Preparing for the end of the World

I was at the grocery store today picking up some essentials for when we get destroyed by the snow, and I saw this sign on a Coinstar machine. I found this very interesting because all we've been hearing lately is how Bitcoin is on its way out. I know some stores and restaurants accept Bitcoin, but its actual uses in the real world are extremely limited. Heck, services like PayPal are barely just now being accepted at retailers; It's gonna take a long time for any practical business to embrace Bitcoin as a whole, and not just treat it as some gimmick.

Snow will be upon us in two days. The cold weather has already impacted all of us here, as a major freeway was shut down because of a terrible pileup involving about 130 vehicles yesterday. Luckily, no one I know was on at the time. This occurred by the exit nearest to my house. Yikes! I don't know how much blame there is to go around, but I did hear reports that the roads were not salted overnight, something TXDot is very capable of. We'll see how this all shakes out in the coming days.

People are panic buying at the grocery store, grabbing tons of essentials off the shelves. I was at the store, but I only bought what I needed for two days. Some people are just insane. Stuff like this is what causes supply chain shortages, and what leads horrible people to sell toilet paper and hand sanitizer on eBay.

I will say that this behavior also happened the last time we experienced winter weather. It was maybe 2013-2014, an event known locally as Snowpocalypse. I walked to the store and the shelves were bare of water and toiletries. I think that was the first time I experienced that panic buying phenomenon as an adult. The ice and snow got really bad, and I remember seeing a Facebook video of my neighbor trying to walk to the store, and him tiptoeing on the sidewalk because of ice. It was insanity. The optimist in me hopes this people learn to adapt to this cold weather, but people don't change. I bet you I'll still see idiots flying down the street at crazy speeds. To quote Ferris Bueller's Day Off, "I weep for the future."