Prepping « Robin Writes

Let’s say you’re on the way home from dropping the kids off at school; you’re at the halfway point. Suddenly, you hear jets screaming overhead and huge explosion shakes your vehicle; off in the distance, you see a black cloud of smoke rising.

What do you do?

Do you go home, grab your BOB, batten down the hatches? Turn around and go get the kids first? Or do you gaze at the horizon and think, “Huh, I wonder what happened?”

Most people will probably have that last reaction.

For myself, I’d hit the radio to find the news, tap my Bluetooth to call my husband, and turn around. Since, initially, most people will just stare openmouthed and/or come to a screeching halt while they try to take in the entire scenario, traffic could be a little dicey – but not nearly as bad as will get within the next hour, or less.

In fifteen minutes, I’d be back at school and running inside to get my kid. Now, even school admins are going to be among those who are busy “wondering,” and that’s if they’re aware of what’s going on outside. Presumably, in this situation, almost everyone will have heard the explosion, but reactions are going to fall along the most conservative lines.

I’d probably go straight to the office, claim a dire family emergency in as few words as possible, and follow whoever is sent to get my kid. This is still going to take oh, ten minutes. Now, it’s been nearly half an hour since SHTF. At this point, it would likely take 30-40 to arrive at home.

Of course, the news would be full of stories by now and many will be panicking; some will be prepared; some will still be clueless. But within the hour, we should all be home.

There’s also the question of any others in your group, and where they are and how or when they’ll be arriving. In my book (heh), it’s on them. You aren’t going to be able to hunt them down, make calls, etc. You have to have this plan in place. If they can get through to keep you informed, great – if they make it to the house, even better. But you can’t count on that.

And finally, it’s time to make that decision: go, or stay.

Okay, so it’s not “cold” cold. Yet. But it’s pretty chilly out there at 50 degrees and overcast. And colder at night, of course.

So are you ready for that?

It’s one thing to stock up on food and water, and even cooking fuel, and sure, you think about the cold weather – the real stuff – right around the corner. You might have insulated sleeping bags, blankets, long johns, and a host of other “keep warm” items.

But has reality sunk in? How much time do you spend outside your cozy office or home? As I’m writing this, I have the thermostat set at the usual 70 degrees, but I’m still chilled from earlier and so I turned on the space heater at my feet. I’m quite toasty!

Is that a good thing? Right now, yes. For prepping, no.

Here’s my theory:

I understand that people actually live in Arizona, right, where temps get up over 100 during a pretty regular basis. Obviously, they’re a lot more used to it than, say, someone from Canada (yes, I said Canada on purpose and you know who you are!). So heat likely bothers the Arizonans a lot less than the Canadians. The opposite also holds true: those who are used to the Southwest would be frozen in Canada, yes?

Now, I know what’s best for me in terms of prepping, and if I weren’t freaking out over a few #firstworldproblems as the cool kids say, I’d totally have the thermostat reflecting the outside temp – and a couple windows wide open – and this space heater would be out in the garage somewhere.

Even if you have fuel for cooking and some thermal undies and all, the more you can get used to actual temps and not the man-made variety, the better of you’ll be when SHTF. You won’t be shivering (much), you won’t be cranky and whiny and wanting to huddle under a blanket. You will thrive. You will become acclimated.

What better way than to start now? Your utility companies might suffer a bit, but your bank account will be much more stable.