Emergency Preparedness

For scouts last night, we worked on the Emergency Preparedness merit badge. We discussed how to prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate or prevent kitchen fires and garages fires, food poisoning, avalanches, stranded vehicles (in deserts or blizzards), backcountry accidents, explosions, and various other emergencies. There was also a discussion of 72-hour kits and family evacuation plans. But the real scouting kicked in when it came time to plan to the mock disaster and troop mobilization plan. The mobilization involves assembling at the church with water, snacks and Nerf guns in order to combat the zombie apocalypse. Now I just need to find a few zombies...

This brings me to this morning at the office. You see, in our office, as in most offices, we have both emergency generators and emergency responders. Our biggest emergency generator kicked into gear yesterday, and no one realized it until this morning, when I noticed the emergency generator bouncing and spinning wildly out of control.  Like a good scout, I had to take on the role of emergency responder.  It was time to apply the emergency preparedness steps discussed last night. First, I had to  respond by reviewing the misinterpreted e-mail that caused the emergency. Then explain to the emergency generator that if you read past the first line, you would realize that the e-mail states nearly the opposite of what you had been concerned about. Then to recover, I canceled various meetings scheduled in response to the emergency and contacted various parties to clarify the situation. Third, to mitigate or prevent this from happening again, I asked if there is any way to take away the emergency generator's e-mail access. (No, it wasn't possible.)  Lastly, to prepare for the next time (because there will be a next time), I will need to bring my zombie apocalypse response kit to work. At least then I will have a snack and a Nerf gun.

Since it was Halloween...

Since it was Halloween, Julie decided to shred her right calf muscle. It had been ten years since she last was able to wear one of those fashionable boots. She only gets the boot for a few weeks though, so it's not exactly like ten years ago, when it was for a few months. I told Julie we were too old to repeat this again in ten more years.

Since Julie was wearing a boot for Halloween, I decided to dress up as a college graduate in maroon & gold graduation robes, because that's what I wear when Julie wears her boot. It is the only matching costume.  I wore those robes was ten years ago, the last time Julie was wearing a boot.

Since in was Halloween and since Julie was wearing a boot, I made the "Mummy Dogs" for the early Halloween dinner we have out on the street with our neighbors. Julie made them in the past using Lil Smokies and homemade dough. I used Veinna Sausages in BBQ sauce and Pillsbury crescent roll dough. Some of you may know that this resulted in a distinct difference in quality (those without taste-buds may not).  They still looked like Mummy Dogs and since it was Halloween, that was all that mattered.  Some kids will eat processed bologna sticks wrapped in processed roll dough (though not very many). Julie made sure I took all the credit for them.

Since it was Halloween, Katie dressed up as a spy and went Trick-or-Treating with a group of friends. Part way through she realized she had a hole in her bag. She got a new bag and still managed to collect far more candy than she needed.

Since Sarah is now 12, she did not go Trick-or-Treating. She dressed as Princess Aurora and passed out candy for Halloween. She invited a friend over, who came dressed as Cinderella. Several very small princesses who came around for candy were very impressed.  Several pre-teen/young teen-age boys who came around were not.  "I'm not getting candy from a princess!"  I call that a win-win.

Since Jordan is 14, he also does not go Trick-or-Treating. So he went to a friend's home to "hang out."  (Some time between 10 and 12, kids no longer "play" with friends, they "hang out.")  Hanging out is a very ambiguous term (unlike playing) and apparently includes putting on a muscle shirt and other odds and ends from your friend's basement and walking around the neighborhood with empty grocery bags and knocking on the doors of a few neighbors who happen to give you candy. This sounded a lot like Trick-or-Treating to me, but Jordan assured me that they were really looking for Spook-Alleys and Haunted Houses and such, but couldn't find any. Ironically, they was a Spook Alley right across the street from our house, but for some reason Jordan and his friends opted to avoid our street. Oh, and some how he ended up with more candy than Katie.

Of course, since it was Halloween and since Jordan didn't go Trick-or-Treating, all the candy he brought home was put into the family candy jar. Which, as Princess Aurora was quick to point out, was the only fair thing to do.  The boot and the robes agreed, and Jordan was out-voted.  Another win-win.

Since Halloween is now over...Happy Thanksgiving. Here's to hoping it is a quieter, more peaceful holiday. I'm not up for another Halloween.