First Blog Ever!

 So for my first blog ever, I thought I'd write about the preparedness fair I attended today. It was relatively local, in Salem, IN. Still a good drive for me, but not too horrible. Of course I was late. I'm never on time for anything anymore, regardless of how much time I allow for the journey. One of the many joys of living with a toddler.
Anyway. Let me start at the beginning. I was looking for oxygen packets to put in with dehydrated food to help preserve them longer, and no one in any of the stores I contacted even knew what I was talking about. Made me wonder if they'd never bought a bottle of aspirin. Anyway. I knew there was a cannery in Indy, run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) and they offer these little packets in quantities of 100 for $10.00, a good deal, considering I can't find them anywhere else. The problem is, Indy is a good hour and half drive from here. So I called the cannery to see if they had any advice on where I might search, and the woman I spoke with asked if Salem was close to me. I told her it was, and she told me about the preparedness fair being held there on the 12th, and offered to bring the oxygen packets with her for me to pick up. How very nice! Of course I was interested in the fair as well, so I agreed to meet her there.

She had told me watch the paper for times and location. I had people on the look-out, but no mention in any paper that anyone saw. So earlier this week, I called the newspaper office that provided for Salem, thinking it was going to be an easy thing to get this info. They had no idea what I was talking about. Are you seeing a theme with this whole preparedness thing? No one ever knows what I'm talking about!! Which is why I've started my blog and Face book page to help get some info out to those who may be interested but thwarted in their quest. Anyway. I was given the number to the sheriff’s office in Salem, and from there to a 911 dispatcher. She had heard of the fair, but had no info. She had to get the info and call me back, but I finally had a date, a time, and an address. Google could do the rest. I was ready to go.

My in-laws were supposed to watch my son, but they had been sick for the past week with no end in sight, and I was grateful they didn't want to share their germs with Zeke. So after some last minute babysitter rearranging, I was off to Salem this morning.

It was a beautiful day for a mini-road trip, and I got to listen to all the music I don't get to listen to in my mom-car anymore, full blast, including several anthems from my youth. All I needed was a cigarette, (I quit almost 4 years ago) and I would have been transported to my early twenties again. Well, a cigarette and my old Lumina... and a few pounds lighter... and no worries about my toddler having a melt-down while I'm a half hour away with sketchy service on the road... and no worries about the bills... well, anyway.

So I get there late, but only by 15 minutes, a new record, and slip into the back row just in time for the beginning of a lecture.

There were a few lectures pertaining to preparedness in general, such as why it's a good idea to store enough food for long term situations, how to keep your home and family ready for a fire, and first aid that would come in handy for most any emergency.

I learned about inflation, and how the numbers keep getting "jiggered" by the politicians and how they don't want anything to be clear. I learned that bullets do not "fire" when hot enough; they just explode and therefore won't actually fire, but will blow up like a fire cracker. I learned that you can stop an arterial bleed with the weight of your body, and that a tourniquet needs to be loosened to allow blood flow to the limb to prevent loss of it every 15 minutes. I also learned that in case of biological attack or outbreak, such as Anthrax, the antibiotic Cipro is what you want to keep on hand. I also learned that you can cheat the system somewhat to have prescriptions you need on hand by getting your 'script filled at a drugstore while simultaneously getting it through a mail-in system through your insurance. And that a lot of doctors think Epinephrine pens should be cheaper and over the counter.

Not a lot of new information for me, but still not a total waste of time. I was still going to get my oxygen packets for my dehydrated goods, right? As soon as the lectures were over, we were given about a half hour to mingle and peruse the tables set up around the small room that held baked goods made from preserved foods and 72 hour emergency kits. And there was my lady from the LDS cannery, waiting behind her table of dry-canned goods, just waiting to hand over my oxygen packets. So I made a bee-line to her, introduced myself, and then learned she had forgotten to pack them when she was ready to leave for the fair. So much for being prepared. However, she offered to mail them to me, and as she's a woman of God, I passed over my (and my neighbor's) money, in good faith that I will receive them sometime next week. Not that I can talk, I regularly walk out of my house, lock the door behind me, and then realize the keys are still on the kitchen table. I don't usually realize it til I can't start the car. So my hard earned rewards for the day include a few FEMA handouts I can also get through their website, a stapled packet of a few papers on water purification which claims they deliberately left information out so you will visit their site, and a Family Emergency Preparedness Handbook that has pertinent information for a city in South Carolina.

So no, not a total waste of time.