The point of the longwinded post to follow is to challenge me (and you) to think about the depth and breadth of the possible threats and our preparations to deal with those threats.

The post topic is as much a philosophical question as it is a practical one. Since 9/11 I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to prepare so as to protect my family and myself. I’ve put together BOB’s for each member of the family, I have EDC stuff up to my elbows, I got my ham license, I’ve spent a lot of money on stuff I hope I’ll never have to use and I’ve joined this great forum.

So here’s the rub, for exactly what am I planning, building and buying? I’m not an outdoorsman. My wife’s idea of ‘roughing it’ is the Holiday Inn instead of the Four Seasons. I don’t travel through wilderness areas, hunt deer, kayak, etc. All that stuff is what my DD does in Alaska. Me, I ride down interstates, walk the streets of DC, hop Amtrak, occasionally ride in airplanes. I don’t live in an earthquake or a flood prone area. Occasionally, I might be stuck at home for a few days because of snow or ice storms. But in 24 years of living in my 120 year old brick house I’ve never had reason to even consider evacuation (well, there was that roofer who set my house on fire 10 years ago, but that's another story)

Sure, I might get stuck on an interstate (think I-80 in Pennsylvania last winter) or I guess an Amtrak train crew might hold me hostage for 10 or 12 hours. But I don’t drive when the weather’s bad and it would only take a few minutes walk from a stuck train to find shelter along any part of my normal route. Could a terrorist attack strand me or render my home uninhabitable. Sure, but I’ve got lots of relatives in different parts of the country, all of whom I could get to in a few days time at the most by car.

I think I have most of the obvious and likely threats covered. If the Yellowstone super volcano erupts or we get hit by a giant meteor our futures won’t be covered by a few days rations and some stored up water. Those are extinction level events. At my age not sure I care and my kids are old enough to decide their own end of the world fates.

What I’m struggling with is the balance between risk avoidance and contingency planning. I avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time as much as I can. I don’t drive in blizzards, don’t walk down dark alleys (literally or figuratively) and don’t stand on a beach and watch bemused as the ocean retreats way far away from the shoreline.

My contingency plan is to be prepared so that if the stuff I can’t avoid or can’t control hits the fan I and all my D*’s can survive until the 101st Airborne arrives.

(At this point you can skip the rest of the post and move on with your lives or read thru a little more detail so you can really let me know what I’m missing or let me know I’m full of it.)

Family consists of me and the DW, a crazy dog (a JRT, you who know will understand) and a couple of cats living in SE Pa. Two DD’s out on their own, one close, one far away. An elderly mom, also close by. Siblings in a variety of places. Stuck between middle age and senior citizens’ discounts at Perkins.

Job puts me in a car 10-20 hours a week and up to 150 miles from home. I own the company so if the weather’s dicey I work at home (and so do my employees). I travel to our nation’s capital by car and train on a regular basis. Carry a federal ID (I’m a beltway bandit) and know lots of govt. folks, neither of which would be helpful ITSHTF.

I have well stocked BOB’s in all the cars; my EDC is extensive ( see my earlier post ) and I have additional days of supplies, water and shelter in the house ready to throw in the car a on few minutes notice.

I don’t have weeks or months of food/water stored in the house. I don’t have extensive evacuation plans, routes, etc. I don’t have a usable firearm (nor the training to use it) and not much else in the way of personal protection. I don’t have any formal survival skills or much wilderness experience (I was raised in the country and played in fields, woods and streams around my home as a kid so I’m not “scared of nature”). Blast, I am not. (Though I have had my share of defeats at the paws of cats who didn’t want to do what I wanted them to do.)

So what am I missing in terms of threats? What’s the one thing I should have to be fully prepared that I haven’t mentioned? What really worries you? What is your philosophy of preparedness and does it match you threat reality?

Andy