The Wind Storm That Wasn't...And the Benefits of Being Prepared

Well the big wind storm that was supposed to hit our area completely missed us. Other areas got lots of rain, some places got snow, and a very few areas got damaging winds.
The moral of the story, however, is that it always pays to be prepared. When you are prepared, you don't need to worry about:

• what would happen after a disaster, re: your insurance (because you are prepared, you already know this).
• what you would do if you have to evacuate at the last minute (because you have an evacuation plan in place).
• running to the store at the last minute to get food, water, batteries, toilet paper, et al in order to have enough stuff to wait out the storm (because you already have plenty of this stuff in reserve and you could easily stay holed up in your home for weeks on end--without notice--if need be).
• what would happen to your kids if a range of things occurred--a tree falls on the school, it is too windy for the kids to walk home, the power goes out while you are far away from home, etc (because you know the school's disaster plan and you have a family disaster plan and all of these things have been discussed, planned for, and drilled).
• how you would get gas for your car in the event that the power is out and the gas stations aren't open (because you have, at minimum, a couple of five gallon cans of gas safely stored in the shed).
• what you are going to eat for dinner in the event that there is no power and you can't cook (because you have plenty of food that can be eaten cold or, if you really need some hot food, you can always break out your grill which has a full tank of propane on stand-by).
• what you are going to do for entertainment in the event of a power outage (because you have been through a power outage before and it took a while but the family eventually found out that staring hard at the TV or computer won't bring it back to life so you have planned accordingly and have reading material, board games, and other non-electric entertainment options).
• what to do about the deck chairs/garbage can/recycling bins that just went flying down the street (because your wind storm job action sheet has a list of things that you check off as you get prepared for such a storm--bring all things that could be damaged by the wind indoors, tie down the boat and sails, observe the trees around the perimeter of the house and pre-emptively cut them down if they pose a danger, check on the elderly neighbor to be sure they are prepared to be without power for a while, etc).

So, like I said, it was a non-event, however, just by being prepared on a daily basis, it makes facing anything from a possible small disaster to something larger and more deadlier a lot easier to prepare for when word comes at the last minute because most all of the preps have already been done. All you need to do is bring up the correct job action sheet, go down the list, check things off, then sit back and enjoy the show.