Date Day

Woodsrunner & I spent Saturday @ the gun show in Rochester. Normally he attends with his friends or in the past he has taken one of the children. This time I had a list of specific items that I wanted to buy and spending a day out of the hood sans teenagers was appealing. Yes, I know sounds like a lead up to a "you know your a red neck if " joke but when your man is a country boy sometimes all a girl from the block can do is follow. 

Interesting and extremely crowded. There was the usual gun toting ZZ Top crew along with a large percentage of Yul Gibbons grandfathers clogging the isles. But occasionally I'd see a more ethnic enthusiast and even a few fellow Puerto Ricans.

I was fascinated that grown men walked around with signs taped to their backs advertising their firearm for sale the majority being rifles. There was even a father son who looked like extras from the Shore, lugging a golf bag filled with rifles and swords to sell.
Visited with the county clerks who were taking a break from registration duties. And the Cowboy action shooters. Picked up a brochure on aftermarket laser sights. Crimson Trace rep was patronizing but the product pretty much sold itself when I could see the red dot 40 feet away without my glasses on.

I know that it seems pretty popular and to some almost mainstream now to talk about survival & medical gear but I had been meaning to do a blog post about our efforts.

In the past I've always kept a medical kit which was a re purposed plastic tool box that contained bandages, ointments, OTC meds like cough syrup and analgesics. A few months ago all that personally changed when our health insurance co-pays especially for an ER visit hit the $750 mark. That's just for walking into the ER. Having an MD touch us is a separate bill as is lab.

So I needed to step up my game as our family's medical & co financial officer.

One way is to provide more of a buffer between when an event happens such as a laceration and automatically utilizing an ER when an urgent care or even our doctor's office will do. Even though I'm a nurse, I can say that I to have to fight the urge to scoop & run to the closest emergency room at the sight of blood coming from a family member. So I'm not talking so much about preforming brain surgery as I am about stabilizing and then obtaining a less expensive medical treatment alternative.

Unless I am that good @ brain surgery and or our co-pay increases.

Survival/Medical Gear

Collapsible canteen - $6, army green, rolls up nicely. Pocket for iodine tablets & rehydration salts.

Emergency blankets - $2 each, provide warmth, shelter, prevent shock & emergency signal.

Hemostats curved - $2.50 each, like having an extra hand.

Dental picks - 4/$5, besides dental applications bullet removal. Or sliver.

Inspection Mirror - part of the 4/$5 deal, paired with temporary dental filling kit when a crown breaks

Disposable Scapel - 3/$1, industrial. Foil packs are all sealed scalpels aren't to be considered sterile.

Parachute Cord - 50' pkg./$2 each. Used to make a splint, elevate a limb or restrain.

P 38 - 2 can openers freebie by the guy who sold me the canteen because in his words "they go together".

I was really hoping to locate gamma lids but none were to be had.

Equally surprising was that only 2 out of 11 vendors I spoke with knew what a gamma lid was.

3 asked me if I was a prepper. Of those 3 one said he was because his wife was from China.

5 vendors on hearing the word gamma tryed to sell me military surplus radiation clothing none of which was complete.

1 pointed out that he had two Geiger Counters for sale unsure if they worked.

He did however hum a few bars of She's got Legs and She knows how to use them ... 

~~ pelenaka ~~
who now has the song Sharp Dressed Man stuck in her head