Like people all over Denver, we were stuck at home during a recent snowstorm. The main roads were pretty clear, but even if we had been able to get out of our driveway, we still could not have maneuvered our way through the cul-de-sac. My wife and I decided this would be a good opportunity to read our list of home projects on our "To-Do List." We also decided we would rather read the list than do anything on the list. So my wife turned on the TV and watched "Trading Spaces" on the Home and Garden TV Network. That only lasted 1 ½ hours because she discovered that they only have filmed three episodes - they just show them over and over again on different cable stations. I preferred doing something more intellectually stimulating - I watched old episodes of "Deal or No Deal" that I had recorded.
Our boredom was interrupted by a phone call from our next-door neighbor. She was in the middle of preparing dinner and didn't have enough spaghetti for the whole family and of course there was no way she could go to a store. We had several packages, so she came over to get one. It occurred to me that it might be useful to know what essentials all of our neighbors had so that in case of emergency, we would know which neighbor to go to for which item. There are 12 houses on our street, so if we each contributed just 4 items, there would be almost 50 items available on this emergency list. Here are the four I came up with from our house.
- Mustard. We were asked to bring condiments for a hot dog dinner at Church a few years ago. We grossly overestimated how much mustard people would use on their hot dogs, so we barely made a dent in the 2 gallon jar we bought from Costco. Of course, that was the smallest container Costco had. I checked the expiration date on the bottle: it was Apr 96. But it is probably still OK. They are very conservative with those dates because they want you to have to buy a new bottle. I cleaned off the green moldy stuff from the top, so it should taste fine.
- Christmas wrapping paper. We bought a lot of it for a school fundraiser six years ago, but we rarely use it anymore. It is much easier to place presents in those Christmas bags. No cutting, no tape, no fuss. If you save the bags, you can even use them the next year. Just cross out the "To" and "From" names and put in the new ones.
- Old Spice After-shave Lotion. It is always hard to think of presents for your parents, but my kids must think I have some hygiene issues. How else can I explain the three bottles of Old Spice that I have received the last 3 years for Christmas? They did come up with another idea last year, but my wife had already given me nose and ear hair clippers in 2005 for Valentine's Day.
- #2 Pencils. Our daughter ran for some high school student body office 15 years ago, and she campaigned by giving out pencils that said "Vote for Stephanie" on them. She overestimated how many she would need, so we still have a lot of them in the house. If she had been named Pedro, those pencils would be very popular now.
Now if each of our neighbors is willing to share four items they have a surplus of, then our block will be prepared to survive almost any emergency. In case of a really prolonged disaster, I also have a two week supply of Pop Tarts.