Every fall I toss a bag of clothes into back of the truck that includes a heavy blaze orange parka and bibs, a couple of full face knit caps, heavy gloves and mittens, a camp stove with some minimal provisions (granola bars, tea, broth cubes) etc. along with that goes a shovel, battery operated strobe light, extra flares, and a few other things. This is in addition to the stuff that normally rides in the bin.
There is no app for common sense.
Working diligently to enlarge my group size.
MECHANICS!!! Is there ANYTHING they can't do??? What a great story. Man of action!Originally Posted by GJM
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
My wife and I were discussing one of the deaths from a cultural point of view. It was an older woman of Eastern European descent who tried to go to the local large ethnic market to buy fish for a Christmas special dish. We knew many of such women in our time and could see how she could be so locked into 'having to have this' for Christmas that it clouded her judgement. Such meals were a crucial part of their family identity. Is that realism - no - but with things like this, reason sometimes comes in second. Very hard to break years of culture and your embedded cultural priorities. Sad.
Reminds me of an elderly man I knew who refused a pig valve implant to replace his, as it was not kosher. The idea that a universe creating deity of trillion galaxies probably isn't disrespected by this old man choosing to live a few more years could not penetrate.
This made me chuckle a little: my daughter told me that when I carried in the gift bags for my brother’s kids, my niece told her her favorite part of Christmas was getting to see what I was giving them for their “bug out bags”.
Got to talk to a friend and his experiences trying to get home from his restaurant.
1. Some of his coworkers stayed two days in the place. Well, they had plenty of high end seafood and wine! Some folks did spend a few days in McDonalds.
2. He saw a guy walking in the storm, asking him to get in the car. Asked him his name and he didn't know. Friend has 1st aid training and suggested hypothermia. Asked again, got a different confused name. Guy wouldn't get in, said he had to walk to his Mom. Who knows what happened to him. It was in the same location roughly where a guy froze to death in the 77 storm.
3. He sez - if you have to go out clear your windshield because the wipers can't do it, put on your hat. Snow melted on his bald head and then froze solid to a Arctic kippah.
4. Got to his house and was a big drift in front of the door. Sort of took a running start and dive to get close to the door. No way to get through the drift. Even if you had a shovel, might be hard (I do have one in the car).
I keep a wool cap in the car with the other cold crap, like extra insulated gloves.
The deaths are nothing but tragic. I do not sit around pondering Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but events like this do cause reflection of the basic physiological needs: food, water, warmth. As I sit in Dallas on a 75 degree day in January, it is in stark contrast to the fact that people in Buffalo died of cold/exposure in the past two weeks. Short of having an in-home generator installed to run the heat in a power outage (cost prohibitive for most), what do the feeble elderly do? They're not going to be able to haul firewood in even if they have wood burning fireplaces. Their family members, if blessed with such, can't even get to them in a storm like this.
The article GJM linked speaks of a man on a milk run who wore nothing but a track suit with a blizzard approaching. That's just foolish. I can have sympathy for that man while also thinking that he should have been much better prepared. Heck, I carry spare blankets and water in my truck here in Texas. PFers, in general, are folks who do prepare for the low probability potentially bad outcome event.
Thinking of people who may have died due to loss of power to a needed health care device is just terrible. That's not Darwin to my way of thinking. That's just tragic and unlucky.
"Rich," the Old Man said dreamily, "is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells." Robert Ruark
The storm took out generators and blocked vents even if you had a wood burning fireplace. 6 foot drifts, 9 degrees and 70 mph winds would preclude most from clearing such. Today we noted as drifts receded that a little cute red oak tree we had planted is basically shattered into pieces.
We were lucky that the wind patterns built the drifts on the other side of the house from the furnance vents. If on the vent side, the furnance would shut down automatically, to prevent CO. We had -40 deg clothing. Living in that for three days might have been interesting. The local first responders might have gotten to us. We kept power and I do have a backup electric heater good for one room.
My daughter is still yelling at me for cutting a small escape route from the front door. Worried I'd go cardiac.
Sometimes nature wins.
PS - I bought a full face woolen face mask. I had storm googles but realized I needed more coverage, even with the giant parka hood.
Ten cans of King Oscar Sardines! What more can you do to prepare!
BTW, we got takeout from the buddy's restaurant for New Years Eve - lobster ravioli - a good bottle of a NYS Riesling. Pumpkin pie.
Did the 77, the 22, I don't think I will see the next one if it's 50 years away. Of course, climate change might dump one on us, next month!
Glad you weathered the storm well. Got a chuckle about the sardines. My go to is Vienna Sausages. Easily stored and goes great on crackers.
"Rich," the Old Man said dreamily, "is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells." Robert Ruark
We also have cans of eel from the Asian markets. Wegmans carries them in Asian section and so does Amazon. Buy some packed noddles, make them and dump the eel on them for a quicky meal. Broiled eel was our favorite in Japanese restaurants. Canned is different but ok.
So a diversion story: In TX, I go to San Antonio HEB near me. I get a can of eel. At the check out, it doesn't scan. So in those days, the clerk gets on the PA system as says: Floor in Grocery, How much for the canned eel!
You could here a moment of silence. EEL ? So a kid comes back and says he cannot find it. The clerk says to me: Did you get this here?
I say: NO, I am a lunatic who just brings cans of eel into a store and tries to buy it.
Hilarity ensues and the manager resolves it. In Buffalo, given the large international university student body, the supermarket as all kinds of weird things to try!
That reminds me I need to do a stock-up trip to Super H-Mart. I’m running low on my black bean noodles.
Ken
BBI: ...”you better not forget the safe word because shit's about to get weird”...
revchuck38: ...”mo' ammo is mo' betta' unless you're swimming or on fire.”
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