Complex Societies

 

When I entered college in the early to Mid 80's I don't know what the rest of the world was like in academia but when I declared my major as History at my little University it came with a popularity upgrade. Not so much with anyone except  history instructors as it turned out, there were not many of us History students around back then and every history instructor had a celebration as it ends up they all needed someone to float a class somewhere for them so they could keep their position. I think I was the only lower classman who started classes with an assigned directed studies professor on staff. To this day I still cannot say which instructor I took my first two years worth of History general ed courses from or what time they met. I will say my greatest achievement was I helped more nursing students get a passing grade on  some Civ 1 tests than anyone and used every once of Toxic 1980's Masculinity I had stored up to to survive the effort.

Back in those days there was a high demand for Toxic Masculinity especially with Nursing Students for some reason go figure....... No TicTok I suspect or need to inflate themselves.

Just like I don't make any apologies for my activities in the 80's you won't hear me claiming I am a super stud or something like that in my 60's. I admit I lost every fight with equipment and gear I ever had after the 80's I am honestly amazed I survived and I know I am not the only one amazed at that. Which left me in a bad spot this Summer when the wind was knocking my tees down everywhere. My chainsaws worked but the rest of me was a bit rusty. So I decided to revisit solar powered, battery operated choices. I remember when battery operated chainsaws were all the rage back in the early 2000's. I used one to clear an entire 3/4 mile fence line. It was more than powerful enough and light enough I did not cut through wire by mistake I spent some serious money buying them back then though so I thought I would use those. I found out that age was worse on them than it was on me. None of my old saws worked anymore but my batteries all showed as good so I spent four days trying to replace my old Black and Decker saws with new ones.

Guess what no stores carry them anymore. Now every place I used to buy them has different in store proprietary stuff and require new batteries to boot. I finally ordered a new Black and Decker saw from the standard place everyone orders from now a days only to be charged for two. I waited and never got charged for them even though they got shipped and I could track em. I canceled one of them and then figured out what had happened. They charged my son for both of them.  

I won't even go in to the days long ordeal it took to get the money to my son. Suffice it to say I finally just took the cash out of my account and sent him a Cashier check direct as everything else was out of the question for some stupid reason right now and I remember being in my early 20's and finding out all of a sudden my bank account was half a grand lower than it should be. Not going to put my son through that while he is stranded half a continent away on a Democrat coast but I still chuckle about it some :)

Now you know why I have "Collapse of Complex Societies" on my mind. The whole affair reminded me of stories Tainter used to refer to about the fall Of Rome and the complete disconnect they suffered. Nothing works as it should or as it once did  and it is getting worse. I would rather be banished to my small office at work and sentenced to hours of doing 1980's style Government paperwork than 5 minutes on a new computer these days.

Then at work I got literally truck loads of new vehicles in with no paperwork or place to put them. Even got an Explorer direct from the factory that the delivery driver complained loudly about claiming we had to by law to provide him with a safe area to unload in. I said he was welcome to the entire lot and he dumped it in the street. Before that he threatened to take the Explorer back and not deliver it after which I told him please I don't want it anyway.... That just made him even more mad. 

I had ramdom co-workers stopping by my pffice all day aking why all these vehicles keep showing up when we are not moving any. "hell if I know was all I can say". Either someone is sure the good times are here to stay Or someone is betting on bale out redo starting soon"."Or both" was all I could answer...

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Ps. I finally put the saw together and it worked great. I admit I was a little afraid....