I’m Different… An Observation(s) from the Field of Life

I’ve been on a long over­due vaca­tion this past week.  Sev­er­al years over­due, in fact.  But I learned some­thing quite by acci­dent that I would like to share.  While trav­el­ing with a group of friends out­side the Unit­ed States, one of which was get­ting mar­ried (I and two oth­er friends were grooms­men), that of many if not all my friends, I am the most pre­pared.  It was real­ly a few lit­tle things that made it stand out, and while may be triv­ial to you and I, had an impact on many of the events of the week.  Suf­fice it to say, my EDC and my trav­el First Aid kit came in pret­ty handy this week.  A cou­ple of minor exam­ples:

• My friend cut his foot at mid­night (after a long night of con­sum­ing alco­hol, and the day after his wed­ding) cel­e­brat­ing with us.  While his new wife was in a pan­ic because his foot was bleed­ing (a lot) I calm­ly told them to keep pres­sure on the cut and I would be right back after I got my first aid kit.…  The blood was a lot, but the cut was minor (he’ll need a stitch or two), and it was in an area that looks like it will bleed a lot, much like a gash you might get on your fore­head.  I cleaned the cut as best I could, mak­ing sure there was noth­ing stuck in it (think glass), added some gauze and duct tape from my kit to make sure pres­sure could be kept on the cut.  All ends well, and every­one was in a quandary as to how some­one could pos­si­bly react so calm­ly and make the sit­u­a­tion less of an emer­gency.
• My Leather­man tool came in VERY handy on mul­ti­ple occa­sions and addi­tion­al EDC make it’s inter­na­tion­al debute to mend, fix, and/or even light the grill.
• 10 of my 20′ of Para­cord came in handy sev­er­al times for sev­er­al  small fix­es as well.
• My knife sharp­en­er came in handy to sharp­en the kitchen knives which were about as dull as they could have pos­si­bly been.

By the end of the evening, I sat on the deck of our rent­ed home for the week, alone for a while, and con­tem­plat­ed that “I’m dif­fer­ent,” and I did­n’t know how dif­fer­ent until just recent­ly.  With eight — 10 peo­ple in the house, only one had the tools that helped to make life a lit­tle eas­i­er.  It was inter­est­ing being the go-to guy for such items as men­tioned above.  Sev­er­al years ago, before this blog was born, I would have prob­a­bly been one of the bystanders who stood by and watched the fix­ing and doing.  This week I was the one fix­ing and doing.  It felt good to have the tools to impro­vise when need­ed, but dis­con­cert­ing that I was the only one who had the tools and the knowl­edge.