The reason my daughter and I have Israeli passports is to have a safe haven after we saw the writing on the wall during Trump’s first administration. Unfortunately, that blew up in our faces. But, I am grateful to have A place to go to, even if it is a shit show right now. At least gay people have rights there. At least women have rights. It might be in the middle of a war, and committing genocide, but it may be the safer option for us even so.
So, yeah, this is where we are at in my family … USA or Israel? Which is the less shitty option?
For international use, you often need apostilles on paperwork like birth certificates and marriage certificates. If you are considering moving somewhere else, start now to get these for all your documents. It is a time consuming process.
You can pay to expedite these, but that is always an extra fee.
I think that the small butane burners can be used without ventilation. It’s the same as a chaffing dish, really. Propane will put out more BTU’s. And the canisters are bigger.
Though there are burners that are dual fuel butane/propane; so more options. And some that can hook up to a large grill propane tank with waay more fuel capacity. Though that tank shouldn’t be brought indoors.
This is my referral link for KeepGo. I’ve been using them for over a year. I’ve been super happy with them. Great service. Their chat is manned by actual people. You get a little kit with your SIM card that is credit card sized and has the pokey thing for getting the SIM card in and out, plus all the SIM sizes.
If you use this, I get a 3 GB coupon by email, so that’s great, too.
Fuck Amazon. They refuse to take my forms of payment (branded gift cards) without a backup, which I can’t afford right now. And they don’t take Paypal. (which I wish I could boycott, but like FB marketplace it suits my needs now damnit!) Even Meijer requires a backup method of payment for deliveries, even if all I order is covered by my EBT food card.
And fuck lick-spittle fucking Jeff Bezos. I am not gonna add to his fortune any more.
I live beneath the poverty line. Folks like me aren’t supposed to have access to these things anyhow, remember? Or if we are, we get charged fees up the wazoo, like everyone else.
But, I also get thrilled whenever I get paper currency in the lower denominations but above $1. Eighty-four dollars to me (the discounted annual prime) could pay 6 months of internet and maybe even my water bill for one month.
I know they aren’t great politically either, but I have been very happy with my Walmart+ service. I couldn’t have survived out here without them. They deliver groceries to my home for about the price of gas; I get Paramount+ free, and their online market is nearly as comprehensive as Amazon’s.
Oh I know, but I don’t always have access to other places.
I do must have to stop seeing red when I see the word “Amazon” that doesn’t relate to Wonder Woman, lolol.
One additional wrinkle here is that every apostilled document I’ve ever had to submit was explicitly warned up front as “will not be returned”. So if you do expect to have to provide apostilled documentation you may want to treat it as a consumable and take that into account.
As a self-identified salt addict, they make several versions of soups and I never get the low sodium kind. Over the years, they have added more and more water, and less and less solids, in their soups. I mean, even for soup, it’s thin soup. If I know I am going to be kitchen-incapacitated and will not be able to cook for myself, I can stock up on my interpretation of MREs, including Progresso soup, which is just ok.
Dehyrdated soups take up less space and if one has potable water available, they may be a decent option. When I was backpacking and camping on the cheap, I skipped fancy freeze-dried camp food and just bought dehydrated foods from a grocery store.
Our gas grill on the back deck has a side burner that is a large part of our backup kitchen plan, plus the propane camping stove that I think will be OK since our house is old and pretty leaky. Not an airtight joint to be found in the kitchen area. We are also on well and septic, so pretty self-sufficient, with an active spring as a backup at need. Next step for us is to install solar to make sure we can run the well pump without grid power.
