Monday, August 17, 2009

Best be prepared

It's been a strange week. Monday morning, the power went out, and it didn't come back on til the afternoon. And in this heat, it was a horrible experience being in a place with no backup generators and the a/c is out. It was stuffy and overbearing, and no one can really think straight when you're burning up. Nobody wants to work and patience runs short! Opening a window didn't help, because it was hot and dusty outside. It was like being slow roasted in an oven, and I was sweating hard! We all were. Thank goodness my deodorant works well. I wish I could say the same for others. Some people stunk awful, like old dirty socks--festering, moldy, crusted socks! But how exactly do you tell someone that they reek without it sounding offensive?

On Wednesday, I was glad that I took a shower early that morning because by 8 o'clock, the water had stopped. It was out all day! Turning on the sinks only resulted in pitiful spits and a gurgling, gasping sound from the pipes. You might think that so long as you have drinking water from the bottle, you'll be okay. And you would be, say, if you lived in the wilderness. But people in the city have to use toilets--or at least they're supposed to--and when the toilets don't work, well, it's not a pretty sight (or smell). And with this heat, you need another shower when you get home just to wash off the dust and grime and sweat that's covered most of your body.

On Thursday, phone lines were down in the afternoon. It's a good thing that I didn't need to make an emergency call. Come Friday, the cable was out for a few hours! It's not so bad when you have other things to do, but it sure does suck when you want to sit down and watch tv.

I'm not sure what's causing all these break downs. Now it could be just a coincidence, the usual failure of infrastructure from decay or the need for routine maintenance. Or maybe this is the government's new way of preparing us to survive a hurricane disaster, when things don't work. Perhaps it's a sign of an impending apocalypse. Or quite possibly, this may be the work of gremlins who ate food after midnight, got wet, multiplied, and are planning to take over the world.

It was late, and I could've sworn it was a stray cat!




Whatever the cause, I want to be prepared. I'm restocking up on the survival supplies--flashlights, batteries, canned goods and water, blankets, multi tool/pocket knife and matches and lighters. I also need some baby wipes--they're much better than toilet tissue and I can use them to wash up should water become scarce. I'm also going to include extra clothes, important documents, first aid kit, travel kit, and cash. In addition to these basic items, I'm thinking of adding booze--might be a long while til help arrives. I may also need a weapon, possibly a rifle. This'll come in handy to fend off the looters, the vicious roving gangs that survive the apocalypse, and quite possibly, help eliminate the gremlins should they get out of hand.

18 comments:

  1. Ah, so you're turning into a survivalist for when the end of the world comes!

    Then you need to grow a beard, move to an underground log cabin somewhere remote, and start collecting guns!

    Pretty soon after, this will be on your TV:
    One
    Two
    Three

    Good luck, and Remain Indoors.

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  2. Mr E , that sounds ghastly but character building, you have to pity Miss MJ , imagine the collective stench of the harem of houseboys after a hard days work Chez Informaniac if the water goes out.....dreadful

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  3. Duct Tape. The Department Of Homeland Security says we're all supposed to have Duct Tape!

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  4. hurricane kits, earthquake kits, 24 hrs on a plane with 4 children under the age of 10 kits...oh yeah, sugar, i know all about being prepared!! xoxox

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  5. Kapi, Ha! Those were funny! I hope I still have a sense of humor post event!

    I'll be sure to not touch the walls and shoot off the raiders!

    *Adds fuel to the survival kit shopping list*

    Beast, Well, having peeked at the activities of those houseboys, I'd say the scent of sweat and bodily fluids should be norm at Chez Infomaniac.

    XL, Of course! How could I forget duct tape? Also, I'm going to need some plastic/tarp...and start plans on making a bunker.

    Savannah, One of my fave quotes,

    "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail."
    -- Ben Franklin

    Though, I really do try to live up to "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst".

    You can handle crisis a lot better when you've prepared for it!

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  6. It's the end of the world and You feel fine.

    One has to think that the infrastructure will just come to a grinding halt one day. One utility will fold behind the other..communications and emergency networks will fizzle..chaos will prevail and the mob mentality will rear it's ugly head..always with the mobs..and then the first Zombie will appear and then another..and through the magic of exponential mutation there will be millions of them by midnight.

    Hell yeah I'd get a big-ass .50 cal super gun and plenty of liquor. Then I'd find a nice high perch with my back and flanks covered and start takin' out as many of those muthaf*ckin' Zombies as I could before I ran out of ammo. Nuthin' but headshots baby!

    Don't forget to save the last bullet for yourself.

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  7. ...watch out for the ten foot gorilla... *runs fast*
    Sx
    I saw King Kong at the weekend.

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  8. ...just remember that I'm from a country that grinds to a halt after 2mm of snow...
    Sx

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  9. Donn, Welcome back!

    I don't know what's worse: mobs out to kill me for my resources or zombies wanting my brain. Either way, I'm taking out as many of those mofos as I can!

    Scarlet B, Lucky for me, King Kong likes beautiful blonds in white dresses! But just in case, I'm running away as far as I can!

    2mm of snow? Talk about having awesome snow days! No work! No school! No need to get out of the comfy, warm bed!

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  10. *duct tapes Beast to a chair in the Plaid Room*

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  11. MJ, I hope there's a working bathroom in the Plaid Room!

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  12. I take issue with the Baby wipes , they always have that ghastly sickening fragrance

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  13. We had a brief power outage at work yesterday. I was in the middle of working on something on Microsoft Word and didn't save it. That's when the electricity went off. Grr.

    That's smart of you to stock up on that kind of stuff. Don't forget junkfood too.

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  14. Eeeek! Poor Eros.

    Your experiences are exactly why I don't like being around humans when something goes wrong.
    Why, only today at work I got stuck in the tea room for nearly 12 seconds with one of the mouth-breathing slacks-wearers from the other end of the office. A nose-cloggingly harrowing experience, I can tell you.

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  15. You've been stuck in a lot of "tea rooms", haven't you, IVD?

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  16. Beast, They have unscented baby wipes, but I'll take the fragrance of a clean body over the stench of a filthy one any day!

    Tara, That sucks when you've lost your work. I learned in college to set Word to autosave my work every 5 minutes because I did lose a paper during a blackout!

    I'm loading up those breakfast bars--they're tasty and I'm pretty sure they'll last a while.

    IDV, It's no fun being stuck with foul people in a small space--and it's even worse if they don't understand the concept of personal space!

    MJ, Perhaps if the tea rooms were cleaned more often, there wouldn't be much of sticky problem.

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  17. At the steel works, we had a colleauge with an odour problem. We felt the best way to, 'drop the hint' was to nick-name hime, 'Stench'.
    He got the message but continued to avoid water.

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  18. Tickers, Perhaps next time, the offending colleague should be presented with the gift of deodorant!

    Ack! That's even worse when they know that they stink but don't do anything about it! It's like they're asking for a hose down!

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