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There is more snow com­ing this week­end.  Accord­ing to how the weath­er looks there might be quite a bit of snow over the next cou­ple of weeks.  Snow does not make me hap­py.  Espe­cial­ly now because the towns around me have NOT cleaned up the snow on the side of the road lim­it­ing the amount of park­ing avail­able for those with street park­ing only.  Nor­mal­ly, the towns have buck­et load­ers full of snow haul­ing it away.  Not this time.  Sort of piss­es me off, but I will get into why anoth­er time.  My point, was to tran­si­tion into the impor­tance of being pre­pared here in the north­east, because if the last minute fren­zy I wrote about here.  

Not only was there a fren­zy at the gro­cery store, but depend­ing on where you lived in NJ, you got between 24″ and 34″ of snow in a 24 hour peri­od.  NYC was par­a­lyzed, as was NJ.  A state of emer­gency was called, and peo­ple were ordered to stay off the road.  My truck was lit­er­al­ly buried under plowed snow that was more than waist high.  That was fun dig­ging out (sar­casm implied).  Some areas lost pow­er, and some did not.  So, to my point…

Are you ready?  Are you ready for the snow over the next cou­ple of weeks?  Are you ready to get dumped on (poten­tial­ly) again mul­ti­ple times?  Are you ready for the elec­tric or gas to go out?  are you ready to cook if this hap­pens?  Are you ready for the heat not to work in your home for the next six to 36 hours?  Are you ready to shel­ter in if a water main breaks, there is snow on the ground, you can­not read­i­ly get out, and the water is not work­ing in your home?  If you are not ready, then you are putting your­self and your fam­i­ly in dan­ger because you may not have the basics at hand.

Here is a list of essen­tials you should have on hand before this week­end if you live in the new snow belt:

1. Water — Fill up any con­tain­ers you may have, and should be a pri­or­i­ty, pri­mar­i­ly because every­one needs water, and sec­ond because it is essen­tial­ly free while the water is flow­ing out of your faucet.  When it’s not flow­ing, it’s not free…
2. Food — When you go to the gro­cery store, try to buy some addi­tion­al food that will go a longer way than just chick­en, steak, etc.  Buy some rice, beans, legumes, some frozen veg­eta­bles, etc.  Make a pot of soup before the week­end so that you can keep it in the refrig­er­a­tor.  This way all you have to do is heat it up for the fam­i­ly.
3. Light Gear — Can­dles, bat­ter­ies, radio, lanterns, flash­lights, blan­kets, books, avail­able for use at arms length if some­thing were to hap­pen.
4. First Aid — make sure you know where all your pain killers, ban­dages, etc are in the event you need them if you must shov­el or remove ice from your dri­ve­way, side­walk, etc.
5. Com­fort Foods — Noth­ing can calm you or the kids like a snack, cup of hot choco­late, cup of tea, cof­fee, etc.

My sug­ges­tion, get to the gro­cery store before the end of the work­day Fri­day.  I am con­vinced that those that were there run­ning around like crazy peo­ple will be there again on Fri­day right after the first snowflake flies.  Plan some fam­i­ly activ­i­ties for the down­time at home as well…

Just my two cents today, know­ing there is more of the white stuff on the way…