On Being Prepared: May
During the ice storms back in February we had a few brief power outages, and we've had the lights flicker off several times in the past few weeks during some crazy thunderstorms.Question:
How is it so impossible to find an operating flashlight when you really need one?!
I felt like an idiot, burning my fingers with a stupid tea light candle (spilling wax on my shirt and having to listen to Reese reminding me of the rule: "not to touch the candles 'cuz you'll get burned") and rifling through a whole dang closet full of food storage until I'd retrieved the perfectly organized and labeled BOX of flashlights (you know, in case of an emergency?) only to discover we had ZERO batteries that size in the house. SO prepared!
We had some of those wind up flashlights, but they really only do last about a year, and are now left with no life in them....I'm not completely sold. Maybe it was the particular brand we purchased. But the whole WIND UP idea in general has not impressed me so far.
Last spring, we had a little tornado scare that resulted in my family, and a family we were meeting for the first time (I filled in temporarily on a babysitting job for a few weeks when a friend -the regular babysitter- had her baby) all hunkering down in my bathroom to wait out a storm. Anyway, here we are all crammed into my tiny ugly (pre remodel..I should let them know that babysitting those kids payed for that remodel!) bathroom and the mom is FREAKING out about the storm..because they have one of those bomb shelter rooms down in their basement.
To give her some piece of mind, I pulled out the emergency package that I store under the bathroom cabinet (for occasions such as this) full of toys for the kids, water bottles, fruity snacks, and a wind up weather radio. We've never used it before, so I started winding and after a few seconds, stopped to find a station so I'd be able to tell when I'd wound the thing up long enough.
The reception was fuzzy, and the mom was growing antsy and impatient. She took the radio from me and started winding it frantically and broke the handle right off. Now it is useless. In her defense...I really think the wimpy handle SHOULD have been built a little stronger. Most people USING a wind up emergency weather radio ARE using it because it is an emergency, and probably are a little shaky or upset. So before tornado/severe thunderstorm season is in full swing, I need to purchase a new emergency radio. AND some more flashlights.
For now, I've settled on re-chargable batteries for the flashlight situation. We are blessed to have the fireplace as a heat source to keep us warm, and in the event of power loss our biggest inconveniences are light and not having power in the kitchen.
Luckily, the power was back on around the same time that the novelty of having a tent in the living room wore off. I discovered that more important than batteries would be a wind-up TV. I can live without light, man...but when real emergencies strike, I realize more then, than ever that we need some Dora up in here!
May=Power Outage Preparedness Month
-Store batteries for the 15 empty flashlights in the emergency preparedness bin.-Store matches WITH the box of tea lights.
-Fill propane tank for gas grill and finally install the burner element on the grill so we could boil things easily.
-split and stack more firewood.
-restock the bin in the bathroom with new water bottles, fruity snacks, toys, a flashlight, and a new weather radio) yeah it's been a year and I haven't done that yet. The 72 hour kits are finished though!
-purchase a new wind up weather radio. This time I'd like to get one of the radios that has a little alarm that beeps even when it's turned off when you are in a tornado watch.
By the way...have you tried those Lithium batteries? Those suckers last FOREVER!
