I was talking with Guido here in the office yesterday about Trump’s ear-piercing. He said, “..yeah if we were out shopping or on the road and I heard that news the he’d been killed I’d have said ‘lets go. Back to the house. Now. Some crap is going to go down.”
Curious, I asked him what he would do in a situation like that. “Dude..we’d probably head to her parents. They have a piece of land outside of town. We could stay there if we needed to.”
Interesting.
“You know”, I said, “If you really believe thats what you’d do, you might want to think about getting one of those big black-n-yellow storage tubs from CostCo and put some stuff in there…change of clothes, toiletries, dog stuff, a pistol, y’know…that sort of thing. Pre-stage it up there so it’s one less thing to worry about. Have your ducks in a row.”
Even if youre not an end-of-the-world kinda guy, this sort of planning has utility. Let’s say an event happens…forest fire, hurricane, tornado, etc….and, for whatever reason, you have to leave your nicely stocked and fortified home. Maybe you’ve got your little bugout location all prepped and awaiting your arrival. Great. But what if you can’t get to it? Or you don’t have such an option? For many of us that means asking family/friends outside the danger zone if we can crash with them for a few days until things blow over.
If your friends/family are like-minded individuals, then you’ve got a pretty good situation going on. If theyre not, well, blood is thicker than water so maybe they’ll let you couch surf for a few days.
But, what makes it a far easier experience for both host and guest is if the guest has their own supplies and gear so they don’t put out their host, who may already be operating under stressful circumstances if the disaster that affected you is affecting them as well. For example, if an earthquake knocked down your neighborhood and you’re staying with your sister and her family a mile away, her place, though still standing, may be without power..or water…so whatever you can do to ease the situation is gonna go a long way towards making you a more welcome guest.
All this to say that it isn’t the dumbest idea in the world to grab a big ol’ tote or two and stuff in some clothes, toiletries, batteries, flashlights, food, pistol, ammo, medstuff, and other essentials and tuck them away where you might need them if you have to beat feet from your primary location and cant get to your secondary (or don’t have a secondary).
Look, I’m a somewhat squared away guy and I have enough ‘extra’ that a houseguest or two isn’t going to be a practical problem. But it’s a far less problem if they come with food, fuel, sleeping gear, a folding cot, toiletries, fuel, water, etc, etc.
If things come crashing down and your plan is to head to Uncle Bob’s cabin or your brothers ranch? Start staging some stuff there, man. Ask if when a crisis happens, can you come to their place for a short stay? Emphasize that you’d like to preposition a couple totes in the basement or garage or attic of stuff so they don’t have to treat you like a welfare case.
It’s nice to think that if we had to leave the security and safety of our home we would have time to grab a dozen totes, pile them into the truck, and head to the Beta Site. But thats a best-case scenario and those almost never happen. Think more along the lines of you’re at CostCo and the way to your return home is cut off….bridge collapse, train derailment, roadblocks, ground fissures, rockslides, whatever….going home has suddenly stopped being an option. Nice to know you can head over to buddy Steve’s where you know theres clean clothes in your size, toiletries, food, a cot, a radio, extra cash and cards, and that sort of thing waiting for you in those boxes you left there last time you guys got together for a fishing trip.
Depending on the nature of your work, you can use your workplace for this sort of emergency caching. Maybe you own your own business and have a big steel building with a fence around it. Nothing says you cant keep a couple footlockers full of goodies in a corner of the warehouse, maybe a few five-gallon jugs of gas and water, and have that as your off-site resupply.
If you’re really dialed in, and you can afford it, you might go one or two levels of redundancy on this sort of thing. Identical stashes at dad’s cabin and at Steve’s house. Potentially an expensive way to do things but if the situation ever calls for such measures…well…the last thing you’ll be thinking about is what it cost.
Anyway, just something to think about as we continue our descent into clownworld.
