Boring realism in my planning

I'm boring. Fact based and slow to react -- most news stories are blips and most odd trends are meaningless. I get my info from multiple sources and wait for it to be verified.

Our planning is for likely events -- what happens every year and some of the 100 year events. As boring at it is, Fargo doesn't get hurricanes. (But it does get to sub-zero, often.)

Storing extra water and a spare jacket isn't as sexy as a custom rig or new EMP proof knife; but its likely far useful

Dull. Basics. Yep

teacher

unlike the reality shows, actual survival is boring as all get out - 95% off the time; the other 5% -!!!!

Basics are good.

I've had my fill of exciting survival events. I am just fine with boring, long as my belly's full, my bed is warm, and no one is trying to shoot me or blow me up, and that's always a good thing.

Fargo! You have my condolences! My folks lived in Jamestown for quite a few years. A couple times they had car batteries freeze up and break on them- while their cars were in the garage!

I like boring. Boring is good, especially when we're talking about worst case possibilities.

Boring is good. A great deal of planning and preparation and modification of personal behaviour goes into keeping things that way. No big surprises; a few chess moves ahead of unfolding events. The first rule of survival is to stay the [bleep] out of survival situations.

can i hear an Amen !

^ That. Some people like exciting and then find themselves in positions for which they hadn't planned. Part of survival is avoiding the excitement that gets you unexpectedly and catastrophically dead. There is a saying in aviation that there are Old pilots and there are Bold pilots, but there are no Old Bold pilots.

Many folks do not like having their work checked, they take it as an insult and are easily offended. Most if not all the pilots I've known did not mind if you checked/double-checked their work. We're all human and mistakes are made; in aviation mistakes can get you killed. I always enjoy boring when I'm flying.

In climbing, it is commonplace to check one another's knots, anchor and rappel rigging, etc.i would have suffered a serious injury if my buddy had not caught an error I made.

It's hard for me to think of a field of human endeavor where I would be patient with someone who wasn't willing to have his or her work checked. Where lives are on the line, like in climbing and aviation, a bad attitude about that would lead me to not participating.

AMEN!

Unfortunately that bad attitude is very common. That attitude is fostered by some supervisors. I once had the pleasure of a talk with a supervisor for picking on a colleague when testing software. Somehow the bugs were the tester´s fault and it was not OK to point them out. We finally agreed that the colleague would no longer select me as a tester. That measure improved the project´s quality statistics.
I managed to get assigned to other projects.
I think not putting lives into the hands of people who do not like their work checked is wise. Their performance often leaves a lot to be desired.

I quit a job over something like that once.

...and in case everything goes South, leave a detailed note to where you're going

When the company started deploying Microsoft Office 2010 I documented several major bugs and reported them back. A few days later I got a nasty e-mail back that where mine had been sent up through several management levels and I was told that there is not way it could have these problems when it had been tested by Microsoft and the company. I had the helpdesk roll me back to MS Office 2007 and used it for another year and then later found all my reported bugs and fixes listed in the first service pack for 2010.

Your more likely to suffer from a car accident or house fire than EMP or such anyway.
Keeping up with the day to day computer backups, keeping important papers in the safe, keep car keys with you, etc will be your preps.

Better yet, tell someone responsible where you're going, when you plan to return, what your route is, when to call in the Calvary, etc. Pieces of paper have a sneaky habit of going missing or unobserved in a timely manner.

The complete answer is - Leave the detailed piece of paper with someone responsible and a time for when they should use it to call in the info to the authorities.

(My wife is my responsible person, I have a regular format for my day's plan that I leave with her when I go out on an adventure.)

I would suggest that an email would be a better option (even to your wife). Paper gets misplaced and you don't always have it with you. Presumably one always carries their cellphone.

Of course, you could take the belt and suspenders approach and also print out the email. That way even with a power outage, and a dead phone battery, the info would still be available.

It's on the kitchen counter in front of the landline phone. Not easily misplaced. It doesn't go with me - it stays with her.

We don't have smartphones so email means cranking up the desktop computers to send/receive. (waaay behind the times I know)

I'd suggest taking it a step further: Actually review and discuss your plan with your Calvary.

A few years ago, I led a group of young Scouts hiking. We had distributed paper copies of our plan to all the parents before we left, and confirmed what time we'd meet at the other end. We included a map, with our route detailed. None the less, one parent missed the pre-hike debrief and didn't read. He ended up waiting at the wrong trailhead for us because that's where we had come out the last time we hiked there. His heart rate was up a bit, but it wasn't a big deal on a local trail, with no injuries, but with more ground to cover or an emergency to deal with......

Paper is still good...leave a note, have a plan