More Apocalypse Livin'

Zombie Thursdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here.

Hello, gentle readers! While I am still clinging to the hope that it is still summer, the weather seems to have a different idea. The weather in Chicago has been dropping, and I have been freezing. While I do enjoy autumn and my favorite season of Halloween goodness in October, I'm just not ready for it. I get cold very easily, and I hate shivering nonstop because it hurts my muscles and is all around unpleasant. Hopefully this is just a brief change and the temperature will climb again. Until it does, I have been clinging to the indoors!

Who got to see TLC's special Livin' for the Apocalypse? I did, and it was a pretty interesting (and strange) look at survivalist families. It turns out that, yes, the Survival Doc is very weird and possibly crazy. All the families go above and beyond the normal amount of preparedness that a family should have.

One family is teaching their young children their survivalist ways-- they have them race to put on gas masks and sealed hazard suits. The prize is an ice pop. Another family's grown children confided that they didn't realize growing up that other families did not stockpile food and have fallout shelters in their homes; it wasn't until college that they discovered how different their family was.

Probably the most interesting couple profiled were two friends living together-- Gidget and Jackie. Jackie is a transgender woman (she spent the first 40 years of her life as a man). While her transgender identity has nothing to do with survivalism, it is clear why TLC chose this couple-- they have a unique and fascinating story. Both women regularly practice shooting at the gun range (and they shoot at Zombie targets) and they raise guinea pigs to sell as pets to make extra money to stock up for the coming apocalypse. Gidget also sews children's costumes.

Overall, it was a very informative look into these peoples' lives. While I would not ever consider going to such great extremes myself, I do like how many of these families have adopted a "green lifestyle" and have tried becoming completely self-sufficient. They grow their own gardens, raise their own livestock and poultry, etc. The idea is fantastic! I just find their reasoning to be a bit crazy and unfounded.

If you missed it, unfortunately it doesn't appear as if they are re-airing the show anytime soon. If they update their schedule, I will let you all know! Otherwise, here is a clip from the show of another family's secret shelter in the hills.