Ultimate survival tools

These days I've had without a car have been a big learning experiance for me, relying on walking to get to the stores and bank making me realise how important a good pair of shoes are and how much mine have been hurting my feet recently.

You may realise it isn't in good prepper sence to not have food stocked up for situations even like this however its been nearly two months. And I've known that I had a limited supply of food after the wife and I splitting when she took most of the food also the difference is my lack of cooking now. Where I live and who I live with here the kitchen is nasty and I do not cook in it and I do not clean it. So I stay hidden in my room with easily microwaveable things with just my microwave and minifridge in my room. With that I've had limited things to eat. So tonight I stocked up a bit on dry easy to microwave foods though they are not entirely healthy.

So ultimate survival tools back to this, my car broke down so I'm relying on my feet, I rely on most of all my body and mind and you should do the same, you may have a bug out vehicle but it too could also break down, or you could run out of fuel even with your stores of it. The main problem with prepping is time. Unless your stores outlive you, Then you will run out.

On the job

I know I threw the glued to the news post into the everyday dangers, but I thought it fit as a general disaster that could happen everyday.

This next everyday danger, your job. Now I cant cover every profession, I wont even go far into my own lowly demeaning job, but there is something all jobs deal with, people. Now your Office, your restaurant, store, construction site, farm, etc. Every single job deals with more than one person. People can panic in any crisis or disaster making it worse. These people in japan, them not panicking, not looting, not killing each other, that is part of their core values. other countries aren't like that, I know america isn't. If or when something happens, we arm up and wait for someone to break in or are the person breaking in. This everyday danger is about people, your neighbors, people down the street, your co-workers. Do you know where their loyalties lie? How much have you told them about yourselves, have they been in your house, do they know if you prep, own a gun, have valuables?

I know its wrong to think so ill of other people around me, that was just my upbringing, I have always seen the worst in people. I see what wrong they can do, and my thinking has rarely been wrong, and there are so many sayings from it. Perhaps you will say that its my lack of Christian character, I wasn't a church going child, nor am I as an adult, I do, do on to others how I would want others to do on to me, normally it just brings them to stab me when the area is open.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I am Cynical, uptight and slightly hostel toward others, but like so many others, I was made this way, by living in this time, in this country. I bare no ill will to anyone, and I can be your best most forgiving friend, however for my troubles, please do not just shit on me later.

QOTD
How many times can you be open and trusting, and be dealt a blow before you stop trusting the world?

Glued to the News

Literally I have been, working or not, this has me stressed out, I do not know anyone in japan, but just watching the news I see how much they are not telling us, you compare the information coming out of cnn, to bbc, the information is different in leaps and bounds, then compare it to the videos in youtube or the messages all over twitter, stark differences, its easy to see that this era, the news is all on the internet, and not even on old news media sources, if you want the news, you have to know where to look. The best way to know where, twitter, people broadcast their lives, their stories, and their problems. 

From the many stories I've read or watched about japan, there was a 9.0 earthquake, for japan they had minor damage from this because of how many earthquakes they apparently have over there, (not a piece of news we hear everyday) they have most of their building codes to withstand a 7.5 quake. the tsunami went 6 miles inland, now that the tide has drawn from the tsunami the island is 12 wider, the tsunami also hit Hawaii and California, doing some damage to California' coast, mostly to boats. 

A nuclear power plant was in the path of the tsunami, the tsunami knocked out power from the area causing this power plant to be unable to cool its 6 ( I believe) reactors, one by one these have been heating up, during this time the USS ronald Regan was approaching to aid japan, yet stopped and moved further from the coast after a helicopter detected radiation. that was about 2 days ago. 

between then and now I have heard back and forth of reactors and buildings exploded or didn't explode, or did explode but didn't cause a meltdown. This is all depending on which network, or news source you are reading or listening to. 

What I understand is, Japan hasn't had any help in cooling the reactors, from anyone, they have been trying to cool them with water which has cause hydrogen explosions,( thats quoted from cnn) they have gone back and forth saying there is no meltdowns or there is, BUT I know they are evacuating people for "possible" radiation leaks( and even CNN is saying that this company that owns the plant hasn't been completely forth coming with information.)  There have been explosions, between the reports and a US aircraft carrier not getting closer to help, beyond that some people have already been tested positive for radiation, I state that one or more of those reactors is leaking radiation. they have been telling people to keep their skin covered if they must go out, or just to stay inside. Honestly full chemical suit would be handy at this point for those people. 

I was dumbfounded at the first reports telling people to cover their mouths with a wet washcloth, I was thinking what could that accomplish. 

Now What news you may not have heard! there has also been a volcano eruption in japan, right like there were not enough problems, it was north of most of this from what I recall. New Jersey is flooded, still, and the Ohio river is close to flooding, so there are some problems close to home that I have not seen even hitting the news, which is why my segment on them is also rather small. 

sorry I've been missing for almost a week, work has had me stressed, my car broke down, which didn't put me in a happy place, now tomorrow I get to attempt to fix it.

In the Kitchen

For another of the everyday dangers, I am going to one talk about one of the most rooms of your house. the kitchen. Why is the kitchen dangerous, why is it not is a better question.
A stove, gas or electric, a central object with the sole idea is to recreate the aspects of fire for cooking. lots of people get burned from the stove, or oven or things being heated up on them. water has been spilled on children, people leave metal cooking utensils on a burner that was just on, or even plastic that melts. also remember there is a vent for the oven, normally under the back left burner on the stove, look for it, and remember do not leave pans, pots, or plastic containers over this vent, on that burner, even if the burner is off, the pans will get hot, and the plastic will melt.
Knives, to those that do not collect knives, you still own them, they are all in your kitchen, my wife as a chef has more cooking knives than my mother ever did, and they are all sharper, which is good because more people get cut on a dull knife than a sharp one. Beware of the stabbing or slicing off of limbs.

Refrigerator, Harmless right? Well it can fall on top of you, the ice-maker can break in the freezer and touch an exposed wire with water and possibly electrocute you, thats probably just me being paranoid.

Microwave, few things, water can explode. Do not use tin foil in a microwave. Never make it possible for you to use your microwave while the door is open. No metal, no electronics, Microwave is not a toy. DO NOT put pets in it either. Funny on the internet should not be done at home.

there are many other objects people have in the kitchen that can hurt and kill you, from electric knives to tea kettles,blenders, food processors, or crock pots and coffee makers, if it has a blade or heats up, be careful.

Remember you are in this room everyday, you make three meals a day, you store all your food here, keep it clean, straightened up, and all appliances in proper working order.

Driving

Okay, I see I have used this topic before, perhaps this post will have more information.

Driving is the most dangerous thing we do in our daily lives. You may not realize this because of how much you do it, and be annoyed at things you pay for because of your driving habits like insurance.
We the people give minors as young as fifteen the ability move a large heaping powered piece of metal, that could possibly bring death to anyone in its path. From all the states I have visited in the US everyone says their state has the worse drivers, there are many reasons people are bad drivers, in good or bad conditions. in the south we are not used to ice and snow, in the west they are not used to rain.
I wouldn't want to lose my car to a tornado in Kansas, and people from other parts of the world might stay in the car and watch as they are taken up and beaten to death.

Regardless of all that. You as you are driving on the road, how many people do you pass? Hundreds most likely, you have no idea how old they are, what their driving experience is; if they are on their cell phone, texting (which is illegal now), changing the radio station, doing make-up, smoking, driving, eating, typing on their gps We have so many distractions that keep peoples eyes off the road.
This is an easy statistic, most people die in car accidents, than any other type of vehicle. Cars kill more people than guns, cars kill more people than terrorists. and cars are in your back yard, cars are sold everywhere, without a licence, no waiting period.
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

I personally work in a job where I can spend the entire shift of working on the road driving, delivering, people like me are most at risk because we spend more time doing this dangerous action, and people like me feel more confident in our driving so will do more while driving, in that we might set a bad example for anyone, like the others I train to do my job. What is out of my control are other drivers, and I see a lot of bad ones, swerving, running off the road, stopping unexpectedly, and turning without signal.
 I personally stop and slow down while looking for the place I am delivering to, so I become a road hazard while I am searching for someones address wither they actually have it posted or not. In the day time or night. At night your pretty bronze numbers on the side of your brick house are invisible, and those plants growing up your house looking pretty covering your house numbers, it doesn't stop my progress getting to you.
This type of non-marked home would stop Emergency vehicles too.


I'll attempt to make this post part of a series, everyday dangers.