[PapaBear3625]

If you need widgets to live, and all you have is cash, and I have the widgets you need, I know that I can’t USE any of the cash you have, so I’ll just tell you, no deal. Unless of course you have something else I need and value more than cash, like can goods, freeze dried somethings, cans of gas, cans of oil... The little things that one needs to live.

One precious set of widgets that nobody can steal from you: skills. Knowing how to fix things when they break, and there's no replacements, will make you welcome in many places. Knowing how to fix PEOPLE is among those skills.

Your local community college has classes on EMT skills, advanced first aid, as well as classes on how to weld, how to fix PCs, etc. Review the catalog.

[ConradofMontferrat]

Now this is what I’m talking about. How many people think of skill as a barter commodity. I don’t think about it because I am one of those people that God blessed with the only skill I have: If it’s man made, I can fix the damn thing. I have no other talent save mechanical aptitude. And to tell the truth, its such a part of me that I never considered it as a barter commodity. Thanks for reminding me of that.

EMT? Wow, now that’s a training that I think I will definitely look into. I can stitch up critters really well, and I can do a half decent job on people in SOME cases. I would feel a whole lot better knowing more about the science behind it. And sewing someone shut is only a fraction of what needs to be known.

Again, thanks for the tip.