Snow snow snow

Perhaps it is weird but I hope for power failures so I can practice for a real emergency. What is weirder is my daughter said this weekend during the big "EPIC" snow storm here on the east coast that she "hopes the power will go out, we have the most fun when that happens". The boys agreed, my wife just shook her head. But alas the power did not go out and all my prep work for the storm was mostly for nothing. We only spent one day inside eating microwave buttered popcorn and drinking hot coco while gathered around a ceramic space heater in the middle of the living room. Not because we needed a space heater our central heating works fine, but because it was just family fun.

The next day the boy 19 and I shoveled out the truck and we went around saving as many folk as we could and getting some Christmas shopping done in the empty stores. Who would have thought just days before Christmas the stores would be void of people. It was very pleasant.

I think practice of emergency situations is important. I know in my heart I should practice more with my family. I typically only practice when the power really goes out. Turning the breakers off and not having hot water might upset the wife. Helping people extract their vehicles from the snow was great practice and way to much of a work out, I am still sore, as is the boy.

My children are older now the youngest being 17 and almost out of high school and the rest adults. They have some interest in prepping due to their crazy father but it is a game to them. Some of our great family memories are of us popping microwave popcorn, drinking coco and watching the weather channel while the rest of the neighborhood is blacked out. God made generators to pop microwave popcorn and run portable AC units so we could all be comfortable with our mattresses all in one room while the power was out. This is the kind of memory my daughter was speaking of during this last storm.

I do not know if they will continue to prep as they grow older. My 19 yr old son who helped the most rescuing people this weekend said that he needs a larger shovel for his car, or maybe two, a spade and a snow shovel. My daughter 21 who recently ran out of gas wants now to get a couple types of personal protection devices (she can not carry a gun on campus) that she can rely on and a small gas can for her car. These things give me hope.

My oldest 22 is in the marines and is receiving a medal for helping in the Philippines during the huge tropical storms they had. So obviously he makes me so proud that I get a lump in my throat as I write this. My middle son 17 is thinking hard about joining some service, and I am doing my best to guide him. Having spent 6 years in the Navy as a Construction Electrician in the CB's I hope he listens a little to me. My daughter 21 has spent years as a dance instructor for her local dance studio and is going to the university as a math major so she can teach high school math and be the dance coach, at her old high school where she is currently already an assistant coach. My 17 yr old is a fine young man who wants to enter the Navy like his old man as EOD to protect his fellow warriors from IED's. Scary to his Mother and I but how could I not be proud of a goal like that.

I see all the stories of young adults who are lost and wandering the world with little to no purpose and I wonder how on earth I ended up with such fine children who every day make me so proud to be their parent. I believe that prepping and talking to them about the possibilities of horrific change in the world has help in no small way to guide their choices.

Yes they are somewhere between Conservative and Libertarian, they are not very religious. They are familiar with guns but none of them own a gun. They are not hugely political and certainly are not a threat to the govt like some govt. officials write documents about. They just want a chance at living a life at least the same as what I have lived and I hope better than my life.

This is likely our last Christmas together and even this one our son 22 the Marine is in Japan. I wish them all Gods Speed in life and I know due to their character they will all be fine.