Lessons learned during the pandemic...

[Phase2]

The thing I am chewing on is the old "Generals are always planning to fight the last war" and not planning for what is to come adage.

Very true. But one prepping lesson is that as you prepare for more and more contingencies, you'll find that there is a real overlap in items needed to handle them. So, although stocking disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer is pretty specific to pandemic, stocking food, water and general household supplies is helpful in many situations where you must stay at home. Situational awareness can help you either avoid or minimize the effect of an incoming disaster. Minimizing debt and having a cash cushion is helpful for all kinds of emergencies. Etc...

I benefited from one additional prep recently. We had a water main break with a water outage followed by a 2-day boil water order after it was fixed. Between my water stores and Berkey to clean water, I barely experienced a hiccup and didn't consume any potentially polluted water unlike most in this area.

 

[Jeepster48439]

True, but I can always listen, and I believe no license is required to transmit during an emergency. And if the shtf enough for me to use it, a fine from the FCC would be my last concern.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True dat. But for you a Tech license should be pretty simple to get.

 

[Jeepster48439]

My real lack of preparedness, this time around, was that I didn't pay attention to what was happening outside the United States relative to this virus. Even if I had paid attention before late February/beginning of March, I'm not sure I would have thought we would progress to this point, given the response to past pandemics.

Sure am glad that 8 years ago we embarked on the path of "living like no one else, so that later we could LIVE like no one else".

 

[rosejm]

I benefited from one additional prep recently. We had a water main break with a water outage followed by a 2-day boil water order after it was fixed. Between my water stores and Berkey to clean water, I barely experienced a hiccup and didn't consume any potentially polluted water unlike most in this area.

NAILED IT

These are the things I mean. What would normally be a slight inconvenience can have profound effects.
What if the power goes out? Will the family still be content?
What if it's the whole town?

What if there's a fire? What do you grab on the way out the door TODAY?

 

[bobzilla]

NAILED IT

These are the things I mean. What would normally be a slight inconvenience can have profound effects.
What if the power goes out? Will the family still be content?
What if it's the whole town?

What if there's a fire? What do you grab on the way out the door TODAY?

I see midwesterners and Cali people that have zero preps. Folks, we are LIVING in a friggin potential disaster zone 24/7. Why don’t you at least have a plan for a tornado or severe storm that knocks power out for a few days? That’s just common sense.

 

[churchmouse]

I see midwesterners and Cali people that have zero preps. Folks, we are LIVING in a friggin potential disaster zone 24/7. Why don’t you at least have a plan for a tornado or severe storm that knocks power out for a few days? That’s just common sense.

-If sense were common.

-Everyone would have it.

 

[maxwelhse]

I see midwesterners and Cali people that have zero preps. Folks, we are LIVING in a friggin potential disaster zone 24/7. Why don’t you at least have a plan for a tornado or severe storm that knocks power out for a few days? That’s just common sense.

I'm having a hard time placing it, perhaps from Jurassic Park or Independence Day, but I seem to remember a Jeff Goldblum line about human's being party animals, unconcerned about anything at all, until the party stops...

That tornado isn't going to hit your house. You won't be without power for days or weeks. There's no reason to fear tomorrow!

We had a bad ice storm come through in 2010 or so and took out power to a huge swath of the greater NE IN area for, in some cases, a couple of weeks. This impacted my parents. Even after that, my Dad waited several more years to buy a generator despite having plenty of means to do so. I don't think he bothered until after the drecho (if you're not familiar, that's a land based hurricane) came through a few years later and knocked out power to thousands for over a month in some cases.

...I bought one almost as fast as the ice was gone from that first storm. I had owned my first house for about 4 months at that point, and money was tight, but I made it a priority. For years my Dad told me that he didn't need one since I had one. He would have been sadly mistaken if it came to that. I would have done what I could, but freezing to death while my generator is on lone isn't part of the plan. I told him so in those words...

Some people just have to learn the hard way and some people just won't learn at all... I gave up trying to figure out why.

 

[bwframe]

-If sense were common.

-Everyone would have it.

I am amazed at a couple of acquaintances of mine, very intelligent folks otherwise. Older gents in the virus kill zone, it's like they just cannot hear the constant warnings to STFAH.

One guy mentioned how creepy it was that Nashville was looking like a ghost town. Said he had only been away from his house for like 90 minutes in the last three days.

 

[Thor]

-If sense were common.

-Everyone would have it.

Common sense, the most ill named of all the senses. It's so rare it's a super power.

 

[Ingomike]

Common sense, the most ill named of all the senses. It's so rare it's a super power.

We all get an education as we grow up, we as a species are very smart, but just what was or is that education? I have come to believe that so called "common sense" is actually a product of a course of education. I define "common sense" have a broad base of knowledge that allows the individual to be able to exercise a judgment even of topics of no specific knowledge. It also requires being able to first understand the problem.

 

[STFU]

We all get an education as we grow up, we as a species are very smart, but just what was or is that education? I have come to believe that so called "common sense" is actually a product of a course of education. I define "common sense" have a broad base of knowledge that allows the individual to be able to exercise a judgment even of topics of no specific knowledge. It also requires being able to first understand the problem.

What type of education? Certainly not something you learn in school, least not college.
EG: I have a sister that graduated Magna *** Laude in her MBA class, and went on to be a VP of HR at GE Capitol Corp. She has no common sense/real world smarts that I can see. The only thing she has done correctly so far in this mess is follow orders and stay home (when Florida finally caved).

So where do we acquire this "education" that you speak of? And I am not being facetious with this question.
(I cannot say I got it from my father. He was Navy during the end of WWII and start of Korea but he fell more in the book smart category with my sister. Although I never saw him panic.)

Is it just that some of us have more of the inherent SA and sheepdog type qualities?
Again, not saying that I am completely prepared or that I never miss anything, I just feel like some of us are several steps ahead of the sheeple all around us.

 

[STFU]

...sister that graduated Magna *** Laude in her MBA class,...

Really? We cannot use the term "C u m" without being censored.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Really? We cannot use the term "C u m" without being censored.

Or *****cat...

 

[shibumiseeker]

We were extremely well prepared, no issues thus far. We’re in conservation mode which is the lightest we use.

Conservation, lockdown, extreme.

A few very minor holes but nothing that can’t be accommodated.

 

[Phase2]

Or James Bond's ***** Galore.

We were extremely well prepared, no issues thus far. We’re in conservation mode which is the lightest we use.

Conservation, lockdown, extreme.

A few very minor holes but nothing that can’t be accommodated.

There are always lessons to be learned. I'm sure every prepper has taken something from this situation. My preps were only a B+. I beefed up my sanitation supplies early on when they were still easily available and I wasn't really sufficiently prepared for my animals. Lessons learned.

 

[rosejm]

.

 

[jsharmon7]

Food has not been an issue where I’m at. There were a few days last month where people went crazy and bought out the stores. That only lasted a few days. I can go buy anything I want, including TP (but not disinfectant products), right now. The issue is making unnecessary trips that result in unnecessary potential exposure. After this slows down, I’ll be buying a freezer so I can reduce trips to the store if something like this flare back up.

In terms of hardware, no issues. No roving bandits or open warfare in my area. I’d like to pick up some more 9mm and magazines once supplies return. Not concerned, but I should have a little more around.

As far as meds and such, obviously I’ll store some additional cleaning items and sanitary options. I haven’t had any shortages, but I wouldn’t want to go too long-term with what I have.

 

[tsm]

Lessons learned:

Found out how much stuff you can order and have delivered these days with no shipping charges. Even 81lb of lawn fertilizer from Lowes! Home Depot, Samsclub, similar story.

Learned how to use the grocery store’s no-contact pickup system after ordering online.

Fresh Market will deliver whatever you want from their store and drop it off at your door a couple hours after it was ordered.

Thankful I happened to buy 60 bars of soap at Menards months ago when they had a sale so no issues now with all the hand washing.

The wife’s lifelong penchant for always keeping more TP in the house than we can possibly use in a reasonable timeframe has served us well. I will no longer complain to her about that.

Discovered how to deposit a check in my bank account using an app in my smartphone. Much faster than driving to the bank branch.

Figured out I should have gotten a haircut just before all the barbershops closed.

You can order a lawn mower battery from Autozone and they’ll bring it out to your car and pickup the old one so you don’t have to enter the store.

Low gas prices aren’t a lot of benefit if you aren’t driving very much.

Chew carefully when eating anything hard so you don’t crack a tooth or knock a crown off while dentist offices are closed.

 

[Ingomike]

At first I thought folks were hoarding food to clear out grocery stores like they did but then came to understand that there were lots of others in my situation. This time of year we work insane hours and eat out 90%?of the time and had little food in stock for current eating needs when they shut down the restaurants. We had to scramble to get day to day food in. (I have emergency stores but that is survival food.). Someone posted that Americans eat 50% of their food out and suddenly those folks had to procure day to day food. I now have emergency food and day to day preserved food as well and will maintain that even after this is over.

If if my day to day stores get older and unused I will donate to food banks and replenish them, but I will have them...

 

[snorko]

It really came home for me the importance of not being alone. Being single and not currently in a relationship it can be very easy to isolate more than necessary. Making an effort to keep in contact with friends and family is important. Physical distancing, not social distancing.