Yesterday I attended to the general assembly of my section of USKA, the Swiss amateur radio organisation. My mother was there as well — she's also member, and at least on paper still a fully qualified radio amateur (including Morse) with call sign.
Yeah, I'm proud of her, even if she's been very inactive recently. But the same holds true for me. Must be about twenty years now, when I was on a sailing trip in the western Mediterranean Sea and had daily contact with her at home through Morse code over shortwaves. Good ole days! — Now back to reality.
Today we talked about various stuff, and I happily discovered my parents fully understand and share my concerns. Now don't get me wrong: we're all not panicked, but we agree it's reasonable to prepare for events having the potential to shake the foundations of our modern lifestyle. My mother even told me she had bought a small gas cooker — about the same time I got mine, independently! It was kind of a coming-out feeling, talking to relatives with the same thoughts about water, food, fire, cash...
What remains is to more include my wife in these preparations. She knows about the water filter I bought (I masked it as "just an experiment to see how these things work") and my general tendency to prepare for the unforeseen, but I believe her seeing these things as slightly crazy games (maybe the "macho games" somebody else on the phlogosphere coined — apologies, I've lost the reference) only marginally relevant to our daily life. I don't want to force her though, she's great and I love her dearly.
Although I'm the farthest from being a role model of "alpha male", I believe we have the duty to prepare to some extent for disasters, especially with little kids. And so this occupies more my mind than the question which lamp needs to be mounted in the staircase, what picture would go best on which wall, or how to fix the (fully functional) toilet seat so that it doesn't squeak when you sit down. But I'll try, promised! ::-::
And now for something completely different!
Looking through my list of phlogs from the past months, I wonder whether I should also start some ordering, e.g by putting older stuff in subdirectories for each year. OTOH, probably this becomes urgent only when I reach into the hundreds of posts, Gopher being quite efficient. I actually like to have a big list I can easily scan without needing to load additional selectors, but I wonder what other people prefer.
.:.