Hi there.  The Get Home backs are smaller and stay in the cars—there are times my husband is driving one car and I’m driving another.  Sometimes into the mountains.  So I want the “get home” bag in there incase we get stuck or something happens. The Bug Outs are slightly more extensive and stay by the front door for the four of us if we had to bug out by vehicle or on foot.  Then I figure if we went in the car the bags in there would just be extra in case we wanted to help someone etc.

I find the lack of pockets and functionality in women’s clothing so irritating.  And the type of festival/concert limits on bags feels pretty sexist to me. My go to is generally a waist bag from State bags  Lorimer Fanny Pack But across my body instead of around my waist.  If I need something a bit bigger I have a one strap backpack (same company) that works well.   Also, I try to only buys clothes that have serviceable pockets, and sometimes just go for men’s jeans or pants if I can get them to fit, as they have nice deep pockets that hold a lot.

yay!  So glad you’re back bringing the news!

In Northern California and so far not that different from how it’s been most of the year.  My kid is still doing remote-learning.  There’s a curfew now but it doesn’t do much for us because we don’t really go anywhere.  The biggest different is really that I’ve had a small (5 person) book group meeting distanced & masked & we are decamping to Zoom.  There are lines for the stores but I get Imperfect Food delivery and don’t go out much anyway.

Thank you for this tip!  I had never heard that one. I’ve been really depressed since RBG passed and can’t bear to listen to anything remotely political (I usually NPR Politics podcast or some others).  I listened to the first two while I had lunch and it made me feel good.

I think Things That Go Boom, while not specifically a prepper podcast is very interesting for people who think about prepping.   The Big One, about earthquakes, is good. Neighborhood Preppers only have a few episodes.  It’s not super professional but they seem like a nice pair of very sane guys with some good tips.

Rich this is really well thought out–thank you for sharing your thought process.   I’m wondering about the best set up in the event that we are sheltering in place but off-grid/no power.  We do not have an outdoor grill of any kind (I am vegan and my family mostly eats that way so it’s never made sense).  What do you think would work in that situation?  I haven’t settled on my exact cooking set up yet for any scenario (meaning I haven’t yet purchased anything–still in the research phase).

I’d like to piggy back on this comment as I’ve read all three of these books.  A hearty vote for Station Eleven.  Not only because it deals in some realistic ways with a pandemic and the days immediately after and then much farther out, but even more importantly the writer is fantastic.  It’s not a “hold your nose” and read book it’s real literature just beautifully brought to life.  I also appreciate that it’s by a woman in a heavily male-leaning field. If one wants to partake of the One Second After series, I have a big vote for the audio book version narrated by Bronson Pinchot.  He is absolutely fantastic–one of the best audiobook narrators around.  The book, as noted, is very similar to Alas, Babylon in its glorification of the male lead, oversimplification of the female characters etc.  So they are books to be read with a grain of salt (if that expression works).  

That is such a good question.  I have some MRE’s for a short term bug out.  But I have been looking at various stoves and trying to figure out the best options for 1. longer lasting bug out and 2. at home but power down (we’re in earthquake and fire country).  I have cast iron cookware that I use at home and I know that could work well over an open flame.  But not sure about all the rest of it.  So—no advice, but thank you for posting a good question. (side note, a year ago I was NOT a person who would be using MRE in everyday chat).

Looks like they have a good sale going on now too.

Part of my little family flew in late June to see my son (in a program in another state).  Was it a “have to?”  As a mom who hadn’t seen her boy in months I’d say yes.  We flew out of San Jose and that airport was great.  Very very few people, most of the food places closed, whole chunks of the airport closed, every person masked (this was before the state-wide mask mandate I think), everyone distanced.  We flew Delta and they were good–baggies w/ water snack wipes, seats empty, back to front boarding.  Only hiccup was the man a row in front of us who kept taking his mask off (gave me major anxiety). Our supplies: we wore cloth masks with inserts and no eye protection (I think now I would do a shield as well).  Wiped everything near us down. Lots of small bottles of hand sanitizer.   I brought our own “snack packs” because we would miss dinner–we ate those after arrival out of a public space.  I always travel with a refillable water bottle and use the filling stations at the airport.   Our destination was Salt Lake and that was a whole different experience.  Almost a regular pre-Covid number of people.  Some (maybe 30-40%) not masked.  It was pretty shocking after being in Northern Cal.  

I liked The Big One.  Not a survival podcast per se but some overlapping interests is the podcast Things That Go Boom on national defense. Does the website have a book list?  I think so but not sure.  William Forstchen’s book series starting with One Second After is one vision of a grid down scenario–I would recommend the series in audiobook form as Bronson Pinchot (Balki from Perfect Strangers) is the narrator and he is amazing. I also recently read Atlas Shrugged which is a nuclear scenario—similar to the Forstchen series as it’s set in an enclave that has certain natural advantages.  I liked the writing and the book is mainly concerned with on-the-ground response in a particular area.  But you have to wade through the 50’s-60’s sexism and racism to get to it so forewarned is forearmed.

I’m currently working on this myself so putting out there I’m no kind of expert. But what I’ve decided to do is having the Get Home Bag be a smaller version of the BOB.  I also have one Get Home Bag per vehicle whereas the BOB’s are individual for our 4 family members.  I’m also thinking of the BOB”s as possible use if we are bugging in (earthquake country for one so you never know).  I am in the process of assembling, still overwhelmed, but trying my best.

Just watched Bushwick on Netflix and it falls into this category. Very depressing.  Urban survival during mysterious uprising type event.

What is with those plastic tweezers?  They look like they’re from a kiddie doctor play kit.