To be honest, when I first came to this forum I, too, questioned the need for "Urban Survival Kits". Personally, I don't feel undressed if I go to work without an Altoids tin in my pocket. On the other hand, I was on a train from Toronto to Ottawa when the big power blackout occurred; and my widowed mother (80 years old yesterday) was without power for several days when Hurricane Juan went through Nova Scotia. I actually did have to dig the Photon Microlight out of my Altoids tin (which I had in my rucksack) when I got to Ottawa in the dark - and that was because I had stupidly left my car keys, with my "everyday" Photon, at my sister's house in Toronto.

I do carry a credit card sized Fresnel lens in my wallet; I also laminated a cotton ball to the back of my Wilderness First Aid Instructor's wallet card, and I carry a blank key with 5 Ronson lighter flints crazy-glued to it (secured with a 1" piece of clear shrink tubing) and a SAK Classic on my keyring, so I pretty much always have flint, striker and tinder on my person.

As an aside, I got interested in survival several years ago when I heard a news article about a farmer in northern Alberta who died after he accidentally locked himself out of the house. He was found frozen to death in his own barn, sitting next to a wood stove filled with fuel; he didn't have any matches.

I haven't had anyone poke fun at me for carring survival supplies, but then, it's not part of my personality to draw attention to my PSK, no matter how proud I might be of it. The "flint" key on my keychain looks just like a regular key unless you examine it closely, and most people don't go through my wallet to see what I've got in it <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> (Even if they did, they probably wouldn't know what it was.)

On the other side of the coin, a co-worker (and fellow lightplane pilot) just returned from a trip to California, where he picked up a new single-seat airplane (a YaK aerobatic plane that he plans to fly in airshows), and a month ago he ferried a homebuilt from Alberta to Nova Scotia. Knowing of my interest in wilderness survival, both times he asked if I would put together a small survival kit for him.