We all feel more pain at the pump these days. I've been fortunate enough to spend my adult life in various oil-producing flyover regions with relatively low gas prices. However, as of April 29, the average nationwide price for a gallon of gas was $4.159, with some states hitting over $5 per gallon. That smarts.

In my town, we had a 30-cent jump within a few days of Russia invading Ukraine, and then prices inched up another 30 cents per gallon over the next few weeks. They went up another 10 cents this past week. None of this is surprising. Even though I live in an energy-producing state, oil and gas are traded on a global scale, and any supply constrictions hit us all.

For me, so far, this has been frustrating and annoying but not disastrous.

I haven't had to make any serious lifestyle changes yet. But I'm watching the global picture. Situational awareness is vital to prepping, and just because something hasn't happened in the United States yet, doesn't mean that it never will. Seeing events unfold in other countries may give us clues as to what may happen here.

Pakistan has had rolling blackouts recently, with even the wealthier urban areas experiencing at least four hours without power per day and much of the rural part of the country experiencing 12 hours without power per day. Pakistan has always been more susceptible to issues with their power grid. They have had rolling blackouts in the past due to either power plant equipment breaking as a result of poor maintenance, or nonpayment of fuel bills. With fuel prices rising for everyone worldwide, countries that have always been on the edge of the power grid are now falling off.

Pakistan is not alone in its loss of electricity. India has had rolling blackouts as well. Like Pakistan, their poor infrastructure maintenance and inability to produce enough coal for their own use has left them on the edges of the global marketplace.