I did a little financial survival, paid off the remaining $12,000 on our home equity loan. It was a variable rate and had went up to over 10% and I had a nice bonus from work and we received a large tax refund because I forgot to withhold for our first child last year, so we took those and what we had saved up and knocked that one out. I had been working on it and paying $500 or more each month so that opened up that much in the budget so we should be able to move in a couple years. Our neighborhood isn't bad but since its part of the city we have to get into a suburb before my son has to start school since the city school is the worst in the state. That and the police response is 30 minutes which is why I started fending for myself years ago, but that is another long story.

I got to use a few things from my vehicle EDC tonight when the power went out due to the small tornado that touched down about 1/4 mi from my house. I plugged a flourescent bulb into my Campbell-Hausfeld "Power Pal", a portable jump starter/air compressor/DC inverter, and also my crank radio. That bulb lit up an entire room, but we ended up using some oil lanterns for the ambiance.

My wife got to use her Streanlight Key Mate flashlight on her keychain. I was a hero for buying it for her.

(this post duplicated on EDC forum)

I am tracking daily personal liquid consumptions this week. Will post results on Sunday night.

Added a whistle, 5 quarters, an ATT long distance phone card with 600+ minutes, a 10 dollar bill, and possibly a flash drive and other small pieces of gear to my new cell case .

"What did you build that out of to make it weather resistant?"

I used some scrap lumber I had around and covered it with some of that wavy (corrugated?) plastic greenhouse panel stuff. BTW, when did plywood get so doggone expensive? It is not completely sealed since it needs to vented due to the gas fumes, but I figure that as long as I keep the rain from falling directly on the (plastic) gas cans, then that's probably good enough. It also keeps the dogs out...

I've done with scanning of all of my papers, IDs, and even credit cards, photoshoped them and saved images to my PDA's memory stick. This PDA is always on me even on a trail, along with the HOLUX GPSlim240 piece of technology, and 1oz solar charger for both of them (the last one I've made from bare solar film sheets just a week ago).

I upgraded my GPS's memory to 2Gb, and uploaded topographic maps of the whole of the UK.

Bought 3 bandannas as upgrade for handkerchief, and started to learn about using same.

Tried to make some bread, by hand rather than with bread machine. Not 100% successful.

Tested new gear outside, worked on fitness, re-packing FAK*/survival kit (to be lighter.)

(FAK= First Aid Kit. Mine is combined with a personal survival kit--packed in the same bag. So meds and bandages plus fire starting gear, knife, etc.)

* bought additional MRE's for my BOB
* bought another first aid kit for my mountain bike
* in the process of setting up a 3-day trip to the Okefenokee Swamp...woo hoo!!

I purchased a Petzl e+light for my hiking-kit wich I really like.

1) most recently I perchased a number of 3M N100 masks. I put 3 (1 per person) in each car and the remainder with our other disaster supplies.

2) got a multi-tool for my wifes car

3) got a fire starter kit for my backpack for day hikes, etc.