Or www.freecycle.org

Include a Maxpedition Jumbo Versipack on my Christmas list.

Get my hands on the new Photon ReX, test the heck out of it. If it's pulled off right, I'm standard-gifting it to some friends who will really appreciate it.

Put together a plan on how to keep a tank full of turtles warm in a winter power outage...Thinking a smaller UPS to handle the water heater, insulate the glass, stove-warmed water, etc.

Buy some new NiMH cells, the longer-lasting kind. Have a ton of batteries floating around, no testing method, rather hope to burn through them and start fresh.

Get a poncho liner. Not for me, got a friend who uses his more than I use my cell phone, he'd love the sleeping bag option and some extra warmth.

Get some metal cups for my Nalgenes.

Find something essentially useful, but cute and meaningful enough to give my other half on top of the essential nicer gifts.

Get band-aids, Tylenol, Pepto, preferably as much as possible since people always come to me for this sort of thing.

Stash some older clothes away at places where I might need them.

Get together a care package to send to the troops, just a holiday thing.

The wheelchair would make a great donation to your local VFW or American Legion Post. The Service Officer loans out such equipment to veterans on an as needed basis.

I wish I could get my kids to be prepared. They are in their twenties and thirties, have kids of their own and just don't understand why its important.

Seems to me that they are extra irrersponsible if they have kids and don't prep for them.
Since their kids are your grandkids can you start educating them? Start them in boy/cub/girl scouts to get them in the whole be prepared mindset or something like that.

I donate everything I can't use, ie clothing, bedding, and wheel chairs ( 3 so far) to the Veterans Hospital nearby. You get a tax write off to boot...

Our daughter and son in law are in their mid 30's and have one kid.
They live in New Hampshire, and make the big money. They think my wife and I are totally bonkers out of our gourds because we tell them to prepare for bad times senarios...
They have bought into all the crap of their generation...it is too bad!
We can't tell them what to do...so they are are their own...

I fear what their reactions will be later if everything does go down the tubes...

They spend their money as fast as they make it, and barely make it on 250 K a year! I think they are the ones who are out of their gourds...but what can you say to them.

If you figure it out, let me know.

A philosopher said that "what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger." In life, some trouble gets your attention and can actually make you better able to cope.

A friend in aviation safety once told me that the 2 safest (army aviation) pilots are those just out of training and those nearing retirement. Why? The new guys are scared and double check everything. The old guys KNOW that something can or will go wrong, and expect it. The guys in the middle are confident and think they have it down pat then have bad things happen that a) kills them or b) puts the fear of death into them, making them safer pilots as they continue in their career and get out of the close scrapes. Such is life.

At least DD2 and BF have now decided to take their BoB's and keep them at their apt. That's an improvement!!!!