Preparedness 2011

This is the eighth annual National Preparedness Month.

Ideally, our first priority is to prepare our evacuation kits since they may be used anywhere if stored in our vehicles where they would be easily accessible whether we're at work, home, or simply running errands.

Ideally, we'd have our stuff in backpacks, duffel bags, or other easily transportable containers in case we have to abandon our vehicles and walk.

As a traveler, I already have travel packs and wheeled suitcases I could use. However, the travel packs are too small for everything I want to have on hand and the wheeled suitcases are too heavy and bulky to easily navigate rough terrain.

My solution is to get a backpack. However, I need to figure out what capacity I need before I'm ready to shop for one. Since I'll have to go out of town to get the best fit and avoid mail-order returns, it doesn't have the highest priority. I rather research reviews online to narrow the field, first.

So, I converted my Preparedness Food & Beverage list last week to a text file and transferred it to my Kindle as a reusable shopping list for the items I need to check every six months for rotation.

All I have left to do this month are the following:

1. Go shopping and rotate my food and water supplies.

2. Replace all batteries, saving those being phased out for my electronic Solitaire game.

3. Check the air in my car's spare tire. This should be done whenever I check my tires, but I usually put it off and now I can't recall when it was last done, it's been so long.

4. Add a bottle of hand sanitizing gel to my car kit because it will also help start a fire.

Simple dimple!