Get Ready

Periodically, there is some threat of natural disaster here. Typically, it's an earthquake of minor proportions, and we're implored to take it as a wake-up call. We're told how to conduct ourselves during the initial shaking, and we're also advised that we should have a kit ready to help us through some minimum period of time before help can reach us. Of course, I have never in my time living on my own had a proper kit of my own, although roommates have.

I'm not entirely without resources. My terrible diet of canned ravioli and other non-perishable items would become a blessing in the absence of any proper food. If I'm lucky, the emergency strikes when I am eating something like cup o'noodles for lunch, because that would endure better than the cold cut sandwiches that I might otherwise be eating. Of course, those noodles would depend on the water I have in one carafe and two or three bottles.

Perhaps I could barter some of those food items to make up for my shortcomings in other areas, the iffiness of breakfast and luck items notwithstanding. I don't have so much where medical supplies are concerned. I'm ready for the heat with sunblock and aloe, but no so prepared for any cuts, contusions or other serious injuries and illnesses. I would need to rectify this area of weakness before something happened, that's for certain.

Of course, I can continue to put my faith in the unlikelihood of any such emergency happening, and this strategy has paid off so far, but I know that the risk involved grows over time. I would certainly rather be the ant in Aesop's fable than the grasshopper, although I think it tends to underrate the value of the latter's activities compared to those of the former. The grasshopper's music would have to be worth something, and so would my humor, surely. Maybe I'll do nothing.