The room goes dark and quiet. Power outage. Why really doesn’t matter right now; right now you’re sitting in a dark house. Time to start putting some of your preps to use. Duration of the blackout and appropriate level of concern, will be determined as things progress. But for now, you feel good about your families’ situation; your five basic needs are met pretty well.
But what about your daily wants and activities? We are creatures of habit; our routines give us comfort. To establish some type of normalcy will be important. Once we are warm, fed, and safe; the next complaint will be lack of everyday activity and boredom.
So what now? It’s hard to address these issues if you haven’t thought about them before. So as a family we tried to brainstorm all the things we do–at the house–on a regular basis. (No particular order, we just went around the group and each of us named something until we couldn’t think of anything else.) We didn’t try to solve any problems, or develop any ideas. I just wanted a list of things we regularly do, and to create an awareness of our normal activities.
Eventually, I want to look at each item on the list and determine it’s relative importance in an emergency situation. Do we need a back-up, a substitute, or possibly an alternate way of achieving the same end?
But for now, it’s just a list:
- Going to the bathroom
- Internet
- Cooking
- Drinking water
- Brushing teeth
- Reading
- Watching TV shows
- Putting on make up
- Sleeping
- Studying and learning
- Laundry
- Shaving
- Music
- Hanging with friends
- Washing hair
- Dishes
- Getting dressed
- Drawing
- Keeping food cold
- Wake up with alarm
- Crafts
- Drinking alcohol
- Using computers (non Internet)
- Taking medicine
- Texting
- Games
- Playing with and caring for pets
- Staying warm
- Watching movies
- Taking out trash
- Vacuuming
- Taking pictures
- Using microwave
- Dealing with menstrual cycles
- Sweeping
- Fixing stuff
- Video games
- Preparing food
- Changing batteries
- Telling time
- Washing hands and face
- Opening doors
- Showering
- Talking
- Building things
- Drinking coffee
- Relaxing
- Baking
- Cleaning
- Putting on lotion
- Locking doors