Posted on 02/04/2005 1:49:02 AM PST by bad company
Part one: Start by reading your situation (listed below) after reading if you decide to participate, you have one week from today (01/25/2005) to search out your local dollar store and spend $15.00 carefully purchasing items needed to help you survive your 200 mile trip home. Remember, $15 limit no more no less! Once you have purchased your dollar store survival items you are required to post a photo of your items and give us a written description of what items you purchased and your reasons for purchasing them. You’re posted photos and description should be listed on this thread by no later than one week from today (02/01/2005). Keep in mind if you live in the Northwest or Northeast, its cold and your in a snowstorm, if you are in the South it’s also un-seasonally cold. Base your item purchases on your locations and respective climate conditions.
Good luck and good shopping!!!
Here is the situation: It’s the day before the Superbowl, present time 2005; you are on your way home from a trip visiting friends. You are alone; your family members are safe and sound at home waiting for your arrival, if all goes well you should be home in roughly 3 hours. Currently you are still 200 miles from your home and you are driving your personal vehicle. The weather in the Southern states is clear but unseasonably cool. The Northwest, and Northeast states are getting nailed by heavy snow and cold winds blowing in from Canada. While cruising down the interstate and listening to the radio the emergency broadcast system tone sounds and this time it is NOT a test, it’s the real deal. There have been multiple Terrorist attacks around the United States and in some of our allied Countries in which dirty bombs have been detonated simultaneously in almost every major city. The shit has definitely hit the fan in a huge way and as you drive, from what you see, things are starting to get out of control all around you… You have your cell phone and try calling your family but as you roam from cell tower to cell tower you either get that annoying “all circuits are busy recording” or the lines are completely dead, there is no way you can communicate with home at this point in time…
As you listen intently, radio broadcasts sound less and less promising as people are instructed to evacuate affected cities. Already, traffic has started to get heavy and people are driving recklessly and erratic. Off the distance, you can see a large city that the road you are on will pass near. You can see smoke bellowing and fires burning in multiple places throughout the city. Your heart is racing and you start thinking about your family and their safety, but your biggest concern is trying to get home in one piece because once your home, you know you have everything to survive until things clam down and you plan your next move.
You check the gas gauge as you drive and it reads almost full, plenty to get back to your house and family. A quick inventory of supplies in your vehicle shows that your BOB pack and supplies are missing. “Holy $hit” you think, then you remember taking your BOB pack out of the car last week to photograph it (for the 20th time) for your buds on AR15.com to see and like a complete dumba$$ you forgot to re-pack it in the vehicle before your trip. Fortunately, your trusty G19 and 3 17-round magazines of hydroshock ammo are safely locked in the floor safe that your family bought and had installed for your birthday last year. At least you have a weapon to protect yourself if the need arises. Still, you kick yourself in the a$$, because if your pack was with you know you would be set to handle almost anything, even if it took you a couple extra days to get back home, you would have been covered.
Up ahead, you spot a dollar store sign near an exit you are quickly approaching, at the last minute, you decide to stop at the store, see if it’s open, and buy some survival supplies should things take more than a few hours to get home.
After you pull in to the store you notice it is open and there are couple dozen people shopping intently for items. You check your wallet and there is only forty dollars in cash, because the phone lines are dead, the store is only taking cash. You decide that you’ll spend $15.00 in the store for survival items including whatever you think you’ll need to keep you going for the next 48 hours. Items on your mental list include food, beverages and hard goods. Now it’s up to you. Take a deep breath, regroup then take your fifteen bucks and shop for what you need.
Also as you exit your car you do notice that you left a full 32oz Nalgene bottle of water, which should cover your water needs for at least a day if you are only driving and you’re not on foot. However, be aware, that there is a good chance you may have ditch your vehicle at some point during your trek home and then your food and water requirements may go up! Good luck on your trip!
BOB="bug-out bag"
My head hurts.
I can go to those people that provide food for $1dollar per day like on the commercials, that should cover me. :)
Ping with a half-smile....
I knew that sounded familiar.
Well if you can get to the country where they are giving it away. How much would you have to bribe the baggage handler to sit with Mimi's poodle?
$15.00 worth of Little Debbie snack cakes at 4/$1.00.
I call mine the "Oh S***" bags. One for the house, one for the car.
If forced to start from scratch: a small sharp phillips screwdriver, Duct tape, a blanket or tarp, high calorie snacks, smaller water container to balance the load if I have to walk.
In real life, on any 3 or 4 hour drive, I'd already have 4 or 5 Diet Dr. Peppers, peanuts and candy bars, and my purse (currently contains a mask to enable me to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation {I call it my lucky charm, since I've never had to use it} an emory board, mirror, lip gloss, hand lotion, a few snacks, sudafed, antihistamine,the antiviral I use when my cold sore pops up, and ibuprofen, pens, extra crochet hooks including a needle-like size 10, several name tags and a sampling of political buttons and pins, some quarters and computer bag that would contain my crochet supplies (thread and a partially finished afghan, scissors) as well as a couple of more snack bars and my lap top and pens. I've always got a sweater or coat in the car (and usually my white coat with its 6 pockets and stethoscope), a ton of books and magazines, some window cleaner and a kit tucked in with the spare tire to use if I have to give first aide on the side of the road(latex gloves, gauze, a thin plastic gown and a suture kit). I keep a screw driver there, too. The tire changing kit has a crow bar that I'd carry if I had to leave the car.
My problem would be if I were caught out with my husband, when I'd only have my purse.
LOL! My thoughts exactly!
Thanks for adding this to the thread!
:)
*I* would already be wearing my tin hat, of course, since I've read so many post-holocaust science fiction novels.
…and a kit tucked in with the spare tire to use if I have to give first aide on the side of the road(latex gloves, gauze, a thin plastic gown and a suture kit).
You bet- bad company actually poses an interesting scenario.
It started me thinking about how many "dollar" stores we have ( lots! ) and how much "stuff" you can get. They actually have a lot in the canned beverage, snack, and some basic foodstuffs departments. Also, some medical supplies, candles, batteries, lamp oil.
It reminded me that we need to think about hurricane season before the rush is upon us- I have a welder/generator that needs rewinding, so Mrs. B can have an electric-start power source if the AC goes out.
What to buy? I dunno, a couple of cheap canteens and a web belt might be nice in case I have to hoof it.(note to self, get water purification tablets to kill the bugs the filter pitcher doesn't get, canteens and a web belt and put in van). Maybe an extra tube of antibiotic ointment and some more band-aids, aspirin, and a few candy bars...
Is there anything that can beat Reynold's Wrappers? *L*
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