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nagaina_ryuuoh: Another one bites the dust. The plot of Orca, as I mentioned in a previous post of hers, is getting waaaaayyy to close to reality. All we need's a suspicious death or two. I am increasingly glad that the bulk of our assets, such as they are, are in a credit union.
***
This morning's episode of 'Teaching A Zodling to be A Tool-user' went a hell of a lot better than any episode since we started our latest push on Friday. He's still not scooping up the oatmeal himself. But he's not fighting me anymore when I wrap his fingers around the spoon. He keeps his fingers on the spoon when I help him to scoop. And he retains the spoon when I let go, and puts it in his mouth himself. He even retains the spoon after he takes it out of his mouth, and waits for me to help him scoop again. Didn't whine once. Forks are likely to still be an issue. We'll find out in about fifteen minutes. (Edit, since this post is taking forever: After finishing his crackers, he tried grabbing a chunk of hot dog with his fingers. I told him no. He shrieked in outrage. ::sigh:: His speech therapy can't start soon enough for me. Then he grumpily let me wrap his fingers around the fork, and lunch proceeded much as breakfast had.)
Still fighting us on any veggie that isn't corn or tater tots, even when we cave in and let him use his fingers. Sigh. Dav had the bright idea to try putting ketchup on broccoli last week to jazz it up, as he can't have milk-based sauces. It didn't make him want to eat the broccoli, but it did result in some hilarious pictures, when we foolishly left the room for a minute. Those're going in a separate post, to save space.
***
Got a doctor appt. this afternoon, for my suspected mastitis. Amazing how fast Tricare will cut the bullshit when the words 'pains in my breast' are used. Jack-jack's rescheduled two-month appt. is still set for Thursday.
***
Speaking of Zodling v.2.0, we spent the night on the air mattress again. Once he finally fell asleep, he slept pretty well, only awakening me for two feedings. I, on the other hand, didn't sleep that great, despite the lack of wriggling and wierd nasal sounds from my little companion. I kept having dreams where I was in various disaster situations, and separated fromdavner and the kids, and had to find them.
The disasters, as I muzzily explained to Dav when he came downstairs, weren't really the focus of the dream. The fact that I needed to find each member of my family and couldn't, was. In one dream, I charged into a building, despite the warnings of firefighters outside that it was on fire, because I knew they were in there and it was not, in fact, on fire. I found Mark sitting on a blanket, completely alone, in a large concrete room. He was crying, but stopped once I picked him up. I then carried him through the building, up, down, and across various metal stairs and catwalks, trying to find Dav and Jack, but didn't succeed before I woke up.
Gah.
Dav tried to reassure me by saying he'd never ever go anywhere without me and the kids, which did make me feel better. But as I woke up further, I told him it wasn't so much that I didn't trust him to do exactly that, it's probably just his upcoming trip to Jersey for CRT, combined with the 'official' end of hurricane season not coming til the end of October. An awful lot of our current bug-out scenarios involve him being there to help. (Not that you can bug-out all that swiftly or easily with two small kids even with help...)
I told him I'd spent most of the pre-dawn hours working on what I'd need to do to evacuate with them, should a hurricane hit while he's gone. He tried to tell me we'd never get a hurricane here. I remembered the enlisted club being closed for a good portion of our first year here, because of Irene, and the raggedy wooden pilings, once a fishing pier, that the AF never got around to removing or repairing. I remembered the tropical storm a while back, which flooded the apartment's parking lot, and prompted some hilarious zombie blogging from him. But I held my tongue. He was trying to make his sleepy wife feel better, after all.
I mentioned I was thinking of Fort Dix as a fall-back point. It's close to here. It's far enough inland that it's likely to be out of the direct path of a hurricane. It has Space A rooms in lodging for us to hole up. And there's plenty of base services. He refrained from his usual "I'm a Southerner and hurricanes are nothing to fear! We can just ride it out! I've done it before! People worry too much!" commentary, and suggested I head for Richmond instead. "Hurricanes will follow you north. Go west." Next time both the boys are napping, I'll check out our AAA mapbook and plan a route. Richmond might be a bit swamped with fellow evacuees.
(Speaking of his usual Tough Southern Grit attitude... I'm sorry honey, but I can't put much stock in it, even though I'm a Yankee who's got no personal experience with hurricanes. Especially after seeing footage from Galveston. It's not just being without basic services a week or more, although with two small kids, one of whom has serious food allergies, that's no small consideration. It's that the houses were flattened, in Galveston. It's that our main route to nearby stores runs through sections of gov.-owned swamp that acts as runoff to the reservoir, and the back route runs through low-lying ground that can and has flooded in the past. The route to base runs along the reservoir. Portions of 64, the official hurricane evac route here, are known to flood a bit in mere thunderstorms, thanks to the skill of VDOT. I wouldn't care to bug out without you, but if it's a choice between trying to keep the kids safe, or leaving you behind... You can ward off looters with your gun horde if you want. I'm taking the boys elsewhere for a few days. :kiss: )
So as I said, evac plotting is afoot. Debating whether to abandon the dual stroller, as Tohru-chan's cargo space is scanty. But, it's a damn useful stroller most of the time, and would be nice to have post-evac... Will have to see how much volume my essentials list takes up.
List for the car:
All our current water hoard.
All infant formula currently on hand.
Bottles.
Bottlebrush
Thermos of soy milk
All Mark's sippys
Diapers
Wipes
1 epi-pen
Mark's blankie
Jack's Piglet
Pack N Play, if room
Bug-out Bag (to go in the front seat next to me):
1 epi-pen
10 diapers for each boy
1 spare resealable packet of wipes
1 bottle
1 sippy
Single-use tubes of formula powder, amount to be determined (must buy)
Bottled water, amount to be determined
2 onsies
2 toddler pants
2 pair toddler socks
2 changes socks/underwear for me
1 canister cheerios/raisins
1 sleeve of veggie crackers
Bibs
Checkbook
Wallet
You will note I did not include a gun. Asflemco noted in his How Not To Be A Dumbass set of survival entries (Highly recommended, for their informative and their entertainment value), unless you are highly familiar with and comfortable with whatever gun you elect to bring, having a gun in a survival situation can be worse than having no gun at all. I *may* include a knife, after due consideration. I do plan on getting a swiss army knife or equivalent. I do plan on getting familiar with a long gun and hand gun, eventually.
But this isn't a list of things to take while fleeing packs of looters and zombies. And this isn't a list of preparations for an eventual disaster.
This is a list of things to take when escaping forces of nature that may or may not kill us, but definitely will not give a pair of fetid dingo kidneys about what armament I may have. This is a list of what to bring if something happens within the next few weeks, whiledavner is gone. This is a list that assumes we can quickly and easily get somewhere that will not have major issues with supply lines or electricity.
Suggestions welcome. ^_^ It's now one o'clock, and I need to get ready for that dr. appt.
nagaina_ryuuoh: Another one bites the dust. The plot of Orca, as I mentioned in a previous post of hers, is getting waaaaayyy to close to reality. All we need's a suspicious death or two. I am increasingly glad that the bulk of our assets, such as they are, are in a credit union.***
This morning's episode of 'Teaching A Zodling to be A Tool-user' went a hell of a lot better than any episode since we started our latest push on Friday. He's still not scooping up the oatmeal himself. But he's not fighting me anymore when I wrap his fingers around the spoon. He keeps his fingers on the spoon when I help him to scoop. And he retains the spoon when I let go, and puts it in his mouth himself. He even retains the spoon after he takes it out of his mouth, and waits for me to help him scoop again. Didn't whine once. Forks are likely to still be an issue. We'll find out in about fifteen minutes. (Edit, since this post is taking forever: After finishing his crackers, he tried grabbing a chunk of hot dog with his fingers. I told him no. He shrieked in outrage. ::sigh:: His speech therapy can't start soon enough for me. Then he grumpily let me wrap his fingers around the fork, and lunch proceeded much as breakfast had.)
Still fighting us on any veggie that isn't corn or tater tots, even when we cave in and let him use his fingers. Sigh. Dav had the bright idea to try putting ketchup on broccoli last week to jazz it up, as he can't have milk-based sauces. It didn't make him want to eat the broccoli, but it did result in some hilarious pictures, when we foolishly left the room for a minute. Those're going in a separate post, to save space.
***
Got a doctor appt. this afternoon, for my suspected mastitis. Amazing how fast Tricare will cut the bullshit when the words 'pains in my breast' are used. Jack-jack's rescheduled two-month appt. is still set for Thursday.
***
Speaking of Zodling v.2.0, we spent the night on the air mattress again. Once he finally fell asleep, he slept pretty well, only awakening me for two feedings. I, on the other hand, didn't sleep that great, despite the lack of wriggling and wierd nasal sounds from my little companion. I kept having dreams where I was in various disaster situations, and separated from
davner and the kids, and had to find them. The disasters, as I muzzily explained to Dav when he came downstairs, weren't really the focus of the dream. The fact that I needed to find each member of my family and couldn't, was. In one dream, I charged into a building, despite the warnings of firefighters outside that it was on fire, because I knew they were in there and it was not, in fact, on fire. I found Mark sitting on a blanket, completely alone, in a large concrete room. He was crying, but stopped once I picked him up. I then carried him through the building, up, down, and across various metal stairs and catwalks, trying to find Dav and Jack, but didn't succeed before I woke up.
Gah.
Dav tried to reassure me by saying he'd never ever go anywhere without me and the kids, which did make me feel better. But as I woke up further, I told him it wasn't so much that I didn't trust him to do exactly that, it's probably just his upcoming trip to Jersey for CRT, combined with the 'official' end of hurricane season not coming til the end of October. An awful lot of our current bug-out scenarios involve him being there to help. (Not that you can bug-out all that swiftly or easily with two small kids even with help...)
I told him I'd spent most of the pre-dawn hours working on what I'd need to do to evacuate with them, should a hurricane hit while he's gone. He tried to tell me we'd never get a hurricane here. I remembered the enlisted club being closed for a good portion of our first year here, because of Irene, and the raggedy wooden pilings, once a fishing pier, that the AF never got around to removing or repairing. I remembered the tropical storm a while back, which flooded the apartment's parking lot, and prompted some hilarious zombie blogging from him. But I held my tongue. He was trying to make his sleepy wife feel better, after all.
I mentioned I was thinking of Fort Dix as a fall-back point. It's close to here. It's far enough inland that it's likely to be out of the direct path of a hurricane. It has Space A rooms in lodging for us to hole up. And there's plenty of base services. He refrained from his usual "I'm a Southerner and hurricanes are nothing to fear! We can just ride it out! I've done it before! People worry too much!" commentary, and suggested I head for Richmond instead. "Hurricanes will follow you north. Go west." Next time both the boys are napping, I'll check out our AAA mapbook and plan a route. Richmond might be a bit swamped with fellow evacuees.
(Speaking of his usual Tough Southern Grit attitude... I'm sorry honey, but I can't put much stock in it, even though I'm a Yankee who's got no personal experience with hurricanes. Especially after seeing footage from Galveston. It's not just being without basic services a week or more, although with two small kids, one of whom has serious food allergies, that's no small consideration. It's that the houses were flattened, in Galveston. It's that our main route to nearby stores runs through sections of gov.-owned swamp that acts as runoff to the reservoir, and the back route runs through low-lying ground that can and has flooded in the past. The route to base runs along the reservoir. Portions of 64, the official hurricane evac route here, are known to flood a bit in mere thunderstorms, thanks to the skill of VDOT. I wouldn't care to bug out without you, but if it's a choice between trying to keep the kids safe, or leaving you behind... You can ward off looters with your gun horde if you want. I'm taking the boys elsewhere for a few days. :kiss: )
So as I said, evac plotting is afoot. Debating whether to abandon the dual stroller, as Tohru-chan's cargo space is scanty. But, it's a damn useful stroller most of the time, and would be nice to have post-evac... Will have to see how much volume my essentials list takes up.
List for the car:
All our current water hoard.
All infant formula currently on hand.
Bottles.
Bottlebrush
Thermos of soy milk
All Mark's sippys
Diapers
Wipes
1 epi-pen
Mark's blankie
Jack's Piglet
Pack N Play, if room
Bug-out Bag (to go in the front seat next to me):
1 epi-pen
10 diapers for each boy
1 spare resealable packet of wipes
1 bottle
1 sippy
Single-use tubes of formula powder, amount to be determined (must buy)
Bottled water, amount to be determined
2 onsies
2 toddler pants
2 pair toddler socks
2 changes socks/underwear for me
1 canister cheerios/raisins
1 sleeve of veggie crackers
Bibs
Checkbook
Wallet
You will note I did not include a gun. As
flemco noted in his How Not To Be A Dumbass set of survival entries (Highly recommended, for their informative and their entertainment value), unless you are highly familiar with and comfortable with whatever gun you elect to bring, having a gun in a survival situation can be worse than having no gun at all. I *may* include a knife, after due consideration. I do plan on getting a swiss army knife or equivalent. I do plan on getting familiar with a long gun and hand gun, eventually. But this isn't a list of things to take while fleeing packs of looters and zombies. And this isn't a list of preparations for an eventual disaster.
This is a list of things to take when escaping forces of nature that may or may not kill us, but definitely will not give a pair of fetid dingo kidneys about what armament I may have. This is a list of what to bring if something happens within the next few weeks, while
davner is gone. This is a list that assumes we can quickly and easily get somewhere that will not have major issues with supply lines or electricity.Suggestions welcome. ^_^ It's now one o'clock, and I need to get ready for that dr. appt.
