by Ira Tabankin
Lacy looks shocked, “We’d let them do that?”
“How are we going to stop them? Do you think Obama will resort to using nuclear weapons?”
“Never happen. I don’t think anyone will ever use them again.”
“Then what is he going to do stop the Russians and Chinese?”
“Our military is the strongest in the world.”
“Not anymore, plus, most of our equipment is run down from fifteen years of war. Obama keeps reducing the number of troops and retiring weapons systems. The average age of our Air Force fighters is 25 years old. While Russia and China are building and modernizing their military strength, we’re reducing ours. We would suffer a very humiliating loss. Obama might send a token force, which will be crushed, it’s how he’s paying for his transforming America into a more gentle country. Without the strongest and most modern military, no one is going to take us seriously. We’re no longer the superpower we were six years ago. Look at ISIS, Egypt and Jordan are carrying the water in attacking them. Before Obama became President, no one would have believed ISIS could have killed American citizens in cold blood live on the Internet without us teaching them a lesson. Most of the country is tired and war-weary, most of the country just wants to be left alone. Then there’s the issue of the mainstream media, most of whom won’t report a new war, they all but ignored Libya; because they don’t want us in another war. The media loves Obama, they’ll do anything to make his administration look good.”
“I now understand why you want to get the farm with our home.”
“Lacy, why don’t you call a few moving companies, get quotes for them to pack everything, both of us hate packing. Even if it’s an extra couple of thousand, it’ll save us the pain of packing everything.”
“How are we going to move both of our cars?
“Let the movers take mine, we’ll drive yours.”
“Where are you going today?”
“I think we’ll hang around with the kids another day, we’ll start to head back to Virginia after their school lets out. We can break the twelve-hour trip home into two days so we’re not so tired when we get home.”
“Sounds good to me.”
We leave Shelly’s at five o’clock and drive for five hours before calling it a night at the next motel we find. The next morning we leave after breakfast and thanks to the good weather we make it home before dark. We’re tired from two long days of driving. The next morning, a full week after learning we won the lottery, Lacy looks at me with a worried look on her face. I ask her, “Honey, what’s wrong, you look very worried.”
“Jay, I’m not used to not working. I looked at the previous week as a mini-vacation, now I don’t know what to do.”
“Start packing your special items. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“Where are you going?”
“I want to see about some things we might need if the crap hits the fan.” Smiling at Lacy, I imply she should trust me and not ask.
“Can I ask where you’re going?”
“I need to check a few things online before I go.”
Logging onto a local gun trader site, I start looking for locals who are selling firearms and ammo face to face versus going through an FFL. I want to collect a number of guns that are off the record and can’t be traced. The local laws enable face to face sales as long as the selling party checks the ID of the buying partner. I find four people within forty miles who have various AR 15s for sale. I contact each of them agreeing to purchase their rifles. When I return home at 6:00 PM, I have five additional AR 15s adding to the three we already have. I was also able to purchase an additional 25,000 rounds of 5.56 55g FMJ rounds. Lacy informs me tomorrow three moving companies will come by to give us a quote. She sees me carrying the boxes and smiles, saying; “I see where you went, how many are you planning on getting? Knowing you, you’re going to arm us and our neighbors.”
“I want to have at least twelve ARs, six shotguns and a dozen semi-auto side arms, two or three hundred magazines and at least one hundred thousand rounds of ammo. I’m sure I can fill out our armory in a day or two, cash speaks very loudly.”
“Planning on starting our own small army? Who are you planning on invading? I hope it's Italy, I love their shoes and bags. I want you to know, I don’t jump out of perfectly good airplanes. If you’re going to invade Italy, I expect you to fly me to Rome first class.” Lacy broke out laughing.
“When everything falls apart, this may be what stands between us and mobs trying to take what’s ours.”
“I hope you’re getting them at a good price. Jay, I don’t like the picture you’re painting. Frankly it’s starting to scare me.”
“Lacy, I got them at a very good price, cash talks. Honey, I really hope I’m wrong. I’d rather have these and not need them than need them and not have them.”
“I agree. But, I’m allowed to be nervous.”
“Of course you are. Honey, I’m going to do everything possible to protect you and our extended family. Tomorrow, I’m going to call Fred and see if he can find a local company to install solar panels on both houses and a couple of windmills. I want us to be able to survive without relying on the grid. I want us to be able to generate all of the electrical energy we need. I’d also like a few more wells dug and a fire suppression system installed in our homes and Fred’s barn.”
Lacy sips a glass of wine saying, “What’s next? Are you going to build a bunker under our new house?”
“Yes, I’m researching prebuilt shelters which only need a hole dug, they can be installed in a couple of days.”
“Jay, you really are serious about turning the new house into a shelter, aren’t you?”
“Honey, I’m going to have bars and heavy metal screens placed over the windows. I want a heavy duty fence built around us and a barricade to stop anyone from driving their vehicles into the front of our house. I want us to be self-sufficient and able to protect what’s ours.”
“How much do you think this is all going to cost?”
“I guess no more than another $500,000.”
“What?”
“That includes a couple of jeeps and freeze dried food to feed twelve people for two years.”
“Wasn’t the entire idea of the farm so we had food available?”
“I like to have a backup to the backup plan.”
“What else are you planning?”
“Since the house uses propane, I’m going to see about getting multiple tanks and also buried fuel tanks for our cars. I’d also like to have an external garage built for the kid’s cars or any other cars we purchase so they’re not kept outside.”
“How long are you planning for us to be self-sufficient?”
“Years if necessary. If the market crashes, it could be a long time before things get back to normal. I’m not sure we’ll ever get back to the way we are now.”
“Why do you think that?”
“If my theory is correct, I expect Russia is going to move to absorb what’s going to be left of Europe. Our currency is going to crash. The economy is going to have to be restructured in order to get our country back on its feet. If we go to war against Russia or China, we could lose many of our import and export markets. Think about the number of imported products which could have parts and support cut off. Almost all of our consumer electronics come from China or someplace else in Asia. If they close the faucet for parts and new products, no one will be able to get new TVs or computers until new factories are built here. When our existing products break, they’ll be useless without parts. It could be years before new factories are built. Parts will be in short supply or simply not available. I want to make sure we have extra computers, televisions and two-way radios stored away. I also want to build a small Faraday cage to protect our spare computers and portable backup drives. I want to store replacement parts for almost everything we use.”
“What are you going to do if nothing happens?”
“Then you get to laugh a
t me while we live in a 7,000 square foot house. One large enough we can play hide and seek in. We’ll also have a basement full of parts we can sell on eBay for 15% of what we paid for them. Even if we lose another $500 to $750,000, we’ll still have over $22 million left to live on. If everything improves and I’m totally wrong; say we end up throwing everything away, we’ll still have more than enough to live on. We’ll have enough that the kids and grandchildren will be set for life too. Frankly, I’d rather have something we need and not need it than need it and not have it.”
“OK, I’m not used to having money.”
“I know it feels strange to be spending as we are. Lacy, we’re going to be OK. I think the timing of our win couldn’t have been any better.” The ringing phone interrupts us. I check the caller ID, smiling, I answer, “Hello Fred, what’s new?”
“Jay, Cheri and I talked about what you offered us, how much will we have to pay you back a month?”
“Fred, nothing in the winter, since you’re not growing anything, the spring, summer, and fall will be a sliding scale based on your crop yield and the market price.”
“You know, you’re one crazy SOB.”
“Yeah, I am, what do you think?”
“I like it, it’s the best deal and the most farmer friendly deal I’ve ever seen, we called the bank, we offered them $700,000, they turned us down.”
“With your permission I’ll call. I have a different tack I’d like to try with them.”
“Go ahead. Have fun.”
“Fred, I’d like you to check with local companies who can install solar panels on both of our homes and build a couple of windmills. I’d also like a few additional wells dug and security bars installed over our windows.”
“Expecting a storm?”
“You might say, I’m expecting an economic storm from the European collapse.”
“My sons say the same thing.”
“We’re going to get along perfectly.”
“What else should I be doing?”
“I want to have an external four car garage built and, by the way, how’s your barn?”
“I know people who can build the garage.” Laughing Fred continues, “My barn is falling apart, I think it's forty years old.”
“Get a quote to rebuild it, Fred, get quotes for a solid barn, based on a steel infrastructure and the walls made of preformed concrete or steel reinforced concrete. I’d also like to get quotes for fire suppression systems for our homes, your new barn, and the garage.”
“You are expecting trouble.”
“I just want to make sure we can’t be burned out.”
“Jay, I’ll get right on it and call you tomorrow night.”
“Night Fred, give our best to your family.”
Lacy asks, “How did he take it?”
“I think he’s smiling, sounds like his sons’ are thinking along similar lines.”
While we’re getting ready for bed, 1,300 miles away in Sammi’s house, Ricky was saying, “Did I ever tell you, your dad’s crazy. He always thinks the world’s going to end. His name should be changed to Chicken Little. All I hear from him is prepare for this or that. A year ago he was on a tear that the New Madrid fault line was going to cause a massive earthquake. It hasn’t caused an earthquake has it? Then he was going on about a solar flare or EMP or something like that, I couldn’t understand what he was going on about. I don’t think there’s anyway some sort of flare on the sun can hurt our power. He’s always going on about some disaster or another. Can’t he ever live in the here and now and be happy? Christ, he just won $28 million, all he shared with us was $100,000. He’s buying a huge house he wants us to move in with him? Why would I give up my job to move to Nashville, we don’t even like Country music. Honey, I hate to suggest this, but I think your father needs professional help.”
“Honey, he’s OK, he’s always liked to stock up on things. He’s always been worried about different disasters. He’s always liked to be prepared. When we were young, after the divorce, he used to visit us every other week. He would take us food shopping and stock us up with food, even then, he stocked us up on a couple of months worth of food. He was always worried we’d be hungry. He didn’t have to give us anything, but he gave us $100,000 plus any new car we wanted and don’t forget he’s paying for Linda’s college education.”
“I think he should have given us more. You’re his oldest and we didn’t get enough to buy a new house. I bet he’s expanding the number of guns in his house too. I don’t want our daughter staying in his house since he has guns in his house.”
“I’ll tell him we’re thinking about it, it’ll buy us time.”
“You can tell him anything you want, I’m not moving and giving up everything we have here. He really needs some professional help. If I talked to Lacy do you think she will be able to guide him towards professional help?”
“Don’t approach her about my dad. She will eat you up and spit you out. They’ve been together for 22 years, you didn’t know him before Lacy. He’s much calmer now. They love each other. If you go to Lacy, she’ll tell my dad, you’ll be driving a large divide between us. I love my father. He may be a little different, but he means well. He’s trying to protect us. He wants to protect us if something bad happens and he wants us to know we have a safe place to go.”
“He’s so full of it, nothing’s going to happen. President Obama has reduced our military, the rest of the world no longer sees us as the threat Bush made us into. Our relations with the rest of the world are much better now. If I can’t talk to Lacy than I’m thinking of reporting your dad as an unbalanced person who owns guns.”
“Ricky, please don’t do that. It’ll backfire. You don’t want to piss my dad off.”
“OK, but if he does anything to introduce our daughter to guns, I’m going to report him.”
“You know how much he loves Linda, she’s his princess, he would never do anything to put her in harm.”
“He’s too radical for my tastes.”
“Ricky, he thinks the same about you. One day the two of you should sit down and try to clear the air.”
“Not going to happen. He’s everything I’m against. He thinks Obama is the worst President we’ve every had, I think he’s the best. We’re on opposite sides of every issue.
“I’m asking you, just please don’t rock the boat between my dad and me.”
“Okay, for now. As long as he doesn’t place our daughter in a dangerous situation.”
“Okay, Ricky, please, just go slow and don’t piss my dad off.”
Chapter 5
Three weeks to the day after winning the lottery everything we own in Virginia is on an Atlas Van Lines moving truck on the way to Nashville. Fred has been great in helping us move in. He lined up companies to install the fire suppression system, security bars, solar panels and the windmills. Three new wells have already been dug and plumbed. The windmills are going to be installed the week of March 23. I can’t forget Fred laughing when I told him we got the bank to accept $650,000 to pay off the mortgage on his farm. Lacy and I now owned Fred’s farm, he said he now had the best lender in the country. Fred told us his, and now our neighbors might be interested in doing a similar arrangement with us. I told him we’d to look into it sometime after we moved into our new home. I thought it might make sense to increase the size of the farm. The next day the EU officially died when the United Kingdom announced on Valentine’s Day they were leaving the Union. The Euro will cease to be a traded currency on March 2. Since the UK’s announcement, the dollar has increased in value by 30%. Gold is currently trading at $2,895 an ounce and with the average cost of our gold at $1,670, means we’ve made $1,225 per ounce! I requested the agents to convert our holdings into gold coins and send them to us. We agreed to purchase an additional $100,000 of gold coins and $200,000 of US Silver Eagles. The sales agent was so happy, he gave us a discount on the new purchase. Due to the quantity and high value of our purchases the agent kept trying to get us to
leave our coins on deposit with them. We declined, demanding all of our coins be delivered to our new address. The dealer agreed and suggested that they send our coins in an armored truck. Lacy and I decided to purchase a couple of safes, ones we’ll have bolted and then cemented to a secret sub- basement we had dug. It takes six people to manhandle the safes into the sub-basement.