The house was cold because you where trying to reduce the heating cost. You never thought about weatherproofing a home or looking into a pellet or even a wood stove, as part of prepping. Now you know, and it is too late for this winter. It is like a leaking roof, you cannot fix it in the rain and do not need to fix it when it is not raining.
I have to admit, I'm guilty as hell of putting shit like this off. I recently used my car jack on a project here at home, and left it in the shed when I was done.
When I noticed one of my tires getting a little worn, I went to my brother's to get a new one put on the rim. (My brother is the original Junk Yard Dog. If its not sitting on his property somewhere, it probably hasn't been invented yet...) So when I got there, I realized I didn't have the jack handle or jack with me. Now I do carry a small garage style pneumatic jack in my trunk, but that would have done me absolutely no good if I had a flat in the middle of nowhere and no way to take the tire off.
Of course, I carry an adjustable wrench in my back pocket, and its just large enough to fit my lug nuts, but it would have been a beast getting them off with only one good arm. Thankfully, my brother also has air wrenches, and the process went off with no problems.
When I got back home, the first thing I did was replace the jack that came with the car in the trunk!
I tend to be one of those, "f it works, don't fuck with it" types. And that's fine as long as it works. But if it stops working, it pays to have a backup plan. My EDC (every day carry) equipment comes in at about 9 lbs. You can hear my keychain jingle from 3 miles distance. But the one thing I am sure of is that you can drop my ass anywhere, and I'll make it back home to my wife. And be able to take care of her come hell or high water.
But I occasionally get so wrapped up in the 'what if' big picture, I put off the everyday normal emergency shit. I gotta go now, I need to get a tool kit put together from all my odds and ends tools to put in the trunk when my wife gets home...
Dammit.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me.
I loaned out my cheapie floor jack that I kept in my rig to a buddy I found broke down on the side of the road with a busted ball joint.
He never got it back to me and all I have now is the bumper jack that came with my rig.
I hate those things with a passion, they are dangerous as hell.
Going to have to run down and get another 20 dollar cheapie hydraulic to throw behind the seat.