I am going to start easy. Just simply some stuff that stood up to the use and was not expensive as hell.

Starting with: Two burner propane stove.

I have one like this, You use the little green propane bottles found at any Mega Store camping section, although I just found out there is a hose with a connector to plug to the BBQ propane bottles.  This stove has been with us for years now and it has done its job admirably.  They can be found for under $50 and they occupy little space in your closet.

Next is the Coast HP1 Focusing 190 Lumen LED Flashlight.

Got a bunch of them as “add-on” item in amazon for about $8 a pop. You could carry it in a gym’s short and not be a bother. It gives a decent light output in both flood and spot. Even my 85-year-old mother wouldn’t move without it.

Another light:  LED headlamp.

You have no idea how convenient is to be able to have hands-free illumination. We have two of these and the wife is a firm believer in it. There are a bunch of brands, models and lumens. Another item that can be found for cheap, around $15 if you don’t wanna go high-end spelunking stuff.

And the last illumination thing: Streamlight 44931 The Siege Lantern.

Sweet camp light. Comes in two models. I have the  one in 340 lumens. This thing is versatile and even spells SOS in red. I have one and was told to get another one as apparently they are great lamps to use for make-up duties when the general electricity is out. I just do what the wife says.

And don’t forget to buy batteries in bulk.

What else? Water containers! Five gallon water bottle from Walmart.

Under 7 bucks and once filled, you have 5 days of potable water for a member of your family. (The rule is one gallon per person per day). You can buy spouts and whatnots for serving if you like, but this is it.

It should go without a saying, but I know there are people like me out there: Working gloves.

I have three nasty scrapes obtained just trying to get the generator prepared and I did not use the gloves. There is a bunch of them under $20 and more with both protection and dexterity.

The humble bandana was used and abused these past days:

I have to say it over and over: buy cotton bandanas!   They sell some cutesy polyester thing for decoration and stuff. Stay away. There are way too many uses for them (some say 180), including wiping away the sweat that was used a lot in the last 72 hours. Thye are about a buck/pennies a pop…buy a lot.

The other obvious one id a good knife, folder or fixed that is always with you and sharp. Buy good quality it and keep it in good shape. I had both my Boker Wharcom and the Victorinox Swiss Army Trekker. I am Old School and I find Swiss Army more user-friendly that a Multitool.

That should do it for now. I need to get back to blogging according to some well-intentioned people and I plan on following their advice.

More at a later day.

I am gonna need some time to put all the hurricane crap away and that is not counting the hurricane panels. Gonna do a write-up for the blog and a segment for the Gunblog VarietyCast about Irma, what we went through, didn’t go through and lessons learned.

I heard, that Irma dumped about 10 inches of water in Miami Dade. That is a brutal amount if you consider that he highest natural elevation is just 6 feet high. That we are not floating away into the ocean is due to the very complex and efficient net of canals the Corp of Engineers, state and local governments spent decades working on.

The water level usually is at least a foot and a half lower during regular rainy season.

For once, I get to see and enjoy something that government did right.

PS: Good fishing there.

Hello everybody. We made it!

We are out of power, but we have Internet and Water. I am running the modem through the generator so I won’t stay long. It is a small 5K Watts which can do the Fridge, fans and not too much else.

I took a quick spin around the area this morning. Here is some of the damage.

I’ll update more later and do longer posts once the electricity and the Air Conditioning) are back.

And thank you thank you for all the good wishes and prayers. It did get sporty there for a bit.

The point of a commercial is to make me want to buy a product.  I don’t have a degree in media studies or anything, but that is one of those ideas the seems to be just plain common sense.

I don’t think it bodes well for a company, when their commercial infuriates me so much I have to mute the TV when it comes on.

Allstate has done a damn fine job of alienating me from their product with their commercials.  I don’t know who the ad agency is that Allstate contracted with or who at Allstate approved these commercials, but I want to know what type of market research was done that concluded:

The best way to sell insurance to families is to shit all over boyfriends, husbands, and fathers.

The first of these terrible commercials is the “superior drivers” ad.

Apropos of nothing, this girl decides to rub her safe driving bonus check in her date’s – a presumably boyfriend’s – face in public.  Interrupting him an humiliating him.

First, of all, why would an insurance company bring up the “who are better drivers” debate?  From an insurance standpoint, it’s about a dead even split.  When you look at the numbers, men and women get into different types of accidents.  Women hit stuff more, but men do more damage.  Women will side-swipe a car while parking.  A man will speed and crash.  It seems like even getting into this debate is pointless.

But just look at that girl’s face.  Look at the condescending look as she breaks into Dennis Haysbert’s voice.  It’s not the money that is making her happy.  It is belittling her hapless, pajama-boy, boyfriend that gives her pleasure.  It’s just mean.

Next is the “leaky pipe” ad for homeowners insurance.

The message of this commercial is “you need Allstate insurance because your husband is a pathetic shit who doesn’t know what end of the hammer to hold.”  The wife mocks her husband, TWICE.  Once to his face and then again in front of the repair man.

If this commercial had a sequel, I’m pretty sure it would be the repair man fucking the guy’s wife.

Last is the “all alone” ad.

Yeah, fuck dad.  Nobody has to listen to him.  Nobody wants to.  He’s just driving the car, probably paying for the road trip to wherever they are going.  Nobody has to care about his feelings.

Look at the look mom gives dad.

She doesn’t give a shit about her husband.  She’s probably listening to Eat Pray Love on her Audible ap, thinking about fucking the repair man from the last commercial.

I just don’t get why Allstate has chosen this sales pitch.

Why should I give my hard earned money to a company that doesn’t respect me?  The answer is: I shouldn’t.  I’m with GEICO and will not be switching to Allstate… ever.

As people reevaluate their insurance carriers in the wake of all these storms, maybe other husbands and fathers will feel the way I do and decided not to go with Allstate.  The only way to make these people learn is to kick them right in the wallet.

P.S.

It seems Aflac has contracted with the same ad agency.  Their commercials were simply annoying.  I can deal with annoying.  The “dad’s choice” commercial needs to be the first and last of the no respect for dad type.

Mom and Junior don’t seem to really care about the condition of dad’s face.  Just how dad’s face will cost them their trip to Hawaii.  As long as Mom and Junior get to go to the Luau, does it really matter that dad won’t ever be able to eat solid food again.

Maybe I should do commercial for a health insurance company where mom is in labor but dad doesn’t want to pay for the anesthesiologist to give her an epidural because the anesthesiology copay  will dip into his bass boat fund.

No, wait, that’s fucking horrifying.  I can see the protests now.

It’s just as bad when you do it to dad.  So as an Aflac customer, knock that shit off.

7:22 am: Getting a bit of Outer Bands wind and rain. Power flickered about 40 mins ago. Nothing to do but sit and Not-Relax.

The Keys are getting it bad.

FPL info on outages:

I’ll update whenever I can/feel like. 🙂

7:30 am And Gallows Humor courtesy of Bradley T.

I opened the front door just now to check on the neighborhood, and to my surprise, I saw that the Nuevo Herald, the Spanish version of the Miami Herald we get for my Mom was delivered.

And I had not realized that Saturday’s paper had not been delivered. Nor that we were caring anyway because there is a freaking hurricane in the neighborhood!

Who was the genius that thought they would make a great impression by sending the newspaper delivery squad to toss the birdcage poop trap under Tropical Storm conditions? Wind is gusting kinda hard, debris is flying. Cops and firemen are taking it easy (scanner has been illuminating)

Bad move Miami Herald, bad move.

This is also a misinterpretation of Florida’s emergency order law which bans the sale of guns and ammo.The law is for when the sheriff declares, in essence, martial law because of the devastation; not for when the governor declares a state of emergency.  You really have to dig into the statutes to find the distinction in the emergency declarations.

Source: The Abode of McThag: Case Study

After all these years, there is still confusion about the sale of ammo. Of course certain local govs are purposefully obtuse just to “avoid” problems.