walked with mom for 55 min

I had a really, really, really, really bad day at work today. Needed 3 clones of myself. The walking really helped with the stress build-up. And after watching the news I realized my day wasn't that bad since I wasn't in New Orleans or Mississippi.

Reading some of the new articles made me rethink my emergency planning. We have some pretty bad snow storms here occassionally. A couple years ago I was trapped in the house for 3 days because of the snow. We had drifts over 10 feet high covering the roads. Fortunately the electricity didn't go off so I was able to work. I had enough food in the house so that didn't bother me either.

But it could be a bad situation if the electricity went out for an extended amount of time. During the early eighties there was a large movement about survival preparedness. Everyone thought we would have WWIII with Reagan so it was a big topic. At the time it made sense to me to have some extra put aside for emergencies. I've always had a pretty full pantry and stored water, paper products etc. This storage really helped me out when I was laid off in 1994 and spent the next year living on my savings while going to school.

In 1982 I bought a book called Urban Alert! Emergency Survival for City Dwellers by Mary Ellen Clayton and Bruce Clayton. Ph.D. It provides an overview of things to stock up with and how to survive in various situations.

Based on what I'm reading about the hurricane victims I think the following would be a good idea to me to strive for to be prepared.

1. Water. I keep 2 6 gal containers of water and 2 cases of bottled water in my house. I think I should add a couple more cases of water. Water is very precious when it's scarce and it's very cheap to stockup on.

2. More foods that are easy to prepare in an emergency. I need to stockpile more canned goods, crackers, , canned fruit, canned milk, cereal, peanut butter and chocolate. Foods that taste good will help in a stressfull situation.

3. 1 month emergency fund in cash. A lot of the people in Mississippi can get to some stores, but no one is taking credit cards, it's cash only for gas and groceries. I have some cash at home, but a couple hundred dollars doesn't go very far. Would I really miss the extra $20-$30 in interest this cash would make in the bank by keeping the money at home?

4. 6 months emergency cash in liquid bank funds. I have 6 months saved, but some of it would be a little hard to get to. Need to move some money around and make it more liquid. A lot of these people have lost everything, but they still have the bills. They still have to pay for the car that's gone, the house that's gone, the furniture that's gone. They've also lost their jobs and once they are moved out of New Orleans will have to pay to live somewhere. They need liquid money to get them over the hump until they find new jobs. Hopefully most of them are insured.

5. Extra paper products and hygiene products. Toilet paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste etc. Should keep a 3 month supply of these on hand.

6. Consolidated financial records that I can grab and take quickly if I need to evacuate my house. I have these in 3 places need to put them all in one place.

7. Good Insurance for replacement of all personal possessions. Need to review my policy when it's up for renewal.

8. Some form of emergency lighting and heating equipment. I have the emergency lights, but need to look into an emergency heat source.

I'm going to reread the book and see what else I should be doing. I think it's a lot smarter to be prepared and maybe not need it, than to expect the government to step in and supply your needs. They don't seem to be able to do much in this situation.

I'll list my Sept goals tomorrow since this is getting kind of long.

I finished reading my book Tripwire by Lee Child. Mystery. Very good. His books always suck me in and are difficult to put down.