My slide into preparedness began when I was a teenager experiencing headaches. The college nurse wasn't allowed to dispense anything without prior authorization in triplicate. I decided to become my own provider and began carrying Excedrin.

As I grew older, so did my headaches. I've since been diagnosed with CDH, which is Chronic Daily Headache. Hey, it's better than a heart attack, stroke, or cancer. I can live with it, and I see a neurologist regularly. Now I carry Fioricet, Midrin, Imitrex, and Amerge on my person.

Then I got married. We went to see an exhibit of Titanic artifacts in Atlantic City. My wife fell down while going up an escalator. I had nothing on me with which to help. We had to wait for some casino people to arrive. Her knee swelled up very nicely.

She had some mean punctures on her knee that are still visible years down the road. She had to get a tetanus shot. I vowed never to be be that helpless again.

Then came 9/11 and our world changed forever. Everything we take for granted was blown away that day.

Now I carry lots of stuff. My ordinary EDC includes an icepack, stuff that clots bleeding wounds, N-95 particulate masks, and leather driving gloves. My office EDC includes a small prybar, googles for eye protection, a SwissTool R/S, and an Inova XO3 (remember the blackout a few summers ago?).

I had to take some items from my everyday EDC and make them my office EDC. They were simply too heavy to carry while walking around a non-office environment, such as a mall.

-- Craig