On the flip side, he laughs and plays with abandon, like any other toddler. All of which brought smiles to his grandparents. His older brother on the other hand, struggles to gain the attention of his parents and that caused some tension as well. I'm sure this is not unique to my family and I only bring it up to show that we are just as normal as any other family.

While this was going on, I had to deal with my homeowners insurance adjuster, and later in the week, a roofing contractor. It seems that my old roof is on it's last legs. The last big windstorm we had a couple of weeks ago blew off some of the old shingles at the peak of my roof, so now I have no choice but to finance a new roof. I wanted to wait a couple more years but it seems nature isn't going to cooperate with my budget, (sigh).

So that is going to set me back about $30,000 that I don't have right now after paying off my wife's car loan last fall. My insurance company tells me that they will cover about half of that, but I don't know what that means. How much is still in limbo until next week. They're thinking about it still, so my young adjuster tells me.

The joys of owning a slightly older house I guess. My house is about twenty four years old now and was built with cheap materials so I inherited that mess when I bought it. It's coming back to haunt me now. First, it was the frozen, then broken water pipe two winters ago, that cost me several thousand dollars after the pittance my then insurance gave me, and now, it's a roof.

On top of that, my cloths washer is still giving me grief. I discovered a water leak I will need to locate and repair later today, once I'm finished washing our clothes. It isn't leaking too much, so I have a cloth under the front to catch what I can until I can get in there to locate and fix the leak. I'm hoping it's just a hose clamp that needs adjusting and not another failed part.

On a more global scale, I read an article by a blog writer from England this morning telling us that the global economy is just starting to show the shortages. That once the last ships transiting out of the gulf that left before February 27th reach their ports and unload, that will be it for a while. A lot of smaller countries heavily dependent on fossil fuels for everything, will be begging for other suppliers to help keep their economies from crashing without oil imports from the gulf states.

Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea in the east, to Europe, to parts of Africa, are all going to get hit hard in the next few weeks. Some are already rationing their fuel usages to their citizens, which is causing protests and riots already and this is just the beginning.

I'm sure everyone is well aware of how the price of petrol at their local stations has gone up significantly around the world in the last month. It's only going to get worse as countries will be forced into rationing what they have until alternate sources can be found. Economies will slow down dramatically as industries start running out of fuel, both diesel and natural gas. Natural gas especially. Aviation gas will run out before gasoline, diesel and LNG does, and this will ground a lot of planes world wide, for all but the most essential cargoes.

Can you imagine what will happen to the global economy once all of these planes get grounded due to a lack of fuel? It's already starting to happen with passenger jets in the far east and Europe and we're just getting started.

What's going to happen to local commerce in countries without enough diesel to fuel the trucks and tractors? Ireland is in the news this week over protesters around the Dublin area blocking major roadways with trucks and tractors over the price if fuel. More will come.

Some people are advising us to purchase jerry cans and stock up on fuel for our cars but that's just asking for trouble. I don't want flammable gas in my garage. I have enough paints and cleaning solvents on the shelves. Five gallon jerry cans full of gasoline would be just asking for a house fire. Our scare with that was watching another house in our neighbourhood catch fire last week and nearly burn to the ground. It's a stark reminder.

If things get that bad where I live, I'll go get some bicycles or walk before I risk a major fire that would cost me my house. That and give the insurance company an excuse not to cover it because I had a large amount of flammable gas stored in non-fireproof storage containers.

I do think that things are going to get much, much worse for everyone before the supply chains get sorted out once again. I'm asking myself if there is anymore I can do to help us weather this storm. I have been thinking about storing more non-perishable food stocks and I have added in a few items but not enough to last several months worth.At best, maybe a week or two at most.

Prices are going up across the board for nearly everything and I'm watching carefully. If I start seeing significant price jumps, I will start hoarding food stocks ahead of the impending shortages I know will come if the fuel tap doesn't get turned back on soon. So far, as of this weekend, we're not there yet.

And into all of this mix, we in the United States have a very dysfunctional government now, run by a demented idiot. It's become obvious to everyone around the world. The world leaders from Europe are trying to be polite but they're actually starting to come right out and mention it now. Especially France's Macron. They're all scrambling to move away from Trump and become more self-reliant but, as a lot of experts are telling the media, it's too late now. The damage has been done. All they can do is pick up their broken toys (metaphorically speaking) and go home without the United States, leaving Trump standing on the playground screaming in a temper tantrum fuelled rage expressed on his social media platform for all to see.

NATO is pretty much finished without the U.S. and they now know it. Europe will hang on to the last vestiges of it for now but it's gone for all intents and purposes. As the United States becomes more isolated from the rest of the world, these countries that were so dependent on the U.S. led global order and economy are going to have to figure out a way to live without the United States.

A lot of them are starting to look to China now and China is welcoming them with open arms. The welcome sign is out for anyone who wants to sign onto China's belt and road initiatives. After what the U.S. and Israel have done to the middle east lately, China's human rights issues are nothing compared to the genocide in Gaza, and soon, the West Bank. They will be overlooked in expediency as the more desperate countries come looking for relief.

I believe Japan, the Philippines, southeast Asia and South Korea will be some of the first to come to China hat in hand. Right behind them, will be some of the gulf states. Trump has burned so many diplomatic bridges now, few trust the U.S. for much of anything, other than for breaking deals.

I'm mentally preparing for the economic shock that's coming within the next few weeks. One that will likely last throughout the rest of this year. It will have a dramatic effect on the by elections in November but, with the U.S. democrat party still very unpopular in the country, I hesitate to make any predictions. If the democrats figure out their messaging to the voters within the next few weeks, they may have a good chance at a majority after November. But if they keep floundering around like they are now, that victory may be narrow and the citizens will still be without a functioning government with Trump in charge. Time is running out.

One last thing before I go get my lunch. I recently learned that a lot of social media platforms deliberately stifle posts with active links to other websites like this one. I received an email from a company telling me about this last week, so I tried an experiment. Instead of creating a post with a link in it, I posted a clip from my last video podcast and lough and behold, people could actually see it in their Facebook feeds.

So from now on, I won't be making any posts with links to this website anymore on American social media platforms, as they're apparently being blocked. What I will do is post more podcast clips and text based posts with a background showing the website address on it. That will have to do in this age of media censorship until I can figure out a work around.

I don't think my new Australian social media platform Upscrolled, is doing this as I haven't noticed any issues there but Facebook and Bluesky, absolutely. I'm not on X/Twitter or Telegraph or any of the other popular platforms so that's that.

Okay, time to get a sandwich. That's all I have on my mind this week. If I have any updates, I'll post again. Otherwise, I'll be back next week with another edition. Sláinte