Apparently there are lines at our corner gas station(s) and many stations around here are out. When I heard about the pipeline thing early in the week I told spouse to top off the tank just in case, so we should be fine. Just like I had us shop for some extra essentials in Feb before things shut down in March. Not tons, just enough for a 2-4 week cushion. We never had to scuffle for anything. The worst we had to endure was beans with no cornbread.

I've been dropping my guard since inauguration. I don't need 5 doz eggs in the fridge anymore, I'm okay with the normal 2. It's possible that now is the time to actually worry about shortages and I'm going to be caught unawares because I assume we're past that bit. It is surprising how slow disasters move. In the movies the effects are immediate and obvious, then the heroes save the day and everything goes back to normal. In real life, it takes time for the dominoes to fall and the larger picture to be revealed. The pipeline shut down days ago but it took time for fuel supplies to run out and the news to spread. Now we have people pumping gas into rubbermaid containers. Okay. I really thought 2020 brought my estimation of the general public to the lowest possible low, and yet, here we are.

Last night I made dinner with some of the canned goods we stocked last year, just to use them up. We'd made a special trip to the 24 hour walmart at midnight and wandered the empty aisles picking up what we thought we might need. This is how I found out spouse believes canned green beans are a survival necessity. Now we still have 3-4 cans of green beans I have no idea what to do with, because IMO they are disgusting. We would have to be really hungry for me to eat canned green beans. "The whole point of stocking up early is so we don't have to eat gross things," I told him, gesturing at all the different, better options on the shelves. "But green beans," was his ironclad logic. So we have green beans that will probably get tossed/donated when we move.

Yesterday they scheduled a fit test for the new job. Apparently Uncle Sam wants to make sure he hasn't sat around stuffing himself with twinkies. He passes and it's green lights for a training slot. He's been working steadily on his fitness so it shouldn't be a problem. And, thank god, we successfully avoided covid. So relieved! I guess I am so used to plans getting ruined that I figured for sure we would have the bad luck to get covid and have it scar spouse's lungs and ruin his last chance at this job he's had his heart set on for a decade. He's had so many things in his life go wrong he deserves something to go right. And we're almost there. Almost there! So close!

We actually went to a local sit down restaurant for dinner the other night. Spouse brought up whether we really wanted to move back to Alaska. There's pros and cons. Pro: love Alaska, great people to be around in unstable times (at least they'd put their gas in jerry cans!!), we have friends waiting for us, feels like home. Con: not looking forward to travel and shipping being expensive/difficult again, spouse's parents are bible thumping red hats and we'll be guilt tripped into uncomfortable visits and forced to tiptoe around their raging mental illness (absolutely dreading the next visit), moving to/from Alaska is brutal and I can't do that move without a solid 2-3 years of recovery time. Even if the govt is paying for our move this time and we'll get movers and such, it is just very very stressful. The cats went through pure kitty hell because flying is better than being trapped in a cage for a week long roadtrip in subzero winter temps. Last time I had to sedate the cats, which elevates the risk of suffocation if you give them too much. Other Cat has a sinus problem from a birth defect, but she gets so terrified she needs the sedative. It was very hard on them, and me, too, wondering if I was making a mistake and sending them to die. It cost close to $2k to get them from Alaska all the way to the Land of Crab, including airline approved crates and mandatory pre-flight vet visits. I get why, when I donated some of their extra stuff to a cat shelter, the lady said most people don't take their cats with them when they leave Alaska. But they are our kitties, you know? We would never leave them behind. Cat is on spouse's lap right now, purring so loud I can hear him across the room. Good investment. Return on cuddles is most impressive.

Then there's wondering what things are going to be ruined due to the extreme vibration and load shifting. Throwing away anything that can't survive being deep frozen or might have a problem crossing international borders. Last time I had to make a lot of decisions about what was worth the moving space/weight, and what we'd toss and replace. It's not just the mileage that makes it a hard move.

I am fine with adventuring in the L48 for another 2-4 years and then moving back, because when we go back I will be inclined to settle in for the long haul. I don't see us buying a house in the L48. So when Uncle Sam tells us where we're heading, I'll be okay with whatever. Spouse says he feels like one of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. Have we had our grand adventure? Is it time to go back to the Shire? Maybe we're not ready to go back just yet.

I have to make a list where I rank the desirability of locations Uncle Sam could send us to. They are all major urban centers across the US, but some are more dense and high COL than others. Most people get a pick in their top 3, but one of spouse's former coworkers ended up with his #15 pick. Really depends on where they need people. The big question is: does Alaska get spot #1, or not?

I kinda like playing moving roulette. Aside from military, who else gets the opportunity to roll percentile on a location table? (Watch us get sent to Florida or Texas. Every post will be "XXX days until we can run screaming back to Alaska". We mock the Land of Crab but it's not so bad here. We're not counting the days until our escape.)