The 6 P's: COVID 19 Pandemic Edition

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. The six P's that were defined for me in Boot Camp. Let's talk a little about the pandemic.

First off, there's plenty of great information on the how's and why's and prevention and such out there about this virus and info on the virus itself. Please, for the love of Jesus, stick to the experts on this one. Mayo Clinic, CDC, WHO, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic. If you're doing the right thing, you're already practicing social distancing, so you'll have plenty of time to read through these sites and get solid facts.

This post is going to reflect a bit on our reaction as a society to these events. There has been an insane run on supplies in the past couple of weeks. There are jackholes out there that swept up all of the hand sanitizer, bleach wipes, and TP they could find to price gouge and make money off of this disaster. It is painfully evident that the vast majority of the panicked people were simply unprepared for something like this.  Most of you by now have seen the "Flatten the Curve" graphics floating around.

Like this one! CDC approved!

So we should ALL understand why closing things down and trying to slow the spread is vital. But we can also use this to show what happens when something disruptive happens to our society.

Works on so many levels

Of course, you can insert whatever supply you'd like in place of TP, but you get the gist.

This isn't surprising though. It is easy to get into the normal routine of life and not give much thought to emergency situations. If you fall into this category, don't beat yourself up! You are in good company with most of your fellow citizens! The good news is that the vast majority of our population will survive this crisis, even in the midst of administrative failure from our Federal government. So with that in mind, let's talk prepping.

What's the first thing that came into your mind when I said "prepping"? A guy dressed in camo stockpiling years of food, weapons and ammo in his garage, guarding it with his AR-15? Underground bunkers and secret locations for food caches? Tinfoil hats? 

Sure, there are those people out there that have gone full on survivalist, preparing for the end of the world. But I want to dispel the myth that anyone who prepares has to go this far. I want to stop the eye-rolls when I say "have you done any prepping?" Because you don't have to go overboard! Sure, the extreme preppers are getting ready for the one in a billion, world ending events, but let's talk about what's happening now. Their point that even the slightest disruption in social norms leads to chaos is pretty accurate. We continue to see natural disasters and know for the most part where they will happen. Earthquakes in California. Hurricanes in Florida. Tornadoes in the Midwest. Lots of the people that live in those areas do some basic prepping for those events, and nobody sane rolls their eyes at that. So why are we unwilling to do some basic prepping for things like COVID 19 or other things that could disrupt the majority of the nation? (Because I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the experts say that this kind of thing will happen again. It isn't a question of "IF', but a question of "WHEN".) 

The answer is again, human nature. We get our daily patterns down and don't really think outside of that bubble. Crime in the Big Cities? Doesn't effect me so I focus on my priorities. Starving kids in impoverished areas? Doesn't effect me, toss some money at it when it comes up on FB maybe. This is called privilege. Everyone everywhere has some level of privilege (some far, far less than others of course) that keeps them inside their bubbles. In America, the majority is made up of white, working and middle class, English speaking people. Our 'normal' expectations for day to day life don't include food scarcity or chronic illness. Our standard of living is pretty good. So we become complacent in our belief that there will always be food and toilet paper on the shelves, and "as long as we work hard, we'll have the money to buy what we need". And for the most part, this is true. We scoff at "Preppers" for wasting their time and money on things that will most likely not happen in their lifetimes. So we attach a stigma to people that prep, which drives people away from doing some basic prepping for fear of being ridiculed.  Again, normal human behavior. But this pandemic has shown us vividly that there are a LOT of people out there that are unprepared for an emergency. When the media reports the facts, and the facts are a bit scary, people panic. There's a line from MIB about an individual person being smart, but 'people' are stupid. They're not wrong. being unprepared leads to panic. (Not the media) We need to de-stigmatize basic preparedness and start thinking ahead a little, yes?

So, how can we 'normal' citizens prepare for the next event like this? It's actually pretty simple, inexpensive, and won't really disrupt your normal routines at all. In fact, it can be kind of fun!

WHAT YOU NEED vs. WHAT YOU WANT

There are plenty of prepper websites out there that explain what they think are the essentials for Doomsday events. It's a rabbit hole I wouldn't suggest unless you go in with the understanding that you aren't preparing for a Doomsday event, just an undefined disruption of normalcy. Now to be honest, I would love me a bit of land away from populated areas to escape the crowds and camp, hunt, adventure or whatever! So I can't fault them for that. But stockpiling weapons, buying land to 'Bug Out' to, and putting in secret bunkers may be a bit extreme. But they do have a lot of good ideas for 'Sheltering in Place', which is what we're probably heading into with this covid 19 thing. There will always be stuff that you may want for a prep bag. But start out with the bare necessities first. 

So what do you need?

First off, the CDC put out Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness guidelines a few years back. Kind of a tongue in cheek way to get people interested in doing some emergency prepping. This is an entertaining and excellent guide to getting yourself ready for the next 'whatever' after this one passes. They suggest making an emergency kit that includes

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)

Can you imagine how much less panic there would have been had a few more of those folks fighting over TP had done this?

"But that costs money! And where do we put it?" 

Listen, as a guy who wants to learn ALL THE HOBBIES, I understand that diving head first into a project can require a considerable outlay of money right up front. But let's take a look at what is on that list. Food, water, meds, etc... All of those are things you use in your daily life anyway. So there's not a reason (once we are no longer socially distancing ourselves and isolating of course) not to start small. Backpacks, little shelves or cabinets, or other containers are inexpensive, especially at second hand stores or outlets. Buy one in the first week or two. When you go shopping for your usual food and supplies, pick up an extra canned good or two every four or five trips.  Grab a second TP package every now and then. Buy things that don't expire or have a really long shelf life. 

Where to put it? Clean out the bottom of a closet, or a corner of your garage. Put a little shelf in your basement. There's ALWAYS a few cubic feet of space that you can set some things aside. If you want to get really fancy, you can even rotate your supplies in special racks and make charts and graphs and other cool organizational stuff! But again, it doesn't need to be hard or spendy. Some things will need to be replaced over time of course, but it's not hard to have a rotating stock of a few canned goods on your normal food storage shelves. 

what a handy little graph!

Of course, in the above graphic, the blue part would be much, much flatter and not eat up that much of your income. But again, you get the idea.

One thing we found helpful is having "normal" food and "emergency" food. Our kitchen is usually stocked with enough day to day food for a week or two. Sometimes less because of growing children, but in a pinch, we could make regular meals for half a month or so. We keep meats in the freezer and fresh foods for cooking and such, but we also have a little space set aside to store our "emergency supplies". For us, it was a simple and inexpensive matter to get a few food safe 5 gallon buckets with lids, pack them with non-perishables over the course of months of shopping, and put them in the basement.We started doing this years ago and now we have plenty of food squirreled away to shelter in place as long as we need to. It didn't hurt us at all financially, and it takes up the space of about a closet. On a Costco run once, we bought a bulk bag of rice, separated it into one pound bags and made a bucket o' rice. Same with pinto beans on another trip. We have a bucket of salts and spices that we tap into every now and then to use up and replenish, because who likes bland food, emergency or not? What else can you do?Buy a case of TP (when it's plentiful again) and stick it in the back of a closet somewhere (dry). And if you should for some reason be sheltering in place long enough to go through it, I've heard that showers are sometimes located near toilets, and can be used to clean your body! 

Did you know that sugar doesn't go bad? Neither does non-iodized salt. Even the iodized stuff lasts a looong time. Vinegar, wine, pasta, nuts, some dried grains, honey - especially honey- can last for decades before they go bad. Honey is magical and eternal! Canned meats can last for two to five years. Grab some extra canned tuna or chicken on every dozen grocery runs for a couple years and you'll have plenty for a few months of emergency, without breaking the bank or taking up lots of space. Canned fruits and veggies may not be better than what you get from your garden, but they'll get you through a winter of discontent! 

Now, I'll be the first to admit that the thought of living off of rice and beans, or canned chicken on pasta for a few months sounds awful to an epicurean. But with a variety of spices and recipes for some basic ingredients it won't be terrible. And it sure beats the alternative which I'm guessing would include scavenging and starving.

So friends, I encourage you to become preppers. Not the eye-roll kind (unless that's your thing). But just having some simple foresight and basic goods that will last you and yours a month or two when this sort of thing happens again will give you better peace of mind when it happens, and just maybe keep supplies on the shelves for people that need them or didn't plan ahead. Help others by helping yourself! It's a win/win! 

Of course, that won't stop the price gougers, but we'll find some answers to that at another time. 

What sort of things do you do, or are you thinking of doing, to get ready for these events? Has this pandemic changed you in any way?