Rainy Day Emergencies

In Southern California yesterday, we had a lot of rain (for us, at least). It came down relatively hard for a time and kept up with sprinkling all day.

A couple of things occurred because of this:

1. My back patio roof leaked. I am not surprised by this because it has been doing this for the entire 11 years we have been here but we've not been able to afford to replace the screened-in patio roof. It is getting worse, however. The main problem was I had stored some items out there (temporarily, I thought, but it has been a month at least) and they were getting wet and had to be rescued and taken back into the garage.

2. We canceled a planned trip, partly because it is unpleasant to drive to the L.A. area in the rain.

3. I thought about how we are often unprepared for things like this happening, even though we know it is coming, eventually.

For instance, how many of you have an emergency umbrella and coat in your car? I used to, but it migrated out of the car at some point.

I do have a large emergency kit (with food, water, first aid, etc.) in the car because my husband made us two (one for each car--in those large buckets with lids that cat litter used to be in, making it less likely to be interesting to thieves who just think we are hauling cat litter around with us). I also have several cloth shopping bags (grocery style plus ones for normal stores).

It is not like we don't know it is going to rain. We do. I knew that the patio was a poor choice for long-term storage but I set those things out there because I told myself that it was just for a few days and it doesn't rain here that often.

In the same way, we often don't prepare for emergencies because they don't seem that urgent (until they are upon us).

I spent some of my rainy day yesterday thinking about how to better prepare myself for the unexpected (rain, earthquake, or whatever). I recommend that others do the same. We just never know when the rain will come in our lives (literally as well as figuratively) and it is better to be prepared.