On Quarantine and Cabin Fever

image from survivetheflu.com
image from survivetheflu.com

With the Swine Flu news is coming talk of possible quarantines.

When I was a kid my family was quarantined by the county health department because my baby sister contracted whooping cough at less than a month old and more than one of the rest of us were carriers. We were pulled out of school in the middle of the day and escorted home.We were not supposed to leave or have anyone over. Homework got deposited in our milk box where we would retrieve it when the deliverer had gone. Thankfully there were medications we could take and the quarantine period was under a week—just until we weren’t contagious anymore. But what about a disease there is not medication for? How would that be dealt with? How long would a quarantine need to be in place to be effective? And what would you do with all that time isolated from society?
Continue reading “On Quarantine and Cabin Fever”

Family Dynamics and Perpetual Preparedness


photo credit: m o d e

Any minute now, I might become a father. My wife is (very) pregnant with our first child, and the seconds are ticking until our lives change significantly (for the better!). As the months have gone by, we have dedicated a great deal of time to readying, studying, and researching how best to do everything we’re soon going to need to do.

Preparedness has played a large role—indeed, a central role, since what we’ve been doing up until now is preparing for our son’s birth. Having an end result in mind forces us to think in the long term, and purchase things, learn skills, and become well versed in all that will be necessary. Too often we get wrapped up in the here and now, and let our long-term preps take a backseat.

Continue reading “Family Dynamics and Perpetual Preparedness”