It was the Fourth of July weekend (as you now probably know), and the Problem was starting. The Net was starting to implode, choking on its data traffic, routers caught up in ever-escalating delay packets. And nobody could see the cause as being in the routers. I remember one report, sometime in 2000, quoting one major system administrator saying that "Routers? Heck, I don't even know what closet they are in. We never have problems with routers."
America was on the road for the weekend, and things weren't working. Limited gas supplies, widely scattered power outages (the hot weekend weather didn't help, either), phone service spotty, grocery stores not getting stock. CNN was reporting some widely scattered food riots. All sorts of problems.
I had gotten to the cabin, and it was as I had left it. No disturbances, the alarm system showed no activity. The only tracks I saw around the place were the four-legged or feathered kind.
I parked the car next to the front door, disabled the alarm system, unlocked the door, and brought in the stuff from the car. The inside of the house was a bit musty, so I opened up a few windows and turned on a couple of fans. Electrical power at the cabin was still on, although I knew that I couldn't count on it for long.
After emptying the car, I opened up the garage door, and pulled in the car. I didn't need anything from the garage right then, but a quick look around showed that all was in order. I walked out of the garage, and closed and locked the garage door.
I went back into the house, and set the alarm system for passive monitoring. That enabled the motion sensors around the property. Those sensors were special low-voltage ones, some of them solar powered. Some were set into the trees around the property, with the solar panels higher up in the tree. For those, I had topped off the tree and mounted the solar panels at the top. They were pretty efficient collectors, and they were also not shiny. They gathered solar energy, and didn't reflect back the sun.
All the wiring for the sensors was buried in the soft soil about six inches deep. When the wiring got closer to the cabin, they fed into plastic PVC conduit into the basement. In there, the wiring went into the control panel electronics, which were powered by AC, and backed up with batteries.
I think I mentioned that earlier. I had some solar collectors built into the roof panels, which maintained a trickle charge into the battery system in the basement power room. (It was separate from the food storage area, and vented to the outside for the stray battery fumes.) I had modified the alarm system to function on a twelve-volt system, so the whole thing didn't draw very much power.
Anyhow, the passive motion detection system was turned on, and the status panel above the fireplace showed all green LEDs. They weren't very bright, but you could see them from the kitchen and living room. I had another status panel in each bedroom.
I put away the perishables into the refrigerator. I got out a plastic pitcher, put some ice in the bottom, and ran some water in the sink until it got cold. Water from a well is always cold, although it might take a minute to get some fresh cold water through the pipes. I put some cold water in the pitcher, along with the ice. Then I measured some cherry Kool-Aid (pre-sweetened) into the pitcher, added the rest of the cold well water from the tap, and put the lid on. A few shakes, wait half a minute, then a few more shakes to get it all mixed up. (There, now you have the recipe for perfect Kool-Aid. Pass it on. If you have any Kool-Aid now.) I grabbed a big glass out of the cupboard, rinsed it out, put some more ice in it, and then poured in the Kool-Aid. I put the pitcher back into the fridge, and took the glass into the living room.
I sat down in my recliner, sipping the Kool-Aid, as I turned on the radio to listen to the all-news channel. The news wasn't good, as you probably remember. I sat there for a couple of hours with my Kool-Aid, listening to the Sacramento 'all-news' station.
There were many problems, mostly in the larger cities. The infrastructure of the food distribution system depends on timely and frequent deliveries. It doesn't take much of a panic to empty the shelves. I remember seeing past news stories about areas from Florida when a hurricane is near, or when a major snowstorm would hit the northeast US. The stores were packed with people, and they were grabbing anything they could get their hands on. You would see carts filled with all sorts of staples, like bread, milk, water, batteries.
Do you remember a movie from the early 1980's (I think) called "The Day After"? I remember seeing in on a cable TV station late at night. Jason Robards was in it as one of the main characters. It was about the Kansas City (USA) area during the height of Cold War tensions. There was a threat of nuclear attacks, and one of the scenes in the movie showed people at the grocery store grabbing everything in site. Traffic outside the store and throughout the town was a mess, with car crashes and fist fights as people reverted to their more basic instincts of self-survival. It was every person for themselves, and neighbor be damned. There were some instances of neighbor helping neighbor, but they were few and far between.
The news reports that I was listening to that day were the same as what I remember from the movie. There were some riots in the streets in the big cities, and then it started spreading to other towns in the US, and then in the world. The supply of items on the grocery store shelves emptied quite quickly. And there were long lines at the check stands, where they insisted on cash payments. People started walking out the door without paying. There was some attempt to stop them, but there were too many people and not enough security.
People started getting into other stores, with the same results. The news stations reported people in the malls, big department stores, in any store large or small, just grabbing whatever they could, even if the item didn't make any sense as something needed for survival. There were long lines at the gas stations, which quickly ran out of fuel, and there were no more deliveries available.
Traffic on the highways, always challenging during a holiday weekend to begin with, started snarling up faster. There were wrecks everywhere, people driving on the highway shoulders; everyone just wanted to get home.
But it wasn't any good at home when you got there. I started hearing reports about people breaking into empty houses, looking for anything that would help them survive.
And there were fires. In the cities, whole blocks of areas were on fire, and there wasn't enough water pressure to fight them, even if the fire departments could get to the fires.
Listening to the radio, I heard one story after another about rioting, panic, fire, traffic accidents, death, and destruction. It was just like you would see in the movies, only this was real life. After a few hours of listening to it, I turned off the radio. I didn't need to hear anymore. It was getting late, and I needed to start preparing things around the cabin.
I got up from my chair, went to the kitchen to rinse out my glass, and put it in the dish drainer on the counter. No dishwasher at the cabin; I knew that I'd get really good at washing dishes by hand from now on.
The Problem had started. And it was going to be ugly for a while. And I needed to make sure I was fully prepared. I was probably in better shape than most. I had a secure and remote cabin, I had plenty of food, there was fresh water in the basement and from my stream. I think that I was ready. I didn't want to spend time just sitting around listening to all the bad news. It was time to get organized.
I took a deep breath, let it out, and got to work.