Using holiday leftovers

While this may not seem like much of an emergency issue, this contains elements of food safety, proper nutrition, and thriftiness, so I'm going to allow it. Also, this exchange happened on Twitter yesterday:

"My family isn't large enough to save me from a future of excessive turkey sandwiches, and turkey pot pies."
"May I also recommend turkey and dumplings and turkey fajitas? I am thinking of trying turkey quesadillas."
"Ooooh...turkey quesadillas! Sounds wonderful. I'm saved!"

All in a day's work, ma'am.

I will be focusing on leftover meats. The sweet potatoes we just use as a side dish until they are gone, which is pretty much true of any of the sides. I wish I had a good use for cranberry sauce, because really only two people eat it, and maybe they will have some the next day too, but we will end up throwing some out. Probably my aversion to eating it would transform into some aversion to cooking with it though, so it may be for the best.

Regardless, the meat is the biggest expense, and it is the largest quantity of the leftovers, and that is more true for us because for both Christmas and Thanksgiving we do turkey and ham. (For Easter, we only do ham.) This satisfies the different tastes, but also provides us with different meals, where it ends up really helping instead of hurting the grocery budget. Using sufficient variety so that people don't get tired of the leftovers is important though. Being able to alternate between ham and turkey probably helps us with that, but if you only have one, do not fear.

Actually, one important thing to remember is that you don't have to eat it all now. Let's say you thaw your turkey, you cannot refreeze it like that, but having cooked it, and changed its physical state, you can then freeze the cooked turkey. So, if you want to eat half the leftovers now, and then half in March, that is fine. Separating frozen meat is a pain though, so instead of a gallon bag, it will make more sense to freeze the amounts you will use for different meals separately.

Now, let's talk about some recipes. Obviously, people know how to make turkey pot pies. Mine involves the leftover turkey, whatever leftover vegetables we have (usually baby corn, green beans, and carrots, but I have used celery, potatoes or regular corn), cream of chicken soup, some salt and pepper, and then just baked in a pie crust.

I do a very similar turkey and dumplings, where instead of baking in a pie crust I heat it in a slow cooker all day, then for the last twenty minutes top it with dumplings made from about flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. This works for me, because I am not really good at making pie crust.

I also like to do a soup totally from scratch. I will put bones and skin in a stockpot, add some salt, and cover with water. I let that simmer for several hours, and then strain out the bones and skin, adding vegetables and meat to the broth and letting that boil. I was once told a pioneer recipe for homemade noodles, which is that you crack an egg, then add one half of the shell full of milk, just enough salt to fill the small space in your folded hand (I guess that's like two pinches), and then enough flour to make a dough. Now, if you want to add ready-made noodles, that is completely fine, but if you are rolling out dough, let me strongly recommend using a pizza cutter instead of a knife for turning the dough into noodles. It works much better.

Obviously I have tried the fajitas, and they work okay. I have thought about trying other chicken recipes for turkey (croquettes, a la king, tetrazzini), so the question is, is turkey a good substitute for chicken? Yes, with some caveats. One is that it is a bit less flavorful. This is less of an issue with the fajitas, because with the seasoning and the peppers, there is flavor added.

There is also a matter of texture. There is a recipe that I have for ground chicken enchiladas that I always make with ground turkey, but using the leftover roast turkey would not work, because of the texture. Often, even in fillets, the chicken will have a smoother texture than the turkey, so you need to think about that. However, freeze some, and use the recipes that work for you all through the year.

I should add that I always roast the turkey upside down. A family in Modesto taught me this. What happens this way is that as the cooking fat drips to the bottom, it moistens the breast, which gets notoriously dry otherwise, instead of the rib cage. I don't even stuff or baste anymore, and I still have a moist, delicious turkey, so even if you are only going to do sandwiches, this gives you a leg up.I highly recommend it.

Ham is a less healthy meat then turkey, and we use it in less healthy dishes perhaps, but they are also delicious.

The most popular one by far is the Breakfast Bake Casserole. This was from a Pillsbury cookbook, so it involves a lot of processed food, though you could do some of the things from scratch. You start with hash browns (frozen, then cooked), and spread them in a greased casserole pan, and cover with shredded cheese. I think the recipe calls for Swiss, but I tend to use mozzarella, maybe with some cheddar mixed in. You then scramble eight eggs mixed with ham, and as that is almost cooked ad a cubed packet of cream cheese. Spread that over the hash browns, cover with crescent rolls (unrolled, obviously), and bake for about 20 minutes. I have forgotten the cream cheese, changed the shredded cheese, used bread stick or regular biscuit dough for the topping instead, and it doesn't matter, it is always good. Still, don't forget the cream cheese, and the crescent rolls work best.

Another fun thing to do is make scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. I strong recommend cooking the ham separately then mixing it in when the eggs are done, then adding the cheese. It just works better.

I will also always do a ham pizza. The ham basically acts the same as Canadian bacon. I have found pizza crust recipes online, and there are yeast packets specifically for pizza dough with a recipe on the back. There are recipes for pizza dough with no yeast, but the flavor is just not as good. Go for the yeast.

Also, there is a casserole from my childhood, where you combine potatoes (peeled and cut into chunks) with a can of cream of mushroom soup, one of cream of chicken soup, 2 cans of water, and then you top with slices of ham and cheddar cheese. This works well with some of the slices.Yes, it probably sounds very poor white people in the 70's but that's what we were.

Also, for lunch I am going to try a ham quesadilla. I believe it will work, cutting the ham in tiny cubes. Obviously, there is a lot more that can be done than I have covered here, but that's the point. Leftovers don't have to be boring if you use your sense of adventure.

Winter storms

Although our winters are relatively mild, storms and cold temperatures still happen. Here are some ways to be ready.

Battery-operated flashlights: You can’t count on having electricity. After the December 12^th 1995 storm, some areas did not get power back for two weeks.

Emergency survival blankets: Regular blankets are good too, but emergency survival blankets efficiently preserve your body heat, are lightweight, and don’t take up much space. They can work at home, but they may be even better tucked away in a coat pocket, glove box, or desk at work. Consider stocking up and stashing them in key locations.

Carbon monoxide detector: If the heat and power are off, people may try other methods of cooking and heating. Some of them are fire hazards (candles for light can also fall under this), but some are also asphyxiation hazards. If it is designed for outdoor or camping use, chances are good that you should not use it indoors. Even if you use all items only as directed, you will be running the heat more, windows will be closed, ventilation can get blocked, and a carbon monoxide detector can save your life.

A first aid kit: Slippery sidewalks can result in sprains, scrapes, or bruises; clearing snow can result in muscle strain; and any received injuries can be worse if the roads are in bad condition. Supplies can include pain relievers, antibiotic ointment, bandages, gauze and medical tape, and warm and cold packs.

It is also important to know when it would be worth braving the roads or calling an ambulance. Bone breaks should be set professionally, so those rate a trip. Chest pains or possible stroke symptoms at least rate the 9-1-1 call, because the operator can help you assess the risks.

Take falls seriously, pausing to make sure that everything feels right before getting up. If there is a head injury, whether from a fall or some other cause, watch for signs of concussion, bleeding, or swelling. Keep an eye out for lethargy, trouble focusing, feeling foggy, nausea, or lapses in consciousness, and if you see these issues, make that call. Better safe than sorry.

Plenty of drinking water: Pipes can freeze or flooding can contaminate water. Having water is good, but so is prevention. For freezing, this can include leaving a trickle of water running, leaving cupboards and doors open so that pipes get more heat, and maybe even wrapping pipes or covering spigots. If your pipes do freeze, let them thaw on their own. Creative ways of warming the pipes tend to go badly

There is not a lot you can do to prevent flooding contamination, but as a good citizen you should keep an eye out for clogged storm drains. Also, keep an eye on the news so you at least know what’s likely. A battery-operated radio is probably a good idea as well.

If we do run into poor road conditions, getting out to buy groceries may be difficult. Sure, some places keep delivering pizza, even in the worst conditions, but if they lose power they may not be able to cook it.

Ultimately, even if you are not ready to get in your three-month supply of food, you should always have some extra, ideally including some that does not require cooking. A 72-hour kit perhaps?

Finally, imagine a storm where you still have power but can’t leave the house. All of the local television stations will switch to 24-hour snow coverage, even though nothing happens. If we lose power you don’t even have that. Have a backup plan for amusement—books, games, crafts—and if you need extra lanterns or yarn or a pencil sharpener to make it work, get ready for that now. Sanity is a great thing to keep in an emergency.

Food Storage

The overarching theme that I  hope is coming through in these posts is that you should not panic or feel rushed, but all of your preparations should be done in an orderly manner. This becomes especially important with food storage.

It's not that you can't acquire food storage quickly. For example, you can order an MRE food supply for one year, and be done at once. The last time I checked, that was about $5000 per person, and that's been a while. There is another company that makes packets that they load into buckets, and for four people for a year it was about $7000. That is an option.

There are some problems with this approach. First of all, it's rather expensive. Also, this food is not particularly good. However, if you have the available funds, and ordering this way would give you peace of mind, that's worth something.

It is worth remembering that the Church is now encouraging three months rather than one year, though they do point out that more is better. I believe that was to take away some of the stress. One year seems so insurmountable, that reducing that to just a quarter should feel much less stressful.

Also, think of it as a starting point, like having a 72 hour kit gets you started on food and water. Get in two weeks, than one month, then three months, and then with luck you have learned to accumulate and rotate, and things start seeming more possible. Most likely, a year will not seem possible until you have started.

Our method is shopping the sales. Actually, one huge advantage of having storage is that we don't usually run out of things before they are on sale. Some of that takes paying attention, and organization helps. My sisters recently completely reorganized the back storage, and I found that we were doing far better on certain soups than I realized. This is partly because we don't use them as much as we used to. There are some things that I used to cook a lot that I don't make as often. That's okay. You should expect the process to involve adjustments.

Some of those adjustments become great opportunities to examine your eating habits and improve them. I buy less mixes now, and cook more from scratch. That's healthier. We still use a lot of canned vegetables. That is not ideal, but they store well and it works for us, so that is something we are doing now. You need to start with where you are.

I remember having a conversation with one coworker where she was frustrated by trying to cook healthy and save money, and I said that I tried to arrange our weekly menus based on the sales. She had not thought of that. That can be one starting point. Look at the ads, figure out what you need for that week, and get a little bit extra of whatever is on sale. Even if you can only allocate $5 per week, on the right week that can add to your supply of flour or cooking oil or rice, and then you do not have to buy it at full price when you actually run out.

I know some people who have needed their 72 hour kits at different times, or water storage, but I know a lot of people who have relied on food storage, because of employment issues or weather issues. More to the point, you can use it anyway, even if there is nothing keeping you from going to the store and buying more. You can always use food.

Evacuation

I was about to do food storage, and then I realized that I had missed this.

It seems like emergency evacuations would be covered in between 72 hour kits and emergency plans, and that is partially true. There can be important variations that will affect what you can do and what you should do. Mainly these will be matters of time.

So, in case of fire, we all know that we are supposed to get out of the house as quickly as possible, not taking anything. In case of an earthquake in a tsunami zone it is probably reasonable to grab the kits on your way to higher ground, but you don't want to dilly dally too much.

However, what if there is a superstorm building up off shore that may hit in the next few days? What if there is an unusually large snow pack, and there are concerns that a sudden spring thaw will lead to flooding? What if there are wildfires that may or may not veer in your direction?

All of those are things that have really happened. In the case of the large snow pack, what a lot of people did was move their food storage to higher ground. It is the sort of thing that is valuable to have, especially in a situation where there is the potential for a large disaster, but that can probably not be moved quickly. Moving it early gave one less thing to worry about.

When the situation happens, the issues to think about will be your destination and the amount of time you have. There may be other preparations that are possible, like hosing down the outside of a house in the hopes that it will be less flammable, but also packing up more possessions to take away, so that even if the house is burned down, there are at least some things that do not need to be replaced.

I am in no way trying to emphasize the importance of material things. People are the priority. Safety is the priority, but if you do have time and means, it's worth thinking about. You will need food. You will need clothing. There are also things that you do not need but you care about, and that's fine. So, a good preparation for a time when you may need to flee is to take a look around now. What do you care about? What have you forgotten that you even had?

I have magazines and craft projects that I have not done yet. I do still want to get to them, but I would not replace them if they were lost. Is that a reason to get rid of them now? I don't think so at this time, but if I were to move, maybe I would decide that. It's okay.

I have old notebooks and sketches from when I was younger. I like going through them sometimes, and remembering, but I probably still would not flee with them. I could live without them. At the same time, if the threat was flooding, and I could move them to a higher part of the house, or seal them up, I might. If planning an evacuation ends up being kind of a housecleaning moment, that can be fine, but it doesn't have to be. At this point, we are just thinking.

There are two areas that it would be especially valuable to think about. One is important documents. It is possible to replace birth certificates, marriage certificates, tax records, insurance information, and mortgage agreements, but it tends to be a hassle, and may take longer than is convenient. You may want to have these gathered together and easily located, where you could grab them and take them along just as easily as a 72 hour kit. It may also be worth including contact information for credit cards and bank accounts and even the numbers, though be careful about how you store those and how accessible they are.

The other thing that I strongly recommend is having some easily found and brought along photos. Maybe it can be just one album. It's so easy to store photos digitally, and we do that, but imagine losing power, or losing the computer, or the phone, and not being able to pull that image back up.

(Full disclosure: My last completed writing project is this post-apocalyptic thing and there's a scene where the heroine starts to melt down as she realizes that the only pictures she has of her fiancee are on her phone, and the battery is going out. She doesn't know that she is not going to see him again for six year, but I do. And no, I never watched "Revolution" or "Walking Dead". Anyway, print a few pictures.)

Emergency Water Storage

One concern about 72-hour kits is that it may take longer than 3 days for help to arrive, especially as escalating disasters strain resources. I mention this because I have no idea how realistic the 2-week supply for water is. Will two weeks be sufficient to get water running and drinkable again? Well, it will depend on what happened with the disaster and what resources are available for dealing with it.

Given that, I still feel like two weeks is a good rule of thumb. It is probably not realistic to store more, as water takes a lot of space - much more than food. The OCEM document that I am going to link to only mentions three days, which is a start, but really not that much. Still, a big part of successfully preparing for emergencies is being comfortable starting small and moving up.

http://www.ocem.org/pdf_resources/Food&Water_Take5.pdf

So let's say you start merely with everyone having a 72-hour kit. That's great. Everyone has water for three days, and it is a start. 

The next step can be remembering that in kits you tend to have only one liter per day, while when looking at actual water storage tips you generally look at having one gallon per person per day. I have seen some recommendations for two liters per person per day. The gallon recommendation is covering both drinking and washing and other uses. With that in mind, add three 2-liter bottles per person, and you now have a more full supply for that three days.

And 2-liter pop bottles are great for water storage. They are strong and portable and already food-safe. They also don't degrade the way milk containers do. This is an important thing to remember: if you are buying water for storage, it is coming in HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic, and this breaks down and is prone to contamination. Pop bottles are made of PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) and are much better. They should still be stored out of sunlight, but are generally easy to obtain. (I don't drink much soda, but that' still what we have for all of our water storage at this time.)

If you do drink pop on a regular basis you could just take every 2-liter bottle as it is emptied, wash it, fill it with water, and store it away until you accumulate two weeks of storage, and this is easy to do. However, it will accumulate slowly. In my case, we have four adults, requiring 56 gallons. We also have two dogs and one cat. Using the handy calculator at http://mycockerspaniel.com/h2o.htm as a starting point, it is about another 10 gallons for the three of them. 

It is also fairly common to find 5 gallon containers and 55 gallon drums (and 30 and 15-gallon drums as well). That sounds like it would be easiest for us to go straight for the big drum, and then supplement, but it is more expensive, and once full would be very difficult to move, and we really don't have a good place to do it. Slowly accumulating 5-gallon containers may actually work better in our situation. (What I really want to do is fix up the shed as storage space, and there would be room there, but then it could easily freeze in the winter and you would have to keep going back and forth from the shed.)

So, those are the kinds of things you need to think about. One other thing to think about is flushing your water heater on a regular basis. You do have water here, and a large quantity. If you are not able to use the tap water, you are probably not going to be using the water heater, so that water is up for grabs. However, sediment tends to build up, which would make it less suitable for drinking. Periodically flush this, and that improves your drinking water options and should help your water heater run better. One set of instructions can be found here:

http://news.consumerreports.org/home/2010/03/how-to-drain-a-water-heater-sediment-drain-valve-best-water-heater-reviews-consummer-reports.html

Some things to not think about are using water in a water bed. I don't even know anyone who still has one, but if you do it should have chemicals in there that you do not want to drink.

You can think about using water in the toilet tank. (Not the bowl. Never the bowl!) However, even knowing that the water in the tank should be clean, I find it gross and don't want to do it. 

The other thing I don't want to think about is chemically purifying water. I know it can be handy, and then you don't need to store as much water as if you don't have the option of purifying, but then I read about how crystalline iodine is the most effective method, and then I read the warnings about evere skin burns, toxic fumes, corroding and discoloring, and how it can be fatal if swallowed, and I just don't want to go there. There is lots of information out there, especially if you are chemically inclined, or an engineer might want to look into siphoning, and go for it! I just want to store water.

For shelf life, different sources say anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. I have seen no evidence of water going bad, but containers can be compromised so even if you aren't changing the water you should be checking on it.

The one other thing that is vitally important is to know what is going on with your local water supply, which adds to the importance of having a battery-operated radio available. In emergency communication I focused on staying in touch with your loved ones, but you also want to stay in touch with the community, especially in times of emergency.

Emergency Communication

Here on the West Coast, Hurricane Sandy was no threat, but with the world growing smaller, it was easy to feel connected to it. Through Twitter, I follow several people located in New York and New Jersey, and their tweets kept me updated in real time. I saw photos, I read things, and probably the most ominous part was within a few minutes three people tweeted that they lost power.

Fortunately, the storm ended, everyone that I had personal concern for was fine (some home repairs are needed, but that's minor considering how it could have been), and while there is a lot that needs to be fixed on the larger scale, there are also many inspiring stories and actions coming out of it. We can take the good, and work on the bad together.

From a preparedness standpoint, what was most fascinating to me was how communication has changed. That people were able to update us via Twitter was a new twist to the standard emergency scenario. I began to wonder if the old concern about not being able to use cell phones was outdated. Have we overcome some of technology's lapses?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-15/why-cell-phones-went-dead-after-hurricane-sandy.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/cell-phone-internet-hurricane-sandy_n_2052431.html
http://news.consumerreports.org/electronics/2012/10/cell-phone-users-in-sandy-affected-areas-advised-to-limit-calls-for-now.html

Well, yes and no.There is certainly a lot that can be said about regulation and strengthening infrastructure, but that is the kind of thing I tend to go after in my main blog. From a strict preparedness view, we are still looking on what resources you are likely to have, what will probably be missing, and what you will need.

So, the odds are good that cell phone use will be limited, if not completely unavailable. In the past when they have mentioned that, the focus was that people would be flooding the networks, and it would be overuse causing the shortage. This may be less of an issue now that there are so many wireless internet based options, but there are still other factors.

A quarter of the cell phone towers were knocked out in a 10-state area. That is a significant loss. Many people had lost cable. Some of that was due to electrical outages,but no matter how much happens via wireless, there are physical components somewhere. There are servers and routers and hubs located somewhere, and any of those can be damaged by physical events.

Personally, I am still a big proponent of keeping a landline. I'm not saying that it's perfect, or that I won't change my mind a little down the road, but there will be times when the landline will work and a cell phone won't. Sometimes it is easier to get calls out of the area than locally, so have a central out of area point where everyone can call in. If bad things ever take over the ground between Aloha and La Center, we will know of each other's safety by telling our sister-in-law's brother in Texas, and we will be able to know that they are fine. That will be good.

For the social networking on smart phones, that is great, and I am really glad that those have been able to help. Those devices are also notorious for heavy battery use, and once power is out, recharging may be difficult. You need to be as smart as your phone. If you know something is on the way, get your devices charged while you can. If it will be more important to have a way to get messages out later, rather than now, then be mature and power down. In a multiple device household, maybe turns can be taken. And if you notice that the battery is draining too rapidly, figure it out. I have an example of that right here (the November 12th post):

http://tinyscreenfuls.com/

Next, work out low-tech ways of communication. One family kept a baby bottle with pencils and paper next to a water meter. Since it was out of the house it was accessible to anyone, it was watertight, and they could leave notes for each other if people needed to be coming and going.

Don't rule out walkie talkies. Yes, the distance is limited, but they can come in handy, and they are fun toys right up until the time that the emergency happens, and then they are useful tools.

HAM radio users get to be the heroes over and over again. They have set up relays when 9-1-1 communication was compromised even for relatively small emergencies, and in a big one they will be the best way of making contact between areas.

It seems like it should be obvious why this is so important, but think about the peace of mind of knowing that your family is okay. I heard from everyone I was worried about, but one of them had relatives they were still waiting to hear from. There were people who died and there were people who lost their homes, so sometimes the news you can get ends up being bad, but nothing eats away at you like uncertainty, and nothing will relieve you like knowing loved ones are safe.

Emergency Plans, Part 2

Last week we acknowledged that one of the difficult things about emergency plan making is that you really need to focus on the negative, considering all of the bad things that can happen.

The plus side of that is that you find there is a lot of overlap. Losing power due to a winter storm plays differently in some ways than a summer brown-out, but there is some common ground. As you prepare your 72-hour kits, you have a start on preparation, and part of the planning becomes adding more food, more water, and more sources of heat and light. Every specific event you learn about and prepare for (like earthquakes and fires) adds to your overall preparation. So, you can build your preparedness gradually, and this is good.

There is something else that is a pain, though, and it is crucial. You need to work out the logistics and communication aspects for various circumstances, and this is a pain because it involves dealing with other people.

It's unavoidable. Once your immediate safety is resolved, you will start worrying about those you care about. Okay, perhaps you can avoid this by not caring for anyone, but that's not a life worth living, so you need to have a plan, and this is where it gets complicated. How does everyone get home? How do different households get in contact?

I remember once I was discussing preparedness with a group of people, and one person was explaining that he had a life jacket and rope in his truck, because he was attending school on the East side of the river while living on the West side. If an earthquake struck while he was in school, the bridges would not be usable, and he knew that, but he was still going to get back to his family by swimming across.

This was a horrible idea. First of all, there could be a seiche, which is the river version of a tsunami. You don't have the sheer volume of the ocean, which helps, but it can mess up the shorelines pretty badly, and I would expect that water to be roiled and full of debris, especially if the bridges have collapsed rather than just being weakened.

At the same time, that he was thinking ahead, and that he knew that he would have a bridge problem was good. You just need to come up with realistic solutions. Sometimes that solution may be that you are not going to get home right away, and that is excruciating, but getting home four days after the event is superior than dying in your attempt to get there sooner.

Clearly, the first step to an emergency plan is to figure out who is where at what times, with work and school being the main ones, and thinking about church is not unreasonable. If there are other places you spend a lot of time at, it may be worth planning for. You can't necessarily foresee every circumstance, but home, school, and work covers a lot of your time.

Potential emergencies are one reason that I am grateful to be working from home, but when I was working downtown, I thought about it. If you had a severe enough earthquake to bring down public transportation, I was prepared to walk home. This brings us to one good point: if you tend to wear shoes that are not good for walking, it is a great idea to have some walking shoes stashed there as well. One of the items in a 9/11 exhibit was a pair of shoes given to a woman who had been walking barefoot after she could not make it down the steps of the World Trade Center in her high heels. She always has walking shoes in her desk now, and I think that's a great idea.

I am pretty much always wearing walking shoes, and I'm a good walker, so that part is not a problem. Walking home via my normal MAX and bus route would not be ideal, based on the terrain and likely disruption. It would make more sense to go North a little and hit a main road into Beaverton. Surfaces look different when you are in a car or on foot. Think about what comes between you and home.

If the disaster struck late in the day, especially in winter, it would probably be reasonable to camp downtown and wait until the next morning. That brings us back to that question of what if you can't get home? Can you sleep at your office? This could be a great reason to keep a 72 hour kit in the office or in your car. Do you have a friend nearby? This is another situation where you have to actually talk to people. Oh, I could crash with Ryan is only actually a plan if you have run it by Ryan and he has said okay.

Even if you have that place to stay, and some supplies, staying there is still frustrating. I would be frantic about my family, and they would be worried too. However, if I know that they know how to turn off the gas if necessary, and that the large furniture was secured, that helps. If they know that I would not be there until the next day, that helps them not to worry.

Maybe there are ways we can communicate with each other at the time, and we'll talk about communication more next week, but having the plan made in advance, and knowing that everybody knows the plan, means that even in the absence of communication we are not completely in the dark.

This means dealing with family members, including annoying ones. The holidays are coming up, so there should be many family gatherings, and chances to discuss this. I'm planning on having some discussions in about a week.


There is one point I want to make that doesn't affect me personally. Last week I mentioned checking with schools and workplaces on what their plans and procedures are, but I just want to point out that if you have children in day care, it is better to go with one close to work than close to home. If you can't get home, but you can get to your children, that will at least provide some peace of mind. Not being able to get to either would be a nightmare.

And I know, you can't make all of your decisions based on the emergency that may never happen, but it's one that's worth looking at.

Making an emergency plan, part 1

Making an emergency plan may be the most overwhelming part of emergency preparedness. A lot of people would vote for food storage, and there is some reason for that, but trying to think of all the horrible things that can happen, and what you would need to do, and what you need to get to do it, is a challenge.

The good news is that there ends up being a lot of overlap between the different emergencies. It's like with the 72-hour kit; whether you are taking it to a Red Cross shelter, or using it at a motel when car trouble strands you in town, or pulling out the flashlights and ready-to-eat foods because power has gone out, it still helps that you have all of those supplies gathered together.

That being said, it is helpful to go over potential emergencies beforehand, because there are specifics where knowing is helpful. If you live near the coast, an earthquake can lead to a tsunami, and you need to know to move to high ground quickly. You also need to know what to do during an earthquake, because not incurring fatal injuries is important to your long-term strategy.

One thing that I love about my house, and means that I will probably never move, is that it is in a good location for preparedness purposes. We are not in a flood plain, or underneath hills for mudslides. We are not near an ocean or a river where a tsunami or a seiche is likely. We are not very close to forests, so a wildfire is unlikely, though not impossible. The power grid is primarily underground, so even during the worst storms we tend to keep power. Those are all things that I value.

We are, of course, at great risk for earthquakes, we can't rule out toxic spills, and we are not in a high tornado area, but freak things happen, as we saw in Aumsville. House fires can happen to anyone, and they can spread. Also, for all the scary things that we are far away from, we are not particularly far from crime (which might be a good reason for moving), and there can always be the plane falling out of the sky, or car crashing into the living room, or something like that. Also, we may keep power in an ice storm, but we still will end up housebound. Oh, and plague! There could always be a plague.

So this is your moment to think about the negative, and if you need to give off a little scream, then do it, and then reel your common sense back in, and focus on the most important. For us, it is the earthquake, followed by winter storms.

I have posts on earthquakes, and there will be more, but that everyone knows what to do in an earthquake, and after, and that we take basic steps for securing the house, like bolting heavy bookcases to the wall, makes sense as our main priority. Having a plan for getting out in a fire is a priority.

Looking at the others, okay, I need to think about a tornado, even though it's unlikely. We don't have a basement. We have a crawlspace that we do not have easy access too, so, do we all huddle in the shower stall, or is there a better spot? That's something to look at. Sure, a tsunami won't strike here, but sometimes I go to the beach, so I should know the basics of that.

The good thing with looking at your most likely problems is that they are also likely problems for your neighbors, employer, and local government. Does your workplace have a plan? Does your school have a plan? Finding these things out can be reassuring, or it can be the inspiration for them to create plans, which will then be reassuring after it is done.

You're not the only one thinking about this. There is information available, and you can look and consider, and go about your preparations in an orderly manner, starting with the most pressing. Here is some good reading:

http://www.fema.gov/
http://ocem.org/preparepage.cfm
http://www.providentliving.org/

Emergency Preparedness: 72-hour kits

I remember being at the cannery once and they were showing us a chart correlating attendance there with natural disasters. There were bumps for Katrina, and the Pakistan earthquake, and the tsunami (the Indian tsunami; that was long before Japan).

I do not doubt that there are going to be some people taking another look at their level of preparedness because of Sandy, and that's great. It's a good thing to, no matter what inspires you. If you are not sure where to start, I hope that what I write over the next few weeks will be helpful.

I have had mixed feelings about 72 hour kits for a while, after someone pointed out that it's not really something that our leaders have told us to do. Their focus has always been more on food storage and paying off debt and building up savings. That emphasis makes sense, as those two areas are useful across multiple situations, even without an emergency. Also, it started becoming an issue a while back that there was a real danger of Red Cross response time going longer than three days, depending on the situation.

However, I have come back around to 72-hour kits because they are a good gateway preparedness item. Right off of the bat, you have three days worth of food and water, and emergency light sources, and thinking about where to store it starts you getting ideas for evacuation scenarios and an emergency plan, so it's a good starting point, and it's where we start.

My rule of thumb is to go through three questions for any item you are thinking of including.

• How likely am I to need it?
• How heavy is it?
• How bad will it be not to have it?

Water you absolutely will need within three days, and you can't survive without it, even though it is heavy. You will certainly need to go to the bathroom at some point, but the difficulty of porting around facilities versus not makes that an easy call. You may not get a headache, but aspirin are light and easy to include, and can be a real help. That's how you think about it.

Based on that, I can see where it would be really easy to skip clothes. If you are buying a commercial kit, it is not going to include clothes or room for clothes, and wearing the same clothes for three straight days is gross, but may not seem that bad. Don't make that mistake.

Having the change of clothes is not just about freshness. It means if the temperature drops, you can add layers. If means if you get wet, you can change into something dry. I can't stress that enough. The weather doesn't even have to be that cold for hypothermia to set in if you are wet, because the water conducts heat away from your body.

There are a couple of extra precautions I take here, besides just having the clothes. I store the clothes in plastic bags, both to increase the odds of them staying dry, and because then later maybe I can use the bag for something else. I keep a plastic garbage bag in every kit, because it can act as a tarp or be used for collecting garbage. (Things that can serve two purposes are great.) I also make sure every kit has a pair of gloves, an extra pair of socks besides the one change of clothes, and ideally a hat and scarf, because the feet, hands, head, and back of neck are key for losing warmth, or for keeping it in. I like to throw in an emergency poncho too, and a solar blanket. Those are lightweight and can really come in handy.

For water, I like to use plastic bottles. I know a lot of people think the juice box style (like the Aqua Literz) and the pouch style (like the Datrex) are really cool, but my thought with the plastic bottles is that I can refill them. You can't really carry as much water as it would be good to have for three days. That would be more like three gallons, and my kits have 1 1/2 liters, which is about average, so being able to refill easily is a plus.

I have never really been into water purification tablets or supplies. I can see the value of it, but I don't like messing with chemicals. Your mileage my vary.

For food, nothing is easier than the Mainstay ration bars, but I think there is something to be said for getting a little variety and flavor, says the girl who based her rations on 9 power bars each. Okay, but they were not all the same flavor, and I supplemented with pudding cups, apples sauce cups, and jerky and nut packs so we had better representation of the various food groups.

The other thing that I do is get little packs of hard candies and keep them in an outer pocket. This is great if you need a quick energy burst or something comforting, or if your blood sugar is suddenly plunging. Actually, when I do a 5K I always keep a pack of peanut M&Ms on me, for the sugar to hit right away and then for the protein in the nuts to kick in. What I will say about my food packs is that when it is time to rotate them, I can get them eaten. I think Mainstay bars would just get thrown out.

Heat, food, and water are all non-negotiable. Everything after that is to some extent for convenience, though the arguments for some of that convenience can be pretty compelling.

Light: You can survive without a light in the dark, but I'd rather not. Also, it can be useful for the ability to signal. Speaking of rotating the food, you need to regularly check your batteries if you have them in flashlights or radios. You can go with glow sticks for the light, and those are an important part of our earthquake supplies, but really, I want flashlights, and we have them.

First aid kits: I mentioned aspirin earlier, but I also find it helpful to have some bandages, sterile wipes, and antibiotic cream. Also, I have a pair of tweezers in my kit. This can be really simple, but make a big difference, and there are some good and compact ready made kits that can easily be tossed in a bag.

Communication: That battery powered radio can be really good, but also I recommend having a pad and something to write with, in case you need to make notes or leave notes.

Cash: It doesn't need to be huge quantities, but having some, preferably in smaller bills, can be handy if electricity or internet is out. Think about everything that is required for a simple debit transaction to work out.

Hygiene: There are certain sprays and wipes that can make things more pleasant, but if nothing else I strongly recommend having hand sanitizer. If you have a child in diapers, in addition to packing the diapers you need the wipes and those associated things, and you may need more garbage bags than you otherwise would. Think about that. (Also, women, you know what might come up. Have a plan for that.)

Medications: I know older couples who keep two weekly pill minder boxes each, and rotate out so at any given time one is in the kit and one is being used. I think it is easier to just make grabbing your medication on the way out part of your emergency plan, but figure that out before it comes up.

Pure comfort items: I've decided that I absolutely need to have cough drops and dental floss. I may not need them, but if I do, I want them, and I will not be happy without them. Your must-have items will be different, but do you know what they are? Or if there are good substitutes?

It may be worthwhile thinking along the lines of entertainment, like a book or a game or a toy, because mental health is valuable too, but maybe you can work something out with the notepad and pencil, or something like that.There is a lot of room for individualization here, based on your personal needs.

Transport: I have always favored the rolling backpack, because I can either carry it or roll it. In truth, that framework may make it less comfortable on the back. I definitely don't want something that is going to wrench my arm out of the socket, or make me walk lop-sided, or hurt my hands (like a pail with a wire handle).

One thing that always surprised me was that local agencies often recommended a rolling garbage can, and that seemed terribly inconvenient, especially to get into a car. Then I realized that if you have small children, they are probably not going to be carrying their own supplies, so a big receptacle for the entire family's supplies made sense. In my household of four adults, that's not an issue.

However, we have pets that are not pack mules, so we need to allow for them too, and I hope it goes without saying that you will have supplies and emergency plans for any dependent animals, as well as for yourself, because they do depend on you. It's very basic: three days worth of food and water, and you are probably better off with collapsible bowls than regular bowls. Treats can be an important form of comfort, but we have had dogs who would not take treats when stressed, so if there is something else that works, find a way to make that happen too. Also a blanket for them to sleep on, and it might not hurt to have some protective paw gear as well, at least for the dogs.

That orange mesh safety fencing can be great for cordoning off an area, but may be impractical. And honestly, she will hate it, but we probably need to come up with a leash for the cat for that kind of a situation, because we will need to let her out of the carrier at times, and could easily lose her this way.

Thinking about these potential issues goes more into emergency plans and evacuations, so that's where we are going to head next week, and it is unpleasant. Thinking about these things is scary. It's like writing out your will and guardianship plans for your children--it is a horrible thing to think that it might be necessary. It's just more horrible that it could be needed and yet not done. Once you have gone through it, and worked it out, that's when you get the peace of mind.

Preparing to make good decisions

It's hard to think about much but Hurricane Sandy right now, in terms of disaster preparedness.

This has been growing on me. Initially, people were only sounding interested or worried about inconvenience, and I hope they're right. Cancelling Halloween activities seems tragic, but it only is in the absence of a high death toll or losing your home. It's that whole perspective thing again.

It is helping to crystallize my thoughts a lot in terms of blog posts that should be happening: emergency plans, 72-hour kits, water safety, evacuation, and food storage. For anyone on the East Coast, though, it's a little late to think about those things. They have probably already done what they need to do, or decided not to do it.

So today is just about making good decisions. All of these memories are coming back about things that did or did not happen. I remember reading one daughter's account of losing her father during Hurricane Katrina. He felt like he did not need to evacuate, and right before phones went out he sounded like he was having some doubts, but it was too late then, and he was gone. I remember a :Leonard Pitts column about a different storm where they decided to ride it out, and ended up regretting it, because it was a lot worse than they expected it to be, but they did all emerge with their lives.

Also, I am thinking about how many people give no credence to climate science, so apparently these gradually worsening storms and droughts and changes in seasons are all big coincidences, while at the same time scientists in Italy have just been convicted of not accurately predicting an earthquake, and it makes one worry about the likelihood of people making good decisions.

So, just for the record, disaster prediction is not as accurate as would be nice, but there are things they can know remarkably well, and evacuation recommendations aren't made lightly. I mean, there are a lot of things that are worth dying for, but refusal to listen to people who probably do know is not a good one, and thrill-seeking probably isn't worth it either.

As we go over the content of the next few weeks, here is one of the greatest recommendations for advance preparation: having less to worry about.

If you need to analyze data, and make a good decision, and maybe need to be feeling some guidance, the less clutter you have in your brain the better. So if you already have three days worth of supplies packed and portable, that's huge. If you have water storage, that's big. If you have an emergency plan and you know exactly where you can go when  you need to evacuate, that really reduces the stress.

One of the pictures I saw from the East is empty shelves in a store, and of course, that happens all the time. But I remember the time when our regular shopping night was before a predicted storm, and they were out of a lot of things, but it didn't really matter because we were really well-supplied, and if the storm had hit earlier and we had not been able to make it to the store at all, it wouldn't have mattered. That feels good. It feels safer, and it means you can help others.

That's priceless.

Preparing to answer questions

So, tomorrow the post on the main blog is one that may get some flack, and if not, the two after it might. I'm not really going to go in to that now, but related to all that I have been thinking about how sometimes we may have things that we don't want to come up. We should want people to ask us about the Gospel, and maybe we do, but we hope they don't ask about garments, or Kolob, or polygamy, or blacks and the priesthood or women holding the priesthood. I guess this is a follow up to two weeks ago on preparing for missionary work.

There are a few things to be understood here. One is that there is no reason to hope that the "weird" topics won't come up. "The Book of Mormon" now does not just refer to a sacred book of scriptures, but also to a popular Broadway play, there's been "Sister Wives" and "Big Love", and even though that isn't us, people still associate it with us, and then, of course, there is the Romney candidacy. I realize there are mixed feelings about how well he represents us, but it should be indisputable that there is a lot more attention on the Church now, and things will come up.

The other point is that even if you feel you have a strong testimony, but there are things you don't like to think about, then that is a potential weakness that could grow, especially when there is growing attention and mockery from the outside.

What I am saying is that we need to think about those issues and make peace with them. It doesn't mean that we will necessarily have an answer for other people. Sometimes the answer may merely be an assurance of peace for now, and that someday it will make sense. That's okay; that's still a testimony.

One thing I remember really clearly from my mission is that a lot of people we would talk to would say that they think if you believe in God that He is real, but if you don't then it doesn't matter. With the Buddhist background there tends to be more of a mindset towards goodness rather than absolute truth, and of course here we believe in being tolerant of other people's beliefs, but at the same time, what you believe does not change what is true.

Trying to tell people that never worked, but I remember one day it came up again with Vathsana, and I didn't argue, or try and logically explain, but I told her that I knew that God was real and that one day we would all have to stand before Him, and that what we do now matters. I bore my testimony, and that allowed the Spirit to touch her, and she had never thought of it like that. That was what worked.

But the testimony has to be there for us to be able to share it, and a testimony that relies on not thinking about the uncomfortable things would have a pretty weak light for showing others.

Now a lot of religions do rely on ignorance a lot, and that is a bad thing. That nourishes the growing disdain for religion, and becomes a stumbling block to others, and that is really horrible. As Mormons, we have no excuse.

Remember who we are. We're the religion that kicked off with James 1:5:

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

We believe that we can receive answers. We believe in the power of the Holy Ghost. We have the Holy Ghost. Are we using that?

We're the religion that believes that "The glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth." (D&C 93:36)

Or how about this bit from section 88:

"78 Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

 79 Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—

 80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you."

We are the one church where activity goes up with education, instead of down. People should not be able to think of us as stupid and blind. We believe the most important trait is charity, and that we need to be filled with love, so there should be no way that people will be able to perceive us as bigots.

We need to be living up to the Gospel, and that involves trusting it, and trusting ourselves.

I admit that there are things I don't completely understand, or I have ideas of how they work, but I am not sure my ideas are correct. I also know that a lot of the things that people make fun of and find weird are some of the best things about the Gospel, and the reason why it is a plan that works for everyone, rather than just people have been lucky enough to be born in the right time and place. And I know the Gospel is true, and the Church is true, and that people have problems, which accounts for almost all of the trouble of the world, but I keep finding that I love more and more of those people, and that it makes this a pretty joyful life. And I'm not going to be scared of any question.

My confidence can wax strong, because it is not about me.

Preparing for death

This is not so much preparing for your death, though it would still help, as preparing for the death of others.

This is just going to be a short post, I think. I'm sick, and I have been editing 250 pages this weekend. The piece I am working on involves a lot of death, and there's actually one scene where a few people get to meet up afterwards.

In the main blog I have been writing a lot about writing, and how part of it is things come out that you hadn't thought about before, and they make sense. When these people get to see each other, there are basically three things that they want to say: I missed you, I'm sorry, and thank you.I guess the subtext of all of them is "I love you".

I was thinking about it because there have been some deaths recently. I believe we get to see each other again, and I do think that makes things easier. I'm not sure how people who don't believe that manage. However, I think the things that you want to stay would be the same. If there is gratitude that you have not expressed, or there is an apology that has not been offered, that is what is going to weigh you down.

The good news is, we don't need to leave those things unsaid. Thank you is easy to say. It should be followed by "You're welcome." Don't negate the other person's gratitude with attempts at modesty and self-negation. Saying "You're welcome" gives people closure. The next time you thank someone and they try to tell  you it's nothing, see how frustrating that is, and don't do it to anyone else. Give and accept freely.

Apologies are not as easy as thank yous, but mastering that ability is an amazing thing, and not doing it will hurt you more than not saying "thank you". Remember, you never know when it will be the last time that you see someone.

I think I learned a lot of that from Eric. You just never had a bad experience with him. He was always glad to see you, and always kind. He left a hole when he was gone by his absence, but there were no regrets, other than wishing he had gotten a faster diagnosis.

That kind of leads to the last part: I missed you. There's not a way around this one. It's probably the one the least necessary to say. In fact, the response ends up being "I know." But this could end up being the most important part.

I think sometimes with religious people, because we know it's not the end, there is an impulse to downplay the grief, like it shows a lack of faith. That's not it. The separation hurts. Knowing it is not final keeps it from turning into despair, and that is valuable, but it still hurts.

I remember once sending a card to a friend after her mother died, and as I was writing it I realized the complete inadequacy of it. I couldn't say anything to make it better, but I had to write because I cared, and she was hurting. Basically what I wrote in the card was that I knew I couldn't help, and she wrote back that it was the only thing that did help. It's strange that people would need permission to grieve, because surely they are doing it anyway, but somehow, that validation helped. Maybe because it came with love.

So miss people. Cry, and remember, and feel grateful that it is not the end, but go ahead and be sad about the pause in the relationship. That's life, and death. I can't verbally explain how it works, but I know that it does.

You only hear the music when  your heart begins to break.

Preparing for missionary work

It did not take long for Conference to make me go "Wow" yesterday. Actually, it happened twice. First when President Monson said that young men could go at 18, there was one "Wow", and then I wondered if they would lower it to 19 for women, and they did. Wow.

I'm going to travel back in time here for another example of me getting weird thoughts in my head. Back when I was in the Missionary Training Center (entered 2/3/1993), I was studying Laotian, but I was the only Lao sister, so my companions were two Hong Kong-bound sisters in the Cantonese class next door. One thing that was commonly repeated by the missionaries studying any of the Chinese languages (because missionaries going to Taiwan studied Mandarin) was that whenever China was opened up for the preaching of the Gospel, all of the missionaries who had ever served a Chinese-speaking mission would be called to serve again, and there would be so much work in China, that missionaries would only go there.

I believe this was one of those faith-promoting rumors, where it starts with some truth--China has a lot of people and it would take a lot of missionaries to cover it--and then it gets overblown and picks up elements that are not true. I do remember thinking about it though, and thinking that to really cover things fairly, you would need to triple the number of missionaries: one third for the existing work, one third for other areas where more people were needed or that were not currently open, and then one third for China.

At the time we had 46,025 missionaries, so I rounded up and decided we would need 150,000 missionaries. The other thing they said about the opening of China is that temples would be built faster than meetinghouses. This actually makes a lot of sense. You can meet in schools and basements and hotels and conference rooms, and people have, but temple work needs temples. I can't find the exact number, but I think it was about 48 temples then, so I decided we would need 150.

While I was still in the field, President Benson died and President Hunter became the President of the Church. I remember being amazed at the strength he projected, when he had been so sick, and he exhorted all members to have current temple recommends, even if they were not able to attend the temple due to distance.

Something I had realized in terms of where you can put temples is that you need people who can go before you can have one in the area. There need to be people who can be workers and attendees, and yes, for some of the workers and the presidency you can call people to the area, but you still need a base. Seeing this made me feel like it would pave the way for more people to go, because while it would still be impossible for some, maybe there were others for whom it was only improbable, and getting their recommend would inspire them to find the possible.

I guess it was about three years later that President Hinckley announced the smaller temples, both the idea of how it was going to work, and a slew that were already planned. That was an amazing announcement, and I was briefly overcome by the implications.

Since then the number of temples has skyrocketed. I think the last count was 139 operating, with another 28 announced, under construction, or under renovation. 150 seemed like it would take forever, but is happening way faster than I could ever have imagined.

The number of missionaries has increased as well, but not by nearly as much. The 2011 report cited 55410 full-time missionaries, which is comparatively a much smaller change. Of course now there are over 20,000 service missionaries, a number that used to be included in with the full-time, and of course the temples are permanent while missionaries rotate in and out, but still, I would say we don't have enough to teach the whole wide world, which I guess was what I had in mind with 150,000. (Actually, now that I think about it, I probably decided it should be 144.000 to match Revelation.)

Now let me try and come to a point. There were steps that were needed to make it possible for the temples to grow, like getting the members to focus on temple-worthiness and coming up with the idea of smaller temples. Consider that to be the preparation of the infrastructure to allow the growth.

I think this is also from my mission, but I also remember someone explaining that part of the older age for women to go is that there would be too many wanting to go otherwise, and they could not handle the influx. To have more missionaries you need greater training center capacity, lodgings, more mission presidents, you need transportation--you need the ability to deal with all of those extra people and their needs.

The announcement makes me feel like we must be ready for another leap forward. I don't know what has changed, but our capacity is greater. The need is there, and I see this as being a movement towards filling that need.

It may not be right for everyone. I think there can be some advantages to having that first year of college under your belt, and then going out. However, for people who want to join the military, or are not interested in college, or don't know what to do with themselves yet, this can be huge. And yes, people are excited about girls still being able to go, and get married younger. At first look, that gives me qualms, but if girls are going to get married young, doing so after having served a mission should really help mitigate the lack of life experience.

I thought writing this post would be about my remembering that missionary work is important and exciting, and how can I participate more. If all members are really doing a good job, maybe we don't need 150,000 full-time missionaries. That is important, but as I was writing it also became about the importance of laying a groundwork and building a strong foundation, but also we are not doing it with an architect's knowledge. If you're constructing a building, you probably know what you need for the foundation, and how to do it, and are keeping track while it is being laid. In life, there are things happening that you do not realize. You think you are just dealing with some hassle, but actually rebar is going in.

We live in exciting times. Sometimes I get why that is a curse, but usually I like it. For my preparation, I am trying to remember to pray for missionary opportunities, and I did create a profile on Mormon.org and link it to my Facebook profile. These are minor things, but they're a start.

I guess we can always use more people who speak Chinese.

Preparing to be human

Part of revisiting this blog is that I am moving forward in where I want to be as a writer and a person, and I have been doing pretty well, and a lot of it has to do with time management. For the most part, I accomplished what I wanted to last weekend.

One thing that I had not counted on was how much the painting would tire me out. I did get the travel blog post done, but I also intended to get another sequence in the comic book written, and I found I did not have the mental energy for it. That was not a huge issue in itself, but one of the things that has been very important for me is to not play computer games, because they keep me from doing other things. Since I was not going to be doing other things anyway, I decided to indulge. Bad decision.

It's not that the time I spent playing them Saturday night, after I had accomplished painting the bathroom, was a big deal. It's that it got me into playing mode again, and there has been time foolishly wasted ever day this week because of it. Friday I told myself it was enough, and made a list of things that I wanted to get done this weekend, the bulk of which would happen on Saturday.

Saturday morning started out okay, if not great. It would not have hurt to have gotten up earlier, but I still had breakfast, walked the dogs, and then as we came in and I was handing out cookies, Jack would not take his and started acting strangely, and needed to lie down. I helped him get into a better position, but his breathing was bad and his eyes were not alert, and I realized we were losing him.

Jack was fourteen years old, and that's about the limit for a greyhound. We have had two make it to fifteen, but it's rare. So we knew this was coming, and honestly, it went as well as it could go. We did not have to make the decision to put him down, he did not have a prolonged period of wasting away, and compared to the other two who have died on their own, his was the most peaceful. Also, we were able to get someone to pick him up relatively easily, which you can't count on during weekends. None of which changes that there are a lot of tears and depression and disruption.

When I was recently thinking about how much I dread things going wrong and taking time away from me, I did think about losing Jack, because I knew it was coming, and there is no such thing as a good time. This was supposed to be a busy day, and things that I had not planned on included sitting with him making sure that he was never alone until the breathing stopped, sitting with Mom, and also useless brooding. The day was not what I planned, and also not even optimal for for the day once the loss becomes unavoidable. But there are two days in which it was okay.

One is that I did still do some things. I did rally myself to go out and prune, because yard debris comes Tuesday, and to run some of the errands, and send some of the messages that I meant to, and even to read another chapter in Guns. Germs and Steel. I also got more clear on the DVR, because television watching was more possible than some things. Some of that is because life marches on inexorably, and we have to keep time, and that's good for us.

Part of it is also that I am realizing more that it is okay that we are weak and fallible. It's not that I don't need to give up the games again, because I totally do. But the fact is that there are things that hurt us, and they slow us down, and that doesn't have to be bad. It could be, if we stayed slow, or stopped, but there is ebb and flow and steps back along with the steps forward, and I have great peace with that.

Also, as much as I do want to become a professional writer and to be a force for good on a broader scale, I also want to be there for my family, and for pets, and for friends, and so I can't have one all-consuming goal that blocks other things out. I want to have a rich life, full of love and kindness, and that involves many things, including, I suppose, a certain amount of acceptance of human frailty, mine and others.

So I call this preparing to be human, and really, it's not that. Being human requires really no preparation. It just happens, ready or not. You can prepare to be okay with it, though. You can understand that things will not go as planned, and still be grateful for what goes right. You can embrace people and animals, knowing you will lose them, and that before you lose them they may be pains on a regular basis. You can know what you want, and aim for it, and still be ready to be grateful for whatever it is that you get. Then your humanity looks less like a burden and more like a gift.

Home and Preparedness Audit

It's been a while.

As I get started with the blog again, I am at a point where I am not starting from scratch, but I don't have a good view of exactly where I am. We have food storage, but I am not sure exactly how much. We have 72 hour kits, but some things need to be replaced, and I need to check them. It is good that we have something, but not being sure of your assets is not a huge confidence builder.

One thing I have been meaning to do for a while is to go over the entire house, and make a list of all needed and desired changes. This goes well with the preparedness, because some of the changes are preparedness related.

To tell you a little bit about the house, it was built in 1970. New earthquake requirements went into effect in 1978, so we are not bound by code there. We replaced the chimney the last time we re-roofed, so it is reinforced, but the house is almost certainly not bolted to the foundation, and I don't think we even have a cripple wall, but if we do I am sure it is not reinforced.

It is a wood-frame house, which is good. Other things that I like about it is that it is not in a flood plain or at the base of a hill, it is not in a tsunami zone, and the power lines are underground, so it is pretty rare for us to lose power, even in bad winter storms. (Also, it has four bedrooms and a large front and back yard. We have four people and dogs, so, that works well.)

Right now, my first need is to audit my home. This means going through the house room by room, then around the house and the yards, and take note of what needs to be done, and whether it is cosmetic or convenience or for safety or for energy efficiency, and establish priorities. It also makes sense to note whether they will be major expenses or projects, or fairly minor ones. For example, yesterday I painted the bathroom. This was a pain, but it took one day and cost about $40, so that is not major. Changing out the toilet seats is a minor cosmetic detail, so not important in that way, but is also inexpensive, takes only a few minutes, and I can do it myself.

At the same time, I need to go through and audit myself for emergency preparedness. What do we have? Where is it? What condition is it in? How important is it? How difficult would the upgrade be?

Going through that process should give me plenty of projects and writing material, especially in setting priorities for what needs to be done before the end of the year, and what feels like it can wait.