The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

DigForVictory

thriftwizard wrote: »

I draw the line at making my own pasta...

It is a lot of fun. Just when I think of the kilos devoured, so much simpler to reach for a packet.

My lot do have baptism certificates, but I honestly hate to imagine where. As likewise church demolished & now flats - I'm sure the diocese will know but I've yet to meet one of our clergy with a shining gift for admin. Amazing warmhearted supportive tolerant kindness, yes. Admin - our chap was a shining example of why some clergy Should marry!
(She taught me the cold callers' repellent: "whatcha wearin'?" - I nearly dropped my teacup but ye gods it worked!)

C_J

DigForVictory wrote: »

That, plus his scout blanket, are almost the only evidence he existed.

Oh Dig, it makes me sad that you think that way. I am certain your boy is everywhere : school reports, job applications, medical and dental history, National Insurance and tax records, photos all over his friends’ cameras/phones/Facebook pages, the irrevocable difference just knowing him has made to their lives, and tiny fragments of his DNA sparkling on every single thing he ever touched.

DigForVictory

I am learning better. It’s a very hard lesson to figure, but the amount of folk with photos & stories & hugs? I’m learning!

unrecordings

For what it's worth there are always memories

DigForVictory

Un, for some reason I just don’t trust my memory as much as files I can pull up of photos, a blanket I can clutch, the electronic traces of a life arcing through.
Some days being a historian makes me a right gloomy cuss about primary sources!

unrecordings

DigForVictory wrote: »

Un, for some reason I just don’t trust my memory as much as files I can pull up of photos, a blanket I can clutch, the electronic traces of a life arcing through.
Some days being a historian makes me a right gloomy cuss about primary sources!

Then you know the value of subjective sources in addition to the objective. Legacy can be more compelling than a mere photo IMHO (Coming from someone who has hated having his photo taken from day one)

DigForVictory

Not 'alf! Think how much we "know" of Vikings from deeply off-chuffed monks?!

The reassurance of literacy is that I can try to leave some of the stories, of the lad & of the family (and it is generally acknowledged that my lot are a bit odd - in a nice way). Who else has deactivated sub machine guns in their sitting room? A packsaddle on the windowsill going upstairs? A cheerful familiarity with nearly every castle along the South Welsh coast & an ease of natter with the reenactor groups who briefly remind us of what life might have been like. (Wonderful folks - lashings of good history slipped into the young minds without a Teacher Voice heard once.)

I'm crooning over photos as he, like you, was not a fan & thus the images have a scarcity value.

DigForVictory

Just to really elevate the tone, spirits etc - if you have neither a Will nor a notelet for your presumed survivors indicating a preference as to how you wish to be disposed of, it is wholly possible you deserve to be cast out into some placeless stateless restless limbo in eternity.

As my lad left nothing on paper, his distraught father’s memory is possibly skewed by hope & I have spent an educational hour with a funeral director that will probably be Very Expensive.

Seriously, even a postcard of ”I do not want a grave/tombstone/religious service/humanist service/wake or Any other acknowledgement of my death other than to p!ss off my creditors” would make life significantly simpler.

Delete as applicable & add in what you Do want, eh? Date it, so the most up to date card is known.

Speaking as one wrestling with an unexpected death so coroner, no will so intestate & very little certainty I am doing the right thing. Which adds salt to the grief.

And I do hope we’ve all stocked up on pasta in anticipation of price rises.

Oh yes, & if you are male & do not give blood, please review that? There’s only so much us women can do (the hormones, the terrible terrible hormones), so please go spare them an armful?

GreyQueen

The vampires refuse to take my blood due to the medication I am on. A blanket refusal. The hospital specialists say that there is no earthly reason not to allow folks like me to be donors, but the rest of the NHS won't be told. Shame, as I was a donor years ago and my very boring blood type was a popular addition to the juice bar.


I keep my school certificates and vocational qualifications in a file and my degree certificate still in its presentation tube in the sock drawer.

unrecordings

I used to give blood a long long time ago before I took a shining to the booze (a fact that in itself has probably saved the NHS a few thousand by some quirk of fate). Like GQ, given the meds I'm on, it's very much a case of 'don't call us..' at the moment. As a general thing, Mrs Un & myself did our wills together so the boolean logic of the whole thing tied together perfectly whatever the future circumstances (ie we both die, cat gets everything etc). For those with a specific condition, (eg cancer, altzheimers) there's likely to be a local solicitor who operates a discount scheme in conjunction with the relevant charities