I had a few rough experiences when I was a young adult, which brought back memories of some smaller lessons my dad had taught me as a child. His "knife, string, and matches" rule for a walk in the woods seemed to make a lot of sense, especially metaphorically, about so many things.

I'm certainly nowhere near as well prepared as some of you, but then things have been a little rough lately. It also gets tough convincing family sometimes why I want to purchase a small camp stove and a few cans of fuel for it, but then if we have an extended power outage they'll be grateful for the hot meals, and that matters more to me than a lot of things. The same applies to the tarp I keep with the spare tire in the car, though the first aid kit is never questioned, and my 'crazy man kits' come in handy for bandages and allergy meds more than anyone else thinks to be prepared for them.

I think I'm wearing them down a little.