Ready Blog

Many people get a little spooked when they think about being tracked by satellite. Too many Martini’s and bad spy movies in your spare time? But, for those who shun the black helicopters, here is a non-implant way of letting your friends and family know you are safe when traveling or making your way through your latest adventure. SPOT. 

I can’t claim to be the first to find and use this cool service. Brian takes little jaunts around the country on his motorcycle (for days and hundreds of miles) and uses this to let his family know where he is via updated GoogleMap and leaving messages. The intro price is fairly steep, but the peace of mind this brings is probably well worth it for most families. Track your favorite hunter, biker, business traveler or wayward kid. Once activated, it updates your location every ten minutes to let loved ones know where you are in your progress.

My car keeps failing me L

It should start, Triple A came to the rescue during lunch…but just in case I have to give it another jump after work, does anyone have any cables?

This was the email around my office yesterday. We all snickered, gave our colleague a hard time, but also realized how dependent we are on knowing what to do vs. doing it?  Ask just about anyone, should you carry battery cables in your car? Few would deny that there should be a basic car kit. I replied back to the email with a quick yes and a link to the Red Cross site for recommended car kit. I couldn’t help myself. The real question is, how do you actually encourage someone to do something about it? What is the motivational factor required to not just think about insuring yourself or situation?

Not sure on the answer to that, I am sure it differs across situations and people. Either way, here is the list from the Red Cross. 

Emergency Kit For Your Car

• Battery powered radio and extra batteries
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• Blanket
• Booster cables
• Fire extinguisher (5 lb., A-B-C type)
• First aid kit and manual
• Bottled water and non-perishable high energy foods, such as granola bars, raisins and peanut butter.
• Maps
• Shovel
• Tire repair kit and pump
• Flares

This is a minimum, but surely is a good start. There are tons of more extensive checklists out there. If you get adventurous, make one for yourself and for each car in your family!

Hurricane Workshop - This is a free event scheduled in Houston on Saturday, June 7th, 2008. It’s good to see several local organizations working together to promote this workshop on preparing for the Gulf Coast natural disasters. Looks like they even have a nice blog started at 2008 Hurricane Workshop

From the blog:

Focused on providing families with the information they need as the hurricane season begins, this year’s workshop promises to be even more popular, with an agenda that includes:

• An update on hurricane forecasting techniques and the region’s 2008 hurricane outlook
• Emergency management experts explaining the latest plans for hurricane preparedness and evacuation along the upper Texas coast
• An interactive kids’ learning activity center

Free and open to the public, the 2008 Hurricane Workshop is once again being sponsored by CenterPoint Energy, the City of Houston the National Weather Service. Harris County, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston and the John C. Freeman Weather Museum are also active participants.

The tips below are from an article published on Reuters by Linda Stern. Read the full article for additional discussion of the topic.
Rising food prices are making it more difficult for families to maintain the same level of living on salaries that are not rising as quickly as the combination of food, energy, home heating fuel and other necessities. Ways to control and manage rising prices are outlined below:

– Coupon carefully. If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you can buy a basket of groceries for pennies on the dollar. It involves using coupons, shopping sales, finding stores that double coupons and putting it all together carefully. One site to check for more information is www.hotcouponworld.com.

You can find coupons to match items on sale at your local grocer at www.thegrocerygame.com. Beware: Unless you’re using good coupons on products you would buy anyway, this can be a spending trap instead of a money-saving deal.

— Buy some good containers. Roughly 13 cents of every food dollar goes to packaging and advertising, and you’ll spend a lot more than that if you are always buying 100-calorie snack packs and tiny bags of chips to send to school with your kids. Buy some reusable containers, buy your favorite products in bulk and make your own individual packages.

— Use meat for flavor, not bulk. A mixture of meat and beans over pasta or rice will satisfy those who love the taste of meat and poultry, but cut costs significantly than eating large cuts of meat.

— Make your dollar buy more nutrition. Instead of buying sugar-coated cereals, white bread and chips, buy items like whole-grain bread and oatmeal. Instead of candy, buy fruit. Popcorn that you pop yourself has been heralded for generations for being cheap, fun, nutritious and tasty.

— Buy frozen fish. Almost all of the “fresh” fish you buy has been frozen and thawed. Fish from the freezer section has often been frozen on the boat, so it’s equally fresh — and cheaper.

— Do your own work, as a family. You’re spending more on labor than on food when you buy lots of presliced, prewashed, preseasoned foods. Yet all the experts seem to agree that family mealtime is an important ritual. Extend the ritual by getting the whole family in on the slicing, dicing, cutting and stirring that dinner requires, even if it’s just a once-a-week cooking session. You’ll save money and maybe bond a little.

— Eat out judiciously. Last year restaurant prices actually rose less than grocery prices, but it still costs a lot more to eat out than to cook at home. Americans typically spend about half of their food budget eating out, according to the Agriculture Department. Cut the cost without cutting the fun by mixing it up: Have appetizers and drinks at home before going to the restaurant, or have dessert at home. Or buy a precooked, carry-out chicken, but fix your own side salad.

— Stock up on sales. You know you’re always going to use pasta, lightbulbs and toothpaste, so buy a bunch on sale. Sure, this is inflation mentality, but double-digit price increases on food means we’re in an inflationary environment, food wise. Furthermore, if you already have easy, good food in the pantry, you won’t have to run out at the last minute and buy over-priced convenience items just to throw together dinner.

— Grow your own. Oh sure, anyone who’s gardened has thrown too much money at their tomato plants. But some crops are more worth growing than others. Basil and other herbs, hot peppers, eggplant and lettuce are some items that are very easy to grow and are never cheap at the grocer or farm stand, even when they are in season.

— Make it fun. Save with a goal in mind so it becomes a game and not just drudgery. Shave $10 a week off of your food bill (that’s less than 10 percent for the typical household), and you can all do something special, like go see a movie at the end of every month — Of course you’ll bring your own snacks.

http://nysun.com/news/food-rationing-confronts-breadbasket-world

I really don’t like posting things like this. It seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if it is not true, media attention can make people believe there is a food shortage and cause panic buying. Self-fulfilling.

I will admit my first reaction was to rush to Costco’s and see prices and availability in my area. Maybe buy a few extra things to stock-up on. I didn’t, but will make a regular shopping trip this month. Let me know if you notice any changes in availability in your area.

It is Earth Day and worth a reminder to take care of those things around us. I retweeted a set of links today on how to reduce your carbon footprint. This has great parallels to simplifying your life and lifestyle. http://www.metroactive.com/metro/08.15.07/50-ways-to-go-green-0733.html

These ideas don’t require radical changes to every day life choices. Simple things can be implemented over time to reduce your carbon footprint and help make life more sustainable. Reducing hot water time in the shower? Makes sense. Passing on all those free give-away items you will throw in the trash the next time you declutter your house anyway? VERY EASY. Read through these ideas and see how you can go a bit greener without turning your life into a hemp wearing hippie commune.

CNN reports the FCC has approved an emergency alert text based system. The major cell phone carriers have indicated they would work with the FCC to deliver text-based messages in the event of emergencies. Customers would have the option to opt-out.

As I have indicated before, the only good emergency system is one that is familiar and we use on a nearly everyday basis. This seems one step closer to a viable system of alerts.

The article indicates the carriers could voluntarily deliver messages for any of these three types of events:

Quote from a un-typical surbabanite on how she thinks about current events. “I now think of storing extra food, water, medicine and gasoline in the same way I think of buying health insurance and putting money in my 401k,” she said. “It just makes sense.”

The NY Times writes this week about how the new trend in lifestyle may be preparedness in the wake of economic uncertainty and maybe even a touch of Peak Oil worry. A depression, either real or self-prophecy, has many middle-class americans learning new(old) skills of gardening, wine making and living more energy efficient to sustain their way of life if the world around them changes.