Fun questions this time!

1. Are you prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse (essentially any disaster, natural or otherwise)?

Apocalyptic disaster… I won’t survive anything which requires things like running, a lot of walking or other sustained physical activity because I’m in bad shape, in pain and exhausted all the time. Once my glasses get too weak or if they’re broken, I’ll be practically blind because I can’t see even my fingers clearly without my glasses. Crohn’s Disease and chronic diarrhea makes it so my diet is on restricted side, sometimes more sometimes less, and the chronic diarrhea would weaken me even more once the diarrhea meds run out because all the food would just go right through me. Not to mention chronic migraine and pretty much weekly migraine attacks which often even now make me feel like being chomped on by a zombie would be the better option. I don’t see myself surviving for long in an apocalyptic disaster similar to such as… I don’t know, The Last of Us or The Walking Dead or anything of that ilk. I’d probably be one of the ones who stay behind/get left behind/sacrifice themselves in a dire situation so that the other people have a chance to escape and frankly I’m okay with that.

Non-apocalyptic disaster… I can’t think of what this could be. My country is very stable as far geology goes so no volcanos, earthcakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or things of that sort. I think it would have to be something like another pandemic, or some measure of food insecurity due to foreign wars (probably instigated by Russia) in countries that produce majority of like wheat and other grains and crops so that importing food is affected and Finland having its own bad crops year/years. In these cases, the state and government has infastructure of assistance in place that I trust we as a nation would manage, and that I could manage too. We had that happen with COVID-19 and I think we managed quite well, but not perfectly. Of course, I’m not sure how much of that was because we had a centre-left, left leaning government in place at the time. I certainly don’t trust the current right-wing destroy the poor and kick the workers government to do as well if the pandemic were to escalate again.

2. What’s in your bug-in (stay safe at home) kit?

Everything I got at here at home!

I could survive maybe a week or two if the shops weren’t open as long as the water worked (we have drinkable tap water everywhere). But I don’t have a lot of food stores – there’s nowhere to store a lot of foodstuffs in modern apartment buildings and small apartments. That week or two would mean literally eating everything from the fridge and the freezer, and from the cupboards.

If it’s winter, heating would be a problem after a while if district heating is damaged and can’t be fixed in like 24 hours. I don’t have a heater. If it’s a hot summer and no electricity, people over-heating would be a problem.

I don’t remember the last time there was a power outage that actually affected me in my city. Once or twice there’s been like a blink type of thing where the power cuts for a second and the only way I know about it is because my tv or my laptop shuts down suddenly or fridge/freezer makes the sound it makes bling sound when it automatically turns back on. The last real power outage for me was probably at least 20 years ago and lasted for 10 minutes or thereabouts. I live in the 4th biggest city in the country and the power grid is very stable here, but occasionally I hear about power outages usually caused by a storm that’s felled trees on the power lines. I have the image that these affect more those living outside cities than in cities.

3. What’s in your bug-out bag?

Don’t have one! Mentally, I have on the list all of my all various medications and phone/phone charger. Those would be the first things I grab.

4. What’s on your ‘to get’ list?

I’ve been thinking since the pandemic that I should buy bottled water enough to last 3 days as recommended. But where to store them? And because we don’t need/use bottled water, I’m not sure how I should make sure it doesn’t get old because I never use it. And really, buying it feels like waste of money and storing it a waste of effort because we don’t need bottled water because all tap water here is drinkable (except in some summer cottages where municipal infastructure hasn’t been build because of there’s no around-the-year-allowed-living-summer-cottages).

Also been thinking I should make sure I have small store of canned foods like fruit that doesn’t need cooking/heating instead of usually just eating them pretty much as I buy them.

5. Do you keep gear in your vehicle, if so, what?

I don’t have a car, but when I did I didn’t have any survival gear in it. Only the typical car gear – tools for changing a tire, one extra tire, a paper towel roll, work gloves, oil for greasing the locks, and a tarp protect the car from snow and ice in the winter while parked. I almost never drove long distances (longest was about three hours and that only 2-3 times) and where I live is densely enough populated that breaking down on the road, it’d never be very far to the next gas station or house. If I’d driven longer distances, I’d of course would have prepared more.