Monday, February 27, 2012

Layering


Since my last post, a few things happened.

The first was I started wondering why I'm carrying a mini survival kit in my purse while running errands when I have a complete kit in my car. If I can't get back out to my car from a one- or two-story building, I'll be coping with worse problems than a mini kit would be able to help me with, considering I'll still have my micro kit on me.

The second thing was that the purse I was using, that contained my mini kit until I went back to a micro kit, broke. It didn't upset me as much as it could have since I didn't really like it because it forced me to wear the strap on my right shoulder when I'm more comfortable hanging a cross-body bag on my left shoulder, but I used it to run errands only about once a week for less than six months and think it should have lasted longer.

The third thing is that I popped the weight of my air travel survival kit up to three pounds by adding a first aid kit and some Clif bars. After all, if there's a forced landing or a crash, the likelihood of needing a FAK and something to eat will be greater. I'm not concerned with forced landings or crashes near airfields or populated areas because emergency response will be within minutes, but for those large expanses of wilderness or ocean that airplanes habitually fly over that may not receive aid for several hours or even days.

As a result, I really put my back into the thinking process and came up with a layering system of component bags.

The first is to replace my broken purse with another only large enough for my micro survival kit and my Kindle, cell phone, and wallet items. This mini purse will serve for running errands.

The mini purse for errands will tuck into a larger purse for day trips or road trips. In friends' vehicles, I'll have my mini kit in the larger purse with my mobile survival kit along as well.

For air travel, I plan to use a large tote as my personal bag. Inside the tote will be a waist pack containing a small survival kit and my day trip purse with my errands purse inside.

I think having a mini purse for errands that fits into a larger purse will make changing purses a lot easier since all I'll have to do will be to transfer the errands purse to whichever larger bag I'll need.

Also, for museums, galleries, and some stores that prohibit large purses, making you check them or leave them with the store's cashier, being able to pull out a smaller purse containing ID, cash, credit/debit cards, and other valuables such as a cell phone and Kindle would give me more peace of mind than leaving them with a stranger.

Besides, this way, I get to shop for two purses to replace the one that broke. With our being on the threshold of spring, it translates to my shopping for four purses: two sizes in a dark color for the rest of winter plus two sizes in a light color for summer.

Whee!


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