A viola grew on the side of a grow bag on my patio.
libertybelle diaries 