How Can We Prepare For The Unexpected?

Focused on the arrival of my third grandson (due on Labor Day), it was the middle of September before I realized that this is National Preparedness Month. The announcement had loitered in a heap of to-be-read emails. In a normal year, I might have neglected it. If I opened it at all, I would have skimmed it. Not this year. The tagline compelled me to give it my full attention.

The 2020 National Preparedness Month theme is Disasters Don’t Wait. Make Your Plan Today.

I read along. The body of the message emphasized the importance of personal and community disaster planning. It made another crucial point. Due to the lingering novel-coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming flu season, it’s imperative that we take steps to ready ourselves and our households for potential disaster. Viruses aside, I considered what other areas of our country are currently grappling with, events like earthquakes, forest fires and hurricanes. (Those of us in the north already know how to get ready for winter–it’s not a natural disaster, but a seasonal reality!)

Disaster readiness has always been a vital task, but this is the first year I studied the prep list in earnest (thank you Covid-19).

Preparedness means:

• Tuning into local TV and radio stations for important updates
• Filling our cars with gas
• Stocking up on nonperishable food, water, and medicine (I added TP and paper towels!)
• Storing important documents like passports, social security cards, etc. in a waterproof container
• Having a first-aid kit handy (the Army Rangers in my family insist that duct tape is a must-have)
• Staying clear of both standing water and ground water (think electrocution)
• Avoiding tap water for fear of contamination
• Charging phones (time to get everyone in the household their own charger)
• Preparing the house – do a perimeter check and store outside items safely
• Checking that pets have identity tags (i.e. attached to their collars)

Given current times, the theme Disasters Don’t Wait. Make Your Plan Today resonated with me. While preparedness is definitely a seriousness matter, there’s another aspect to this readiness business to consider.  Even if we load up on the appropriate amount of bottled water, meds, toilet paper, frozen food, batteries, duct tape, and stock our pantries, undoubtedly, we’ll come up short in some area.  It’s Murphy’s Law. There will be some item we won’t have purchased in enough quantity (in March, this was toilet paper), and rationing will commence.  Or, there will be an unforeseen chore that we neglected to consider, and that will give the inner critics (and significant others) reason to curse.

In short, hindsight is always 20/20.

Here’s a ridiculous example. This morning, I was slow in getting my Sunday started.  As mentioned in the opening, my newest grandson entered this crazy world just after Labor Day. Since then, my daily routine has been to dart back and forth to my daughter’s house, to drop off meals, and to entertain my other grandson, an active two-year-old.  For an afternoon of playing on the floor with cars, trucks, diggers or reading books, I decided on yoga pants.

When I pulled up the form-fitting, black Lycra bottoms, something felt weird at the waistline.  Perhaps Where is Baby’s Belly Button? –a book which I’d read several times the day before–had infiltrated my subconscious. Regardless, I fingered my belly button and felt something that was … not soft!  Panicked, I charged to the bathroom and reached for a Q-tip (you should put these in your first aid kit, on top of the duct tape, next to tweezers). I won’t belabor the point by being gross. It was a crumb. A leftover scrap of food had lodged in my navel.

How does a crumb find its way into a physical crevice that is ALWAYS under wraps? What physical malady would I have been subjected to if the errant crumb had begun to mold? How did this happenwas quickly replaced with how could I have prevented it, and how will I prevent it from happening in the future(bibs, turtlenecks and diligent checking come to mind)?

My point in mentioning this silly anecdote is that we just can’t know all of what we should or could be making ready for….

I’m committed to adhering to the National Preparedness Month checklist, and I plan to augment it with more Q-tips and an extra roll of duct tape. This week, I will be strolling down the aisles of CVS for other must-have preparedness items.  So, if you see me out and about, be sure to flag me down. I’ll gladly share my latest, disaster readiness shopping list.

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