Actually you can fix traffic jams, move
I hop across the street to work, traffic jams just make it easier because then I play a slow game of frogger rather than a fast one.

That is the plan ... sooner or later.

Amen.

As for teenagers -- my parents admitted they had it pretty easy. My brother, sister and I weren't dramatic and never got into significant trouble. We had sports to keep us busy and part-time jobs when we were sixteen.

A friend of mine's stepson was recently enrolled in a military school, because of behavioral problems at home and to get him away from the bad crowd he was running with.

You have a list of concerns so now you can analyze them, address what you can and know that some things are just out of our control.

Illinois taxpayers are fortunate the Olympic bid did not go through. Londoners were told the 2012 games would cost the city $4 billion and that has since been revised up to $15 billion. From what I've read, the last Olympics to turn a profit was Los Angeles '84. Chicago doesn't need the Olympics to prove it's a great city. American sports enthusiasts now have 7 years to save up for a trip to Rio!

As for winter, I love it and don't worry a bit about it! I hope we get lots of snow. Our neighborhood is never friendlier than after a big snow. Strangers help drivers whose cars get stuck. Neighbors shovel sidewalks for those who can't. And everything is beautiful, especially when a sticky snow highlights every twig on the trees.

If the power goes out I'll get out some candle lanterns, bundle up and go to sleep earlier. I look forward to snowshoeing and perhaps sledding my pup. Summer is my least favorite season here. Power outages take out the a/c. Tempers flare even more in traffic when it's hot and humid.

Odds are that twenty years from now participants on ETS will still be talking about what might happen, and the old timers will be marveling about what had not happened in the interim.

Be prepared, but don't lose faith.

It took 14 months to sell my house before I was able to move. That was mid last year.

My kids ate two and three year old teen agers, I got the "I hate you dad" already when I was trying to make him go to bed the night before preeschool. I tried to start them young going outdoors because of all the statistics about Americans being overweight couch potatoes, now they run circles around the dining room table if were stuck in the house for more than a day or two, I fear winter may be long for me. I did find a snow shovel small enough, one of those mini car trunk ones are toddler size.

Sorry, being in the Chicago area its my sad attempt at humor. There were a lot of emotions wrapped up on that stuff locally.

Seriously, in the upper midwest where I live there aren't really any big threats outside of society.

Tornados are the worst of it, and they are rare-ish. We do our best to plan ahead on those. Loss of electricity, as I'd mentioned, is a pretty big deal mostly for heat and the damage of frozen pipes.

Bad snow - I have a big-ish tractor and we'd just wait it out.
Bad rain - we don't flood much around where I am. Those prone to flooding already know it.
Hurricanes - not here.
Terrible cold - just another winter around here.
Food shortages - not likely - could always eat a horse or two.
Water shortages - not likely - we have an above ground pool as a backup (could filter or treat it) plus a pond behind our property.
Terrorism - not likely - and if it hits, probably mostly local impacts only - hopefully
Crime - not so much where I am, but with kids older I do think about keeping a gun more handy.
Loss of telephone - not a big deal in our house
Loss of TV - a big deal to me, but it would make the wife happy.

I suppose fire is a constant threat - I'm talking house fire - not brush fires.

Now that we have some property in way north Wisconsin one of my new fears is one of the kids being disoriented while out scouting the property and getting lost for too long. I've asked them to carry a basic survival kit and cell phone while "scouting". I don't think they understand how bad it could be.

As I've said somewhere in the past, the thing that drew me to this forum was not so much a desire to protect myself & mine from disasters, but to teach young folks how to prevent, gear up for, and react to unexpected nights (days) out in the wilder areas or nights with less gear than expected, mostly associated with Boy & Girl Scouts, but also with my family.

I spent Sunday watching a whole series of the "I Shouldn't Be Alive" series. I'd seem some already, but they really emphasize the randomness, unexpectedness, confusion, and the importance of some key stuff - letting people know where you're going & when you should return, importance of not doing stupid stuff in remote areas (think ahead), water, water, water, shelter, signaling, attitude, water, ...

My only comment on that is how mundane most of the life threatening emergencies are Ken.
The big and horrifically sexy stuff like earthquakes and tornadoes or exploding oil refineries make the national news.

A woman and her kids loosing toes to frostbite because their car broke down on a side road (in December because they were on the way to Grandma's for Xmas and tried walking for help) usually just makes the local news, if even that.

Usually it is the small stuff that gets us, a fall down the stairs, a slip in the tub, an average everyday auto accident.

Industrial safety taught me to never under rate the potential for small disasters.

After a couple decades of bachelor life, I have meet a woman who makes me contemplate changing my status.

I return the floor to you, and waive the remainder of my time.

You're going to end your life?