I am a Driver for a shipping company in Cadillac, Michigan. Our mechanic for the delivery center in cannibalizing old trucks that have not been picked up for scrap to keep the rest of the trucks in the fleet running. He has gone as far as pulling the motor out of a truck and setting it aside for parts if needed. Brakes are usually a few weeks out when ordered and nothing is allowed to be stocked in the mechanics bay, everything has to be ordered when needed.

My wife works for a local County and informed me that the county receives $25k each month from the Biden stimulus bill. Meanwhile, the sheriff is asking for a tax hike to keep deputies on the road. In the neighboring town of McBain there have been reports of people kicking in the front door of houses in the middle of the night regardless if someone is home or not. This happened to one of the drivers I work with and he was told by deputies when they showed up that this has been happening on a regular basis this summer. McBain is a large farming community with a large Amish population.

Last week my wife went to pick up our kids at the local daycare where the library is across the street. When she pulled up, she noticed that the parking lot to the library was packed with cars and a group of men were standing around wearing combat gear and carrying various styles of rifles. They were not in matching uniforms.

On Saturday, July 30, I was driving down 20 mile road that runs through our small town of Tustin and passed the State Police black armored personal carrier. I haven’t seen anything on the news about what it was used for.

Canned goods have been disappearing from the discount stores I regularly go to. When they appear on the shelves they are gone in a day or two. Dollar General has been putting food items on clearance for being discontinued. I was able to buy 5 large cans of chili for $.50 each and they are still good until 2024.

Local corn fields are tall and healthy but this is from years of manure spreading due to the large amounts of dairy farms we have in our area. Hay appears to be in short supply though.