Want some #verisimilitude for your post-apocalyptic story? Four years after the pandemic started, 7 out of 7 examined #battery-powered candles had burst batteries. 3 out of 7 had destroyed circuitry and were irreparable. I restored four of the candles to working order with a lot of cleaning and scrubbing, but of course they required fresh #batteries.
Takeaway: Nothing battery-powered left for four years will work when found. Much of it will be destroyed.
Bonus: Gasoline has a shelf life and may be useless in 6-12 months. Sorry, no verisimilitude in Mad Max.
@sfwrtr As a diabetic, it's always surreal and scary to stop to think about how much is dependant on the existing day-to-day infrastructure we take for granted. Manufacturing, transportation, distribution, travel routes... I literally could not live without it for not just my insulin but the supplies necessary to use it. (Leaving aside the need to check my sugar levels.) If any of it breaks, I'm dead.
Modern medicine is the true miracle of our times. People who're nostalgic for the olden days haven't aged enough or aren't thinking their needs through. My natural lifespan was 50 but I survived cancer and the spouse's was 38 because of a burst appendix. We've got meds that keep us alive. Unlike insulin, we might go a couple years before dying miserably. Things #writers need to think about when #writing#postapocalyptic stories.
the reliance on gasoline in post-apocalyptic stories has always bugged me.
Yeah, as a typical consumer and a social SF writer, I never would have thunk.
That said, with a mechanic who can drain the tank and fix the engine (including the rubber parts) who knows a moonshine producer, they might restore a vehicle to run poorly on ethanol. Of course, in another 50 years when everything is electric, we're back to aged bad batteries of a different flavor. 🤪
@Shanmonster@sfwrtr this is something that The Last Of Us got right. They mention it in passing in Days Gone when you buy fuel for your bike ("this stuff's getting scarce") but I suppose you need to get around quickly for gameplay purposes, and it's only 2 years after the apocalypse.
@joat@Shanmonster
You mention a bike. If it's something low performance, like a two stroke moped or an OLD motorcycle, it might run on degraded fuel. I bet it would smoke and backfire, though.
@sfwrtr@joat@Shanmonster Old diesel vehicles running on vegetable oil or fuel scavenged from home oil tanks and industrial facilities would be a better bet for an after the apocalypse story.
@Patrickoldhiker@joat@Shanmonster
You're right. I've a friend with an old Plymouth arrow pickup who helped out the resterauteers in his vicinity by taking old frier oil for his vehicle. Was a win win for him, and in a #PostApocalyptic world, diesel vehicles may rule the decaying roads.
@benfulton@Patrickoldhiker@joat@Shanmonster
It's amazing what happens to bicycle tires with 5 years of no use. From experience. Conventional 10 speed bike. Better quality may last longer.
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