I've always been solo - as a hiker, climber, responder. Always prepared, in the proper context - for wind, rain, snow, falling rocks, medical emergencies. I've gotten myself out of the woods following unexpected snowfall and windstorms intact, and off of a rock ledge with a broken hand, only because I was prepared. Then I got married, then we had kids - I had to extend my role to being prepared and preparing others. We had an earthquake about 7 years ago, and I realized there was a whole realm I was only marginally prepared for - local catastrophe. The Seattle Fault may not slip but every 300 years, it may not slip in my lifetime, but it could slip tomorrow, and I figure I'll be prepared for that to a reasonable level: reasonable defined as every person in my extended family having enough gear and know how to survive the initial shake and the predictable aftermath, and then some. Based on those preparations, we all do really well with wind storms, or large snowfalls, followed by windstorms, which we're facing right now. But I gotta tell you, equipping 35+ people is alot harder than I thought, and these are reasonable people, relations. My future career and professional goal is to attempt the same with 35,000 non-related folks.

I only live a few hundred yards from the Seattle Fault, I will in all likelihood be crushed in the initial shake. Someone else will have to come and pillage all my neat stuff. I hope they take good care of my chain saw though, its been like the second son I never had. But if I survive, I have obligations - to my neighbors, to my employer, co-workers, to total strangers, to the Red Cross - to help them out and help them get past the initial event. Its the obligations that I like, it gives meaning to what I do everyday, much moreso than my 9-5 job which tends to pale in comparison to helping others. There's alot of psychology wrapped up in that, good luck decoding.