About a month ago, I committed to return to work. It's a rare opportunity, and frankly, I have watched as more and more of our expenses have risen. I need to make a regular paycheck again. Of course, everything on the farm has gone sideways since I made this commitment. I spent one day using dermabond to close a flesh injury one of my largest dogs sustained when he was apparently frightened during an overnight thunderstorm. An obviously rabid fox needed to be shot, bleached and buried yesterday. Also in the past week, I had my own full CT scan with contrast. Quite a trip. I need to pull back, do less, and as I begin my new job, spend less time on the internet. Because this blog can be an adjunct to some of the classes I teach, I will be continuing to blog the occasional post which relates to the confines of this blog, but I will be disabling commentaries, and realigning the blog more clearly to its stated purpose. Perhaps in the future, I can allow comments again, but for now, the blog must realign for student reference, once again.
A special Thank You to those who came to it in the very beginning, when it was an accompaniment to the radio program "Rational Preparedness" and who asked that the blog continue.
This is the first post of the new format.
 |
| This is Cabela's urinal |
Cabela's urinal
This week I was on a long trip out of state with one of my adult kids. It involved being on the interstate highway for hours. Then, at one point, one of those flashing signs along the interstate indicated that there was a serious accident four miles ahead and to expect delays. I wanted to get off the interstate and calculate a back roads route with the GPS, through the area, but strangely, we were told about the accident when we had already passed the last exit before the back up. Within a minute, we slowed on a 70 mph multiple lane highway to a standstill with cars ahead as far as the eyes could see.
Being a "legend in my own mind" preparedness guru, I say with maximum jest, I wasn't worried. We had plenty of fuel, a car that wouldn't overheat, bottled water, and lots of interesting food, some of which I frankly can't wait to taste, so I will know whether to accept the option of buying more or not. I have a great first aid kit, blankets, and all the things that should be in a car kit, or so I had thought.
We sat in the car for about 35 minutes before I decided to switch the ignition off. People in the other lanes had done that a while ago and were milling about up and down the road, trying to talk to one another to get information about the problem up ahead. People walking up and down close to my car while bumper to bumper on an interstate which is normally high speed always makes me nervous. There is nowhere to run when this happens. We also called where we were going to explain why we would be late. After another half hour, both my daughter and I needed to use the bathroom. Normally, I would have told her to leave the car, enter the woods on the side of the interstate, go and get back here. However, this was not an option here. Just beyond the roadway were guardrails. Just beyond the guardrails was a steep drop off into a ravine on both sides of the three lane highway. We discussed going inside the car. Unfortunately, the trucker stopped next to us sat above our car and had full view of everything that went on there. It dawned on me that with all the preps, other than an empty water bottle that might be adequate for a man to use in such circumstances, that I did not have any provision for women ! We thought about how we might go into something while shielded with a blanket, but in my new car this didn't seem very easy.
I called one of my sons who is at college, as I knew he was not in class that morning. Coincidentally, he was also stuck in the same mammoth stoppage, about three miles ahead of us, and had been there longer than we had. He was close enough to the problem to know that the road was in the process of being cleared and that we all could begin to move within about twenty more minutes.
Twenty minutes passed and cars began to move again, though slowly. When we reached the next exit, we both headed for the ladies room. My son made it where he had been going, and my daughter and I made it to our appointment more than an hour late.
This morning, as I contemplate what type of female urinal needs to be in each car, these are some of the alternatives.
Please see the Cabela's urinal above.
This is quite leak resistant
This is the least expensive unisex car urinal
This is the portable kid urinal
If you travel with toddlers, children, pregnant women, women in general, please make a provision for urination within a car. It's quite difficult for women to go in a freezer bag, under a blanket and this was looking like our best alternative had we had to remain longer, especially while wearing slacks !
Just as most of us have a deficiency or two in our car prep kits, I found that this was certainly a deficiency in mine !
