Preparedness for when

thriftwizard

Thank you for that reminder, GQ; it's more than large lumps of volatile geography in faraway places that have the power to disrupt our lives utterly & unexpectedly. I'm reminded of my neighbours who woke up one night to find their lodger sitting on the bed, brandishing a large & very shiny carving knife, explaining politely why she was going to have to "send them to Glory" so that they could meet the Lord in person & be saved the suffering of this world... They managed to talk her out of anything immediate, but were appalled to hear when the wife slipped away & rang the police that there was nothing they could do, as she hadn't yet actually harmed anyone & very probably wouldn't. They had small children in the house... They were stuck with this girl for weeks before she finally agreed to go for treatment. The moral of this tale being, life can go from humdrum everyday to utterly bizarre & bewildering in seconds.

ETA: the pedantic spinner in me is pondering your signature line, GQ - we often have to tell well-meaning people who think that shearing sheep is "barbaric" that breeding for thick fleece is the worst thing we've ever done to sheep; they tend to get very ill & pick up all sorts of parasites if left to swelter under a thick blanket all summer! Which must be even worse in Spain, where the Merinos, with just about the thickest, softest fleece, originated.

Karmacat

Wow, great post, GQ. Very sobering, mind you A fire at night, yes, the only possible thing to do is grab the go-bag, and think yourself lucky if you remember to do that

Softstuff

The first flat that I owned in England had a very sudden shtf scenario. It was the top half of a victorian house, very large, 3 bedrooms and 3 floors. I'd only just finished 3-4 months of renovation, it had been a repossession and I was heading up to bed in my PJs.

I have a very strong sense of smell and I could smell something, it smelled like burning. My immediate instinct was to check all possible sources and work my way through the flat. We had 3 smoke alarms, none were going off. I started at the top and worked down. By the time I got to the outer door to our flat, at the bottom of it, I opened that door and I could see smoke. Then the smoke alarms went off. I bashed on my neighbours doors and ran like hell out of there with them down the remaining 2 flights of stairs.

On the street,barefoot in PJs, in february in England is not ideal. Had I waited, or gone to get anything, or searched the flat in a different order, I'm not sure I would have gotten out as easily. By the time we were getting out, the smoke was thick and we were all coughing.

Thing is, the fire was in the house next door. But smoke spreads quickly, though everything always says that it isn't until you see it that you realise how quickly.

The fire brigade came, the fire was put out (next door was gutted) and they blew the smoke out of our building with industrial fans. We were told to stay out for 24 hours. Fortunately for me, my mother was around the corner.

I didn't have a chance for a go bag or even shoes. As far as learning from the scenario, the only thing I managed to take with me is an intense fear of fire and a strong aversion to candles!

moneyistooshorttomention

Thriftwizard

That comment about the nutter inside the door (ie the lodger) brought back a few memories - and not of the happy variety either.

There are indeed risks to sharing accommodation/living in a block of flats/etc that don't occur to you until you're in that situation and found there is a "resident nutter".

I've had the nutter at the door scenario - in the middle of the night at that - when living in a block of flats. I've also had the nutter in the midst scenario when taking in lodgers (when someone is going round your own home talking - loudly - to themselves when they know very well you are in then you do wonder what they might do..._pale_).

Recalling back to my own "when I lived in a block of flats" scenario for a few years and the scenarios I remember include:

- said nutter at my door in middle of night (not sure to this day whether it was drugs or mental illness)

- emergency plumber at my door in middle of night when my water tank burst unexpectedly (I'd been fast asleep and blissfully unaware it had done so)

- nearby neighbour trading in drugs

- nearby neighbour setting fire to other neighbours place:eek:

- schizophrenic as very near neighbour who didn't necessarily always take his drugs and when he didn't....:eek:

Those are the incidents that came to mind straight off and the fact that, at that point in history many of the poorest households still didn't have phones of any description...but all my near neighbours knew I did...hence being more aware than I otherwise would have been of what was going on (ie because it was my phone they often wanted the use of to phone up about whatever-the-latest-incident-was to call police etc that time).

Over my time living in that block of flats I learnt to stay pretty calm/answer my door in a suitable frame of mind to find out "What is it THIS time that someone wants to use my phone for?" mindset - and to be blimmin' glad when I was able to move eventually:cool:

I can certainly quite understand needing to be more prepared than many when living in any sort of communal set-up.

EDIT: Just crossposted with softstuff and saw your fire incident - eek!! The comment re candles reminded there is no way to deal with Stupid. We are all told often enough not to leave unattended candles...but do some people read that? Hmmm....

I know one of my concerns in that block of flats I had to live in for a few years was that one of the rules was that people must not have any freestanding heaters (eg calor gas). That rule made an awful lot of sense to me and I duly followed it myself and just used that the electric storage radiators that were in the place and they were enough (and more) to keep the place nice and toasty warm at a very reasonable cost. But...there were people who thought that rule didn't apply to them and I was aware of some people in the block having that type of heater and I was also aware they can cause fires and those two thoughts combined in my mind weren't a happy one and any daft burk that had caused a fire to happen with one of them would not have been my New Best Friend.....funnily enough I never got told just who the offending neighbours were.....

Frugalsod

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Apologies for being pedantic, but a tsunami isn't actually weather.

But then neither is a landslide but I included that as a reason to evacuate as well. Though some can be caused by heavy rain.

[Deleted User]

You did, indeed, state landslides and avalanches as a reason to evacuate, but that was a different comment, from the one about weather conditions, into which you included tsunami.

[Deleted User]

In the words of Supertramp, It's raining again.

jk0

jk0 wrote: »

About a year ago I told you guys about my ex's little boy who I loved like my own son for two years.

Since she left me, I have bought him Christmas & birthday presents, and also Easter eggs. My ex never made this easy, as she did not tell me where they moved to, so I dropped the items with her mum or sister.

Just now, I took an Easter egg & book over to my ex's sister, and though she kindly accepted them, she says my ex asks not to have anything more.

I have a lump in my throat, but I hope maybe the lad will seek me out when he is older. Relationships eh? Who'd have em?

Thanks for all your kind words yesterday folks. You were a real comfort to me.

RAS

Frugalsod wrote: »

Actually walking to your bug out location with a bug out weight will highlight loads of flaws in your plans. It does not even have to include bug out items, just the same weight. It will highlight how fit or unfit you are. Trying to do it in summer is fine with optimal conditions does show some flaws. Doing it in winter with the worst possible conditions will highlight a lot more potential problems.

I sure could not shift the sort of weight I used to carry. Never been fast but I could plod a fair few miles with enough to keep me going a full week without replenishment, even allowing for the fact that I needed work gear (tough and protective) and out of work gear (midge-proof for preference). If we had fished and used wood fuel, it could have been longer.

And then trek out with 6 foot crowbar wedge in the top straps of my sac plus some garbage.

From past experience a two week trip would see me lose inches if not weight and gain strength. So if I can get the hip to ease off I will start trying to regain some sort of fitness.

RAS

Karmacat wrote: »

I suppose I'm thinking of all levels of bugging out, but here are the main things that occur:
1 minute: house fire!

5 minutes: flash flood, subsidence, crazy neighbour in a siege (I was trapped in my house about ten years ago, the local police set up a series of barricades with me inside the barricades, after an armed gunman robbed the local post office - if I'd been at the edge of the area, I might've been able to get out).

My nearest to this was the call at work that said "get here" from a wobbly sounding sib. Less than 48 hours earlier we had been told it was all OK. I said "can buy some knickers en route and be there ASAP".

The complication was that the cheque to pay the fees would have dropped on my door mat that morning after I left and we knew the account would be closed.

I got the train home but took a cab from the station and made him wait outside. Cheque picked up, bag packed, quick check of security and back out the door in less than five minutes, into cab to get the next train.

That taught what I can do if I have to.