Disaster Preparedness

There have been a lot of disasters around the country during the past couple months--poisoned water in West Virginia, rain storms, wind storms, snow storms, etc.  We feel kind of sheltered here in Las Vegas as, aside from the heat during the summer, there really aren't any natural disasters that are common to the area.  But, the recent news of all of these disasters has made me think we need to be better prepared.  Here are the things I need to do to get better prepared:

• Put together a comprehensive first aid kit
• Get a fire extinguisher
• Get a CO2 detector
• Keep a bigger stockpile of bottled water in the garage
• Keep more cash on hand in the event of a disaster where ATMs don't work
• Get a safe for said cash
• Make an emergency "grab and go" bag (toiletries, change of clothes, etc)
• Store a couple weeks of food that could be eaten in an emergency (not MREs but similar)
• Get my first aid/CPR/AED card renewed
• Put some sort of security system in our house (there are quite a few now that connect to your cell phone)
• Make sure there is a flashlight with new batteries in each room of the house
• Stockpile stuff we would need if we couldn't get to the store for a week or so (toilet paper, soap, etc)
• Start a small garden to provide a tiny portion of our food (tomatoes, chard, etc are easy to grow)
• Get a concealed carry license for Nevada (I've always had one of these but haven't got around to taking the course here in Nevada)
• Go shooting (I haven't practiced in AGES)
• Make sure our car is well prepared for an emergency (food and water in the car, etc)

Well that's a short list.  When I used to drive hours each day for work, my car was much better prepared than it is now, also when we were used to having mini disasters happen--flooding, snow storms, power outages, etc--our home was much better prepared.  In fact, some years ago, most of my work revolved around being prepared for large scale disasters so it was natural to have the latest updated training, the cool gear, and the stockpiles of everything from matches to tarps to medical supplies.  I think we have become a bit lazy in our retirement so I plan to rectify this situation soon.

Daily update

• Walk: 2 miles (969 miles to go!  I now keep my walking shoes in the car and, like today when hubby was playing poker, I went to a nearby park and did my walk there).
• No spend:  Fail.  I should have planned for being gone all day and packed us a lunch but I didn't so after bowling and before poker we were starving and came upon a new Greek Restaurant--which was really really yummy by the way--and we ended up spending $23.16 for lunch which is WAY too much money for lunch.  
• Update this blog: yep
• Update client's blog: yep
• Photo: yep
• Client work: 1 hour
• Genealogy: sent in a form to correct my grandmother's death certificate (which was free).  There is one more death certificate I need to correct but for that state is costs $34 to do it! :(
• Writing: a couple of pages written on my fabulous tablet during hubby's bowling!