Icestorm preps

[dvandom]

Hopefully the worst I'll have to deal with is cabin fever...even if the university doesn't cancel classes tomorrow (and it's finals week, so they'll be reluctant to) I doubt I'll go in if there's ice on the roads. But I've done some basics to make sure that I can make it through a couple days if necessary.

1. Tarp over car windows. A while back I got one of those "attach with magnets" tarps but never opened it. Well, I opened it today and found that the sheet isn't big enough to cover all of my front window, but I've done what I can and fully expect this flimsy thing to shred the first time I have to remove it with ice on it, but it should save me some hassle tomorrow or Wednesday, whenever I next use my car. Back window, at least, is almost entirely covered.

2. Batteries. Power may go out, and I haven't replaced the batteries in my flashlights recently, so I hit Target and got a few packs of D-cells today for my big lantern. I also brought home one of the several hand-crank flashlights I keep at the office (power outages happen more often on campus than at home, my office has no windows, and these things make nifty demos anyway), the one that has a radio installed. I should dig out my weather radio and replace the batteries in it too, got some C-cells for it.

3. Food. I should be able to last 36 hours on what I have that doesn't require heating. It won't be fun (mainly cheese, nuts and granola, and some fruit snacks and candy), but I should be okay diabetes-wise. I picked up some more granola bars at Target just in case. And I've put several containers full of water in the fridge and been making ice as quick as it'll freeze so I can continue using my fridge and freezer as long as possible for the spoilables. Sure, it'll cost more energy to cool all this down, but the waste heat is a good thing today. :) And if the power goes out, I won't be using ANY energy for a while. :/

4. Communications/Entertainment. Made sure my phone and PDA are fully charged. Also dug out my old portable DVD player that I haven't used in a couple years and plugged it in to charge up. Dunno how long it'll last on the old battery pack, but if power goes out I should be able to at least huddle under blankets and watch one of the movies in my to-be-watched stack before it goes flat. Got several books on the PDA and hardcopy books to read during daylight. Probably gonna shut my computer down before going to bed, if the power stays on that long, just to be on the safe side.

5. General warmth. New heavy knit socks from dad just showed up, yay! Otherwise, if the power goes out I'll probably just stay in the bedroom most of the day, huddled up and reading or whatever under the covers. Edit: Wow, these socks are WARM.

6. Still need to decide if I'd rather take a cold shower or just not shower at all until the blackout's over. I guess I'll decide based on how nasty I feel in the morning if the power goes out. :)