Yes,
a giant feathered snake will swallow the sun.

More recent and
accurate translations of the Mayan calender indicate that the end
will actually come on June 21st, 2010 at 9:00 am.

I am so sleeping
in next Monday.

I
keep hearing about the end of the world. I've heard it all my life.
My aunt is Mormon, and she has been preparing for some form af
Armaggedon or disaster for as long as I can remember. Nuiclear
bomb, Y2K. You should see her storage areas. areaS. I bet there's
no one that can do as many things with dried lentils as her. But
they keep changing the dates.

You know? I have
never feared or dreaded the end of the world, or death. I have
feared having a stroke and living that half-in, half-out kind of
life I watched my Nana live. I dread the thought of radiation and
the sickness that people have to endure before they die, or the
slow death of living in an ohterwise contaminated world.. I would
not like a Bataan death march. But death? Not afraid. It's over,
fini.

What do you reckon
people are afraid of with the literal end of the world? afterlife?
judgement?

So, I'm wondering
if the end of the world prediction is like a big bang end of the
world, or just the end of the world as we know it? If it's the end
of the world as we know it, what's the fear? The end of a comfort
zone? That we can't survive any other way than the one we know
right now?

Yeah, that's a
little scarier. I don't think I would be ready for a world without
technology. I sure wouldn't have a job. I've tried to learn some
basics - the stuff my Gramma did as a young bride. Like I said, I
been a learnin to make soap!! I been hangin my clothes to dry. I
made my own sausage from a wild hog the WranglerButt shot and
killed. I know how to make bread from scratch, and bake it in an
earthen oven, a hole dug in the side of a hill. I can fry
anythang!!! I need to learn to make my own pasta and grind my own
corn. Tortillas. Cornbread. Staples of the south and southwest. But
!!! What if the world as we know it comes to an end and there is no
internet? No tv?

That scares the
bejaysus outta me. For entertainment, I will have to start reading
books and having real conversations again. yikes. Will we all sit
around and just reminisce about the good old days? The best tv
shows we ever ever saw? Quelle horreur.

So,
it's the end of the world as we know it. Civilisation? What does
that mean to you?

I
think what really opened my eyes to a post apocalyptic world was
reading The Stand by King when I was 19. The apocalypse in this
case being a lethal flu that few were immune to. I had nightmares
about the isolation and feelings of hopelessness he
described.

I have made my own
sausage - woohoo-but I bought the seasonings at the Supercenter. I
ordered one of them online. I made one with the Cuisinart, and one
with an antique meat grinder, to see if they tasted different.
(Everyone swore the hand grinded one was better). I did all this in
my heated, electrically lit kitchen, with the television on. I
didn't want to miss Grey's Anatomy. We ate it outside one night
with the stereo plugged in, and the lights on over the arbor. I
made butter one day, but I didn't milk the cow or skim the cream. I
do know how, but the store was right there!!!

In The Stand,
after everyone with the superflu died, there were stores, but they
were locked until someone broke a window and climbed in. The meat,
milk and cheese was spoiled, of course, because there was no
electricity. They had to be careful of what they picked to eat, or
they could die. They had to figure out how to vent into the gas
pumps, so they could travel by car or cycles. Luckily, they could
get lighters (to start fires) from the stores. Clothes were no
problem - there for the taking. When they went to different town,
they picked a house they liked, removed the dead bodies, and moved
in. He touched on how addicts and alcoholics were affected by the
world as they knew it stopping. Made you wonder what would happen
to people when there were no longer any drugs manufactured.
(insulin, metformin for diabetics, xanax for anxiety.....) Free
alcohol sitting in stores, no heroin coming across the border. He
had one character hooked on prescription pain killers, trying to
walk out of NYC, because the streets were jammed with cars with
drivers dead at the wheel. She intentionally overdosed.

That book really
made me think. What would I do? The economy freaks me out. There
are people here that are getting their trailers repossessed,
and living in their steel buildings - workshops. The people across
the road have never had power. They have a back up generator, but
they rarely use it. I know where my candles and lighters are, but I
don't have a back-up generator. There's a creek that runs through
WranglerButt's property, so, without electricity, that's a way to
keep things cool for a day or so, in the six months of summer we
have here. You would have to have watertight containers. I spose it
could do for bathing, should running water ever become an issue.
There are fish in it, and in the lake a couple miles from his
house. There's plenty of game that runs through it. I should get a
copy of a recipe for hasenpfeffer and squirrel stew before there is
no internet. Learn how to tan hides, so I could barter leather -
snakeskin belts.....

The thrust of The
Stand was that without all the external clutter of the world as we
know it - the clutter of noise, traffic in the air, on the streets,
radio waves, hum and physical effects of electricity, the survivors
became more psychic. Their minds were less cluttered, and they were
able to telepathically communicate over many miles. Their
collective consciousness was heightened. I wonder if it's really
like that.

Oh yeah and
another thrust was that good (energy) always wins.

But even some of
the good people didn't make it. The strong survive and the weak are
winnowed out.

Yes,
we are part of a whole. And now, I'm thinking of that song -
PEOPle.... needing PEOPLE.

Hahaha, that's
more irritating and harder to get out of your head than your
song.

Toodles!!

I say
yeah, it's definitely coming. I won't be one of the ones who make
it either. I'm not interested in making it though. I think it will
be horrible. I'd rather rapidly embark on the true new frontier
myself.

andii