Stockpiling.
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: Rants


This Hurricane Katrina shit is seriously freaking me out. Life has a layer of unreality painted over it. Suddenly my husband's paranoia doesn't seem so paranoid; I realize that in the event of a really catastrophic earthquake, we could easily be in the same situation. There really isn't as much distance between here and there as we like to think. That is something this crisis is bringing home to everyone: It could have been us.

There are certain things you can see coming. It's easy to look at New Orleans and say that what's happening now wasn't a question of whether, it was a question of when. That's a city situated between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, below sea level, in an area prone to hurricane strikes. Maybe the only remarkable thing is that it's taken this long to happen. Similarly, the geological fault systems running through California are well-mapped, active and extensive. No one wants to think about it beforehand, but some folks on the Gulf Coast are thinking about it plenty right about now. I'm thinking about it too.

The Crumpacker household is actually pretty prepared, as compared to most people, for emergencies. We have some food and water stockpiles, water filtering equipment, radiation pills, camping equipment, a couple of firearms, stuff like that. But you bet your sweet ass we're going to be taking a serious look at our preparedness and patching the holes. Because it could have been us. It could so easily have been us. And next time, maybe it will be us.

I went to Target at eight o'clock this morning to lay in some supplies. Not disaster preparedness supplies; just stuff. It was eerie walking around in there, the store nearly deserted at that hour, all the quiet empty aisles full of food and water and camping equipment. Everything orderly and under control. And somehow that seemed very strange. So was my shopping list. I purchased the following items:

- Three ten-packs of plastic child-sized clothes hangers
- Seven packages of Senseo coffee pods
- Six two-packs of Mam Crystal pacifiers
- Two twelve-packs of Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper
- One Ren & Stimpy complete first and second season (Kricfalusi episodes) on DVD
- One Teen Titans T-shirt in boys' size extra small

The Target clerks are probably calling the authorities even as we speak. I mean, what could anyone want with so much caffeine and so many pacifiers? If the end of the world comes this Labor Day weekend, Matt's oral fixation and my caffeine jones, at least, will be covered.