way too many

One that comes to mind off the top is the power outage of 2003. Not as bad as you trying to get home as I had the choice of various back routes. The worse case would have been walking for a day. It was also the reason that I started carrying a car bag, a bug out bag and a bag just to keep me busy.

Have you thought about taking a train home?

Update: turns out to be very minor disruption after all. As it turns out, I was rather effortlessly rebooked on a different series of flights and will actually get home earlier than planned.

This highlights the point of packing some extra clothes, some high-energy snacks, a refillable water bottle and carry a phone charger. That way, you can deal with being stuck in an airport terminal with 10,000 strangers. Probably good carrying old fashion cash as well, just in case.

I have been caught a few times, but I was either home when lockdown came, 911 with hubby in work montreal, so it was him dealing with figuring it out, he got all sorted and just came home a few days late, I was down on working holiday with a dog on 93 blackout but I had rental car, and my gear so it was all good, heck I have enough supplies in bulk I helped out others before deciding I did not know how long it would be so went camping

That is what we did in the north as well, had a fire that shut down "town supplies in Iqaluit, no water etc, others whined, we hiked out with the hounds and camped it out by the one river and waited it out..

I did get stuck at airport once, but had my backpack, so all good.. slept on the floor was traveling with my dog who guarded us in our little wall space..

I've had a few 'disruptions.' In 1971, I did a solo climb of the Golden Hind on Vancouver Island. I had run trips there with Outward Bound several times, but wanted a more challenging route to the summit. The climb is unually done in six days or less (return). I had summited and was well on my way home. On day six, I ended up slipping and twisting my ankle. It took me three more days to get home (what would have taken four or five hours healthy). I had two extra days of rations in-case. After I got home, I decided to never climb alone again. Two years later, I cracked a knee cap on a rock face; luckily I wasn't alone...

Back home safely. Kudos to the airlines for managing the situation. I doubt that they regularly use wide-bodied Boeing 787 on the Vancouver - Edmonton route, but maybe there was just that many people to move. Seems like the plane was full of people with re-scheduled flights, but all seemed in a good mood and very understanding of the situation. This somewhat restored my faith in humanity... until next time.

Due to tight transfers, busy airports and all, I certainly appreciated the Cliff bars and refillable water bottle I keep in my carry on back pack! Yes, back pack... If I had to hike a bit, the cutsy little wheely suitcase would be a pain. A variety of OTC and prescription meds, some cash and a full spare of clothes completes my carry on. The later was learned the hardware after an unexpected flight attendant / coke glass / lap incident with a stopover and one more leg to fly with wet, sticky pants.

The one time I went to Cuba, in 1999, it was hit by a hurricane (found out later it was Dennis, a Cat 2) This meant power outages and torrential rain & winds. Ironically, since the Cubans at that point were so used to living on less, in unpredictable weather and with no supplies (fuel, building supplies) from the US, I think they were in pretty good shape. As a tourist (not yet into prepping), I was less prepared, but our hotel had survived many many hurricanes and was pretty sturdy, so that made me feel better. One thing I recall was lack of media - to find out what was going on from TV, if you don't speak Spanish, the only channels were US news, which pretend that Cuba does not exist - it is an empty space in the ocean between Bahamas & Jamaica! While they reported on the hurricane, they showed the predicted storm track going, you'd need to know your geography of where Cuba was in relation to the other islands.

Well, let's talk about more life disruptions...

1) My wife had a medical emergency last week. A small slip on the last step of of the exterior staircase as she left work. At first, it looked like just a bad sprain. When I got back from work in the evening, she was in pain, crying and told me what happened and showed me her ankle which was already blue/black by the toes and both malleoluses (try to use that word in scrabble to impress your friends!) I obviously cared for her (Rest Immobilize Cold Elevate) and drugged her up. She has been able to bear weight and even walk semi-normally on it without additional pain so I estimated the situation as a 2nd degree sprain; later to be diagnosed as such. But despite the obvious injury, she told me that the pain was nothing compared to her lower back, right thigh and right lower leg; interesting has there are no real muscle connections between those... The only common pain-related issue for that combo is the sciatic nerve. Which turned out to be the issue as well. Apparently, the small slip and bump injured her lower back sufficiently to cause muscle inflammation which triggered pain down her sciatic nerve, and this my friends, apparently HURTS AS F... So we went to the ER and she found herself quite medicated and released 4 hours later. While the next days went relatively well, I woke up to cries and moans I had last heard in the labour and delivery room. I found my wife in agony on the floor, unable to move or get up. After a very short discussion, it was decided that 911 was the best option and EMS was dispatched. Living in rural AB, I was always curious to find out how long it would take for an ambulance to get to my place. The answer is 15 mins... Good to know in the event of a heart attack or a bad chainsaw accident (I'd be screwed so may as well implement preventative measures now!) The best paramedic crew ever took care of her and after healthy dose of Fentanyl, the paid subsided enough to get up assisted to do 3 steps to the stretcher.

Morale of the story...

a) I really don't wish sciatica (that's how it's called) to anyone.
b) A small slip can really hurt a super healthy and fit person.
c) We didn't own a heat pad (they help with nerve pain), now we own 2.
d) EMS can take a while to get to your place if you live in rural areas; be prepared! Don't do foolish stuff (like juggling with running chainsaws... Or bucking logs without chainsaw chaps).
e) I ended up taking 3 days off to care for the family with my wife convalesced, also taking a few days off work. Know your work benefits and think about the financial consequences of having to take extended leave from work if ever needed.

And because I seem to experience a few life disruptions...

2) Back at work, I had to do a flight away from my regular heliport yesterday, it should have been a short hour and half flight refuel and come back right away. Except I didn't...

I could put this one under a post titled "GO BAG," which would certainly garner lots of readership but leave people feel cheated, so I'm keeping this one here. I always carry a GO BAG that I transfer from my truck to my chopper whenever I go flying. Typical GO BAG (bolded for fun...) stuff, you know, water, dehydrated food, rope, knife, tarp, lighter, flashlight, first aid supplies, TP... Some colleagues laugh at me, others do the same. Having been stranded in the high arctic and other remote places, I thought I had the kit well prepared for a comfortable night in the wild.

So, back to this flight... Landed at destination and realized that the transmission (fun fact: helicopters have a transmission and they are damn important to keep the skinny thingy spinning!) had dumped it's oil on the ramp. Not good... Called back at the shop and I'm told an engineer would be there first thing the next day and to go get a hotel. Dang, no suitcase with me, but have my GO BAG (emphasis for fun, again) with me, way better than my co-pilot who walked out with the clothes on his back.

Morale of the story...

a) Rope, knife, tarp, etc are cool in the bush, but do little to help once sitting on the bed of your Super8 hotel room.
b) Super8 hotels beat being in the remote bush, as far as stranded goes.
c) I'm glad I keep a spare pair of socks, boxers and t-shirt in my GO BAG.
d) Turns out that elastic material kept in a ziplock bag dry out (I seem to have read something about this on IPN???) So my boxers and socks were not quite well fitting...
e) Semi-annual GO BAG inspection should go beyond "spare clothes - CHECK!" and involve a rotation of said change of clothes.
f) That co-pilot won't mock my bag anymore.
g) I didn't have a couple days worth of my regular meds in that GO BAG. Thank goodness, they are not life-sustaining meds, but my stomach is going to pay for the next 48 hours...
h) I also didn't have any kind of toiletry in that bag. Actually, I have a small package of baby wipes for field cleaning purposes, but again, nothing useful for hotel stay.
i) That Super8 was nice enough to have spare toiletry (toothbrush/paste, razor...) for stranded helicopter aircrew and, most likely, forgetful travellers. Remember to ask hotel front desks if needed.

Now I'm back at home, my bag is repacked and, hopefully, won't be needed for a while. More importantly, Mrs HP is doing better, likely due to my TLC... and her very good family doctor.

Heli. Well first off and know everyone here says the same thing, sorry about your wife’s pain and glad she appears on road to recovery. It may last longer then expected but with your care, she will be in good hands.

From prep perspective, we all need to think of what it could mean for ourselves and loved ones, should this happen when things are rougher.

So besides the obvious but not so obvious need to watch what we do in the bush or on normal stairs, we need painkillers, level head which you obviously have and know our limits.

Your garden looks awesome but also means work and now you are down a valiant soldier when it comes to harvest and preserves.

Your routine chores take a beating.

Your GO BAG 😆 is spot on. So far my righties whites haven’t lost the elasticity in the band and have had them in various bags for years. Good old stanfield undies !

Life sustaining meds I need and they are always there and refreshed twice a year. Also have Tylenol and various Liguria rub for bruising and pain relief of legs, arms... I use Arnica and it works like a charm for first reducing the swelling / onset of contusions ( friends freak out over how a hornet or bee sting never swells beyond a mosquito bite or how a bruise, almost never appears and when they do, it’s reduced to less then 1/4 and subsequently disappears faster and is less painful and general muscle pain ( great after chainsawing and pain in back and on forearms!

Each of us would be wise to read your post and use your recent experience and compare to their situation and that goes four times as much for those alone at home. Or in very remote locations ( even on a good day, chores still need to be done.

I am going through another bloody bought of something new on health front and it’s royally frigging up my outdoor plans. Supper ticked and if it’s permanent, I am greatly reduced in effectiveness. F...!

Other thing that is important is morale for the wounded. My wife or myself would go nuts if we couldn’t help our partner in life and that can lead to being perhaps test and short fused. The healthy one really needs to let the injured they are fine and happy to help and perhaps give minor tasks so they still feel like they are a help. Mental is almost everything!

Again, best of luck to you and your family and a speedy recovery with everything.

Speaking of life’s disruptions. This site is hopefully back up for good.
Hope everyone is well
One takeaway I learnt from this disruption was I had not saved all the various good intel from those who post great info. Be it battery types, gardening or other info. I for one will be saving more posts so I have them for easier and more reliable access in the future.

Best of luck Denob with your site efforts👍🏻

Hopefully yes.
The disruption was from server resources getting overloaded by constant hacker attacks.
The old host just didn't care much and had some pretty low resources available. Instead of blocking obvious hack attacks (8000 hits per hour) they just shut the site down.
The new host has double the processor power, so this should help...so far no hack attempts, but these &%^&$#ers are bound to try again, we'll see how it goes.
The last post did get me thinking however...there must be a way to make it easier to save the info here....
Sounds like a good winter project.

Things seem to be getting more and more unstable these days, time to fasten the seat belt.

Question: I have already disabled ad blockers but the site keeps saying ad blocker detected, asking me to disable it. What gives?

It's good to be back, well, almost.

So it looks like the site is back up, I thought it was done. 3 or more weeks down is a long time in internet land. Much has already been lost just in pictures alone that are gone.

3 weeks is certainly a long time. Unfortunately, these things happen. As it stands right now, this site takes 1 week (backup from old host and upload to new host) to move from one server to another. That's with my computer running 24/7. As for the missing pics, this is a result of the constant requests for larger limits...not sure any will ever be recovered. I will have to go back to the settings of a few years ago to prevent it from happening again.

Another epiphany resulting from a minor disruption (not mine)

Driving on a busy highway this weekend with my family, I notice a car pulled over with hazards lights on. Two young ladies are pacing outside, talking on cellphones, the front driver side tire in shred. I pull over and ask if they needed help. “Do you know how to change a tire?” they ask.

So, take 10 minutes, pull out the flimsy little jack that comes with the tiny car, and change their tire, ending with multiple “thank yous” from the 2 gals as I remind them to keep their speed to below 80 kms and to drive as short a distance as possible to effect repairs.

Back in my truck with Mrs HP, we resume our drive and what she said next stunned me: “I guess I should learn how to change a tire too.” (Vinyl record screeching sound) “what?!?!? You don’t know how it’s done??”

Married 20 years to a gal that grew up on a Sask farm, surrounded by big tractors and miles upon miles of deserted county roads, I assumed she would know how to handle a flat tire.

I have no idea what they teach in driver schools these days, but clearly, that should be covered.

So, weekend project, take tires off and put them back on Mrs HP’s vehicle a few times for teaching purposes.