Living in perilous times

I don't actually know anyone who took the announce Rapture seriously, but a couple of months ago there was a different quack predicting a major West Coast earthquake for the week of March 21st, and that did make some people nervous. (The guy, Jim Berkland, actually does have some credentials, but I guess he's let it go to his head, and if you check his web site he is referring to 3.0 quakes as "major", so okay, that's one way of looking at it.)

Anyway, I rolled it over in my mind, because I certainly do believe that the Pacific Northwest is due for a major earthquake (for me that would be bigger than 3.0, however), and I believe we are at a time when we are going to see increasing natural disasters. Fortunately, I found that I feel pretty good about things.

I can't say that I am as prepared as I would like to be. I would like to have more food storage, have it be better organized, and have more space to put it. Honestly, we should probably have more water storage than we have. But we do have some, and that is helpful. We have flashlights, and batteries. We have a first aid kit. We could definitely be better about having every single member of the family ready to shut the gas off at a moment's notice, so that's something to work on, but the point is, the worst I have is things to work on, rather than abject fear and panic.

We had a similar situation a few months earlier. They were predicting heavy snow or ice, and I am sure all of the memories of those weeks spent homebound in 2008 contributed, but the stores were packed with people emptying the shelves. We were there because it was our normal shopping night, but I remember being glad that I did not have to panic--we had supplies. The only real concern I had was milk, and that is due as much to our rate of milk consumption varying as to milk being perishable.

I don't want to give the wrong impression. There are a lot of things that we could do better and I hope to continue to improve. My point is just that whatever preparation you do will be a comfort.

In my first aid class, I had this insight that I think a lot of my zeal for learning is because I feel like knowledge will help me keep situations from spiraling out of control, and I am wrong. There are a lot of wild cards out there, and you can't plan for everything. It doesn't matter how good I am at first aid if you get decapitated--I am not going to be able to fix that. Or if the blow to the head comes to me, again, I am no longer in charge of that situation.

That being said, ignorance isn't going to make anything better, and the more things that I am ready for, well, I guess it just improves the odds of a good outcome, and I will take that.

Finished June Ensign
Walked 21 minutes outside