note: originally written/posted in 2015

As I have already mentioned in a number of articles, especially the boot review articles, I have feet that are pretty beat up. That being the case, shoes and boots that actually fit me correctly and are comfortable are virtually impossible to find. When I do find a pair that fit me I stick with that brand and model, sometimes buying multiple pairs to last me into the future. Well, this year Normalcy Bias struck…along with a little Competency Bias. And it all has to do with a size 12 pair of tennis shoes. Let me explain…

First, let’s review what Normalcy Bias is the refusal of your brain to accept that something has happened, will happen, or to what extent something has happened.

Now let’s tie those two bias’ into my size 12 tennis shoes…no pun intended. OK, so you know it is hard for me to buy decent boots and shoes due to years of abuse of my feet as a structural and wildland firefighter. Fortunately a couple of years ago I found a brand of tennis shoes that really fit my feet very well. They last about 18 months before they have to be replaced. Late last year I was seeing that my latest pair was needing replaced soon, luckily I found some for sale online. I bought three pairs to make it easier in the future, plus I had a little extra money sitting around. No, I can’t buy them in any store anymore because they aren’t carried in any store anywhere that I can find.

So my old pair finally give it up and I get out a new pair. Problem!!

The new pair seem to be too tight and really kind of crushed my foot. So I wore them a day thinking that it was a fluke or something. It wasn’t. I got the other two pairs out, all the same size, all the same fit. I wasn’t thrilled but I knew that they were the right size since they were the same exact size as the old pair’s size. The label told me so.

At that point I figured I would keep wearing them and they would stretch out and fit as good as the old pair. Well, they didn’t and seven months later my feet are still sore after my physical training that I try to do 5 – 6 times a week for at least an hour each day.

Well, I bought a pair of Lowa Tibet GTX boots and I did a review on them. I am also still in the process of breaking them in. One night after hiking about an hour in the arroyo behind my house that stretches into the desert I was taking those boots off and switching to my size 12 tennis shoes. My feet hurt in that same places in my “broken-in” tennis shoes. Ooooppppssssss……something wrong here! And my toes were way further into the tennis shoes than my boots.

Changes had to take place…my feet were killing me.

I went into my home office, got online, looked up the tennis shoes in size 13, found several pairs, and ordered a pair in my favorite color combination. Yup, couple different shades of khaki. Two days later the shoes were on my door step, I was smiling and my wife thought I was a little more weird than normal. Shorten the story…the shoes fit really, really well.

So why the heck is that little experience worthy of an article?

Oh, come on…you can’t figure it out yet?

I wear a size 12 shoe, albeit extra wide, and these tennis shoes in size 12W had always fit in the past, so the current size 12W should fit. And If they are tight, I should just get over it and wait for them to stretch out to the right size/fit. Right?  Why?

However, seven months later the new size 12W tennis shoes still weren’t fitting right/comfortable and that is after well over 150 hours of “breaking in.” You would think the thought would have crossed my mind that something was just a bit wrong. Yeah, well it should have. But I was suffering from Normalcy Bias.

Me?!?! Yeah, me. I am supposed to know what I am talking about when it comes to preparedness. I am supposed to be that guy that has answers and can help other people avoid those things that will get them hurt or killed. Yet, I failed and I failed on one of the most basic tenants of preparedness…Normalcy Bias.

Yup, I got tunnel vision:

1. This is the size shoe I always wear, so this pair of shoes it the right size.
2. All shoes take breaking in, so these shoes will fit when they are broken in.
3. You have bad feet, your feet are supposed to hurt.
4. You have more important things to think about.

And we know what tunnel vision can do…it can get you killed.

Now the real question is what do I do about this problem. And for me there is only one real answer. Well, two actually.

First, I have to write to you about it and explain how easy Normalcy Bias can creep into your life. Even something so simple as the correct size and fit of tennis shoes. If it isn’t right…figure it out and make it right. If it doesn’t work, it isn’t going to magically start working.

Second, I have to take a deep breath and look over the rest of what is going on in my life right now. And ask the question…What else am I missing? I am working on that one right now.

Why the reevaluation of life?

Think about that for a minute. If you have been reading my website articles for any length of time you have a pretty good feel for the type of person I am. What do you think I could be missing?

See, here is the problem…I am in a position of not knowing what I don’t know.

So I have to step back, collect myself and rapidly assess if there are the other areas that I might be off course. That is making “lemonade out of lemons” as a famous fellow once told me.

Does any of this have anything to do with you? Maybe, maybe not.

This is a glaring example of Normalcy Bias that I got struck with. What I am hoping is that you learned something through this…it can happen to anyone.

Now, my question to you…”Are you suffering from Normalcy Bias in some way, in some area of your prepping life?”

Please take a few minutes in the coming day or two and just think through what is happening in your life and consider if you might have some amount of Normalcy Bias going on. And if you do…work at overcoming it.

2009 - 2019 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

note: originally written/posted in 2015

Last Sunday morning I was enjoying just a lazy Sunday morning waiting for my wife to return home. I had been cleaning up the kitchen and vacuuming. I hate my wife coming back home from being out of town and her walking into a messy house.

I had been a bachelor for the previous 4 days while my wife traveled back to her childhood home to celebrate her parent’s 70^th wedding anniversary with the entire family. I was looking forward to her being back, I have a great wife!

Then the cell phone rang and it is a Peace Officer buddy of mine from church. He works closely with me on security matters for 13 congregations in a 3-county area. He didn’t have good news.

He explained to me that there had been two separate bombings at two separate churches within minutes of each other. He explained damage had occurred but was unaware of any casualties. We coordinated a response, he would head to the scene to feed us information and I would start clearing our two separate church buildings in our town. Eight different congregations share the two buildings, four congregations for each building.

I quickly cleaned up, dressed in Sunday attire and headed out the door. My day ended about 10 hours later. Let me share a few things that I think are important, what I learned, or at least had reinforced to me that day.

1. There is always a lack of, or confusing, information. Even though I had a contact at the scene of one of the bombings, and he is a supervisor, he still had a hard time sorting out the good and bad information. There were widely varying stories about what had happened. It swung from firecrackers in a mailbox to pipe bombs at the doors. The reports said no one was present, when in actuality there were people in both churches having services. Communications is, and always will be, the #1 problem in any emergency or disaster situation. If you don’t make some preparations on how to deal with that, then you will be behind the curve from the very beginning and probably won’t be able to recover from it.
2. No known motivation. Early on there was no actual motivation of why it was done or even who might have done it. There still isn’t. Without having some kind of idea of who or why, it is much harder to get a true feel for what is happening and how to properly respond. We had to make assumptions as to what the motivation might be but we couldn’t even guess as to whom. Since no one was hurt, and the devices didn’t explode where people were at the moment, then we felt it was more a statement event. We were wrong from the very beginning.
3. The police utterly failed to notify other churches or provide protection to any other potential targets. Like moths to a flame all law enforcement converged on the crime scene en masse. That left the entire city, even the whole county, with virtually no police protection at all. The police called one other church, quickly told them what had happened and asked them to call the other churches in town. We have 100+ churches in town, how do you think that worked out? Most churches were never contacted. There was absolutely no “protect & serve” that morning, all the police were at the two scenes vs. providing protection for citizens.

Had this been a diversionary tactic for anything else, the police would have been 100% screwed. The police acted unprofessionally; poorly trained, poorly prepared, poor response…poor everything. That once again reinforces that you shouldn’t count on effective law enforcement response when there is a true emergency or disaster.

Here are the specific lessons I learned last Sunday…

1. While we, our church’s limited security group responded well to our 8-congregation area of responsibility in this specific town. But we were understaffed from the very beginning. We simply didn’t have enough people to adequately respond to two separate buildings to quickly clear them, and declare them safe or evacuate them. We were also understaffed to provide security during services throughout the rest of the day.
2. While our leadership of the 13-congregation area was notified quickly, there was no clear direction given as to what each congregations should do. For example; should they evacuate the buildings? Should they continue with services that day? Who should each congregation contact for information and direction?
3. While we have a significant Emergency Preparedness Plan for the congregations in the area, it doesn’t cover “bombings” or “bomb threats” etc. Almost three years ago we discussed needing a specific security plan, it was never acted on. It should have been, it would have covered this situation.
4. I am supposed to be the person that advises the 13-congregation leader and remain by his side as a subject matter expert during emergencies and disasters. However, due to us being undermanned and not calling in other folks to assist, I was out in the field and not where I needed to be. A lot of this was driven by not having a full sense of what was happening, but having a sense of urgency to react to protect church goers. However, had the problem grown, we would not have had key people in-place as per the plan.
5. I personally dehydrated that day. I began my response a little after 0900 that day. I didn’t drink my first water till almost noon. By then I was behind the hydration curve. I drank periodically from building drinking fountains as I could, but it was not enough. I should have carried water with me and maintained my water intake to the appropriate level. I could have stopped at a convenience store to buy a bottle of water. I got tunnel vision and was too task focused.
6. There was no sense of panic among our responders. We accepted the situation for what is was and went about our business of responding. I would imagine if you had asked most church members that day, they weren’t even aware of what we were doing.
7. The primary response players for our church stayed in good contact. We used texting mostly to reduce time on the phone. However, we did have phone conversations when appropriate information needed to be shared. Had the phones gone down we would have been screwed. Our handheld Ham radio cache was back at my house.
8. As I was leaving the house I took a extra couple of minutes to load a second spare pistol magazine. I usually only carry one spare magazine thinking 19 shots should be plenty in 99%+ encounters as a conceal carry person. However, this was a special case. The extra 9-rounds in the second spare magazine made me feel a little more secure.
9. As I was walking out the door I also stopped to ensure that my handheld tactical light was working and the batteries were fresh. The light can fit comfortably in my pants pocket. I don’t see a need for some 4-cell D-size battery flashlight. A small, easy to use, comfortable to carry, tactical light is what I prefer.
10. And as my hand hit the doorknob I had a flash of brilliance…I would be looking over church grounds, walking through church buildings, armed…ah, what is wrong with that picture? Any cop who might see me would think and/or do what? Yeah, can you see a problem there? So I grabbed my “Security Enforcement Officer” badge. Looks like most police department shields. It just might give me that extra second or two to let a cop know that I am not the bad guy. It is a great investment at under $30 for the badge and holder.
11. There are no criteria provided to our congregations for “must evacuate” and “may evacuate” events. There is zero guidelines for those kinds of events. That is unacceptable. How would leaders have any clue on how to proceed in this situation or one like it.

Lot’s of stuff going on in this kind of a situation, I am sure I will come up with more as time goes on. But never, ever, in my wildest imagination would I have guessed that I would live in a time and place where you had bombs going off at churches. But here we are…we are in those times.

While one of the church leaders and I were talking towards the end of the day, we were lamenting the same thing…church bombings and crazy times. His response, “We’re in the last days brother.”

Indeed we are.

So here is my partial “to-do” list out of all of this:

1. Update the Emergency Communications Plan to include the ability to text message each congregation leader as a group.
2. Update the Emergency Preparedness Plan with guidelines on “evacuation” decisions.
3. Update the Emergency Preparedness Plan to include more direct violence threats such as bombings and active shooter.
4. Follow through on creating a Security Plan.
5. Work on how to identify more folks to act as security when needed.

There are a few more items but those are confidential.

I do have a few questions for you:

• What would you do in a real-life “church bombing” scenario?

• What would you have your family do?

• What would expect your church to do?

• How could you help in such a situation?

Let’s all commit to learn from what has happened and may we be better prepared for a situation like this in the future. For it is the future…Welcome to the last days brother!

2009 - 2019 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

note: originally written/posted in 2015

I have two great dogs, one of them is absolutely precious! I found her at the dog pound over 7 years ago, she just turned 8. She and I have that real bond thing going on, she is truly a great companion to have around.

She is part Pharaoh Hound and part pit-bull. She has the heart of a lion, the courage of a Rhodesian Ridgeback and the tenacity of a terrier. She has never been afraid of anything in her life. She has beaten-up (not intentionally) a full-grown male Doberman, a very large German Shepard, and a couple lesser breeds. She is over that now…mostly. She will cuddle on the couch for as long as you can sit there. She hates birds, loves most male dogs, and has to show other female dogs whose boss. She torments our Golden Retriever mutt till he just can’t take it anymore, then she loves on him and makes him feel better. She is 52 pounds of solid, rock-hard muscle and a head that is a block of granite.

And she got a nasty leg wound on her leg a few days ago running in the desert with me.

This is the same dog that 5-1/2 years ago blew out her rear-leg knee. $2,800 knee reconstruction surgery later she is still going strong. But this was a soft tissue wound and not very deep. It is 3” in length, 1” wide, it tore off the layer of hair and a layer of skin.

I let her tend to it the first two days accessing how bad it was, seeing what attention it might need. She did a pretty good job, but licking it can only do so much. Now it was time for me to step in. So I got out the medical kit and scrubbed her wound clean with WoundWash, placed a generous amount of triple-antibiotic on the wound itself and coated the entire area. Then more triple-antibiotic ointment on a 4”x4” gauze pad and wrapped that onto her leg with 5” gauze. I did that 3 times per day for 4 days, and decided to put the “cone” on her to make sure she wouldn’t get to it, tear the bandage off and start licking it again while we weren’t home.

It is now 4 days later and she is doing well. The wound is still noticeable and the cone is off whenever we are home. She thinks the cone is some medieval torture device, I would too if I had to wear it. The wound will need some tending to for probably another week or so to make sure she doesn’t aggravate it by licking it.

So why all this long explanation and story about my great dog?

I have gone through an entire tube of triple-antibiotic, couple rolls of gauze, and more 4×4’s than I care to admit to. As a prepper, a prepper that is responsible for 13 church congregations and who runs a large prepping website and also who happens to have written a couple prepper novels, you would think I have a large amount of medical supplies on hand. I do.

But this little episode has made me wonder if I have enough. This was little more than an abrasion, a super bad case of road-rash and not much more. I started thinking this morning what if this was a bad wound on her leg, a serious deep muscle wound. Of course I would have headed off straight to the vet’s office and let them take care of her. But what if there was no vet? Or what if I couldn’t safely get there?

I ran the streets for a lot of years on a fire truck doing the EMS thing. I have seen and provided emergency medical aid to some pretty torn up people in those years. I saw some folks die, picked up body parts and enjoyed some success in saving lives along the way. But I had a whole “system” behind me. What if there was no “system” to count on for assistance?

So I looked hard again at my medical supplies and still felt confident that I can handle a wide range of emergency medical problems and do so for an extended length of time. Or can I?

Here are a couple lessons learned from tending to my dog’s wounded leg:

1. I don’t have enough 4”x4” gauze pads. How many should I have? No idea.
2. I don’t have enough wide (4”+) rolls of gauze. How many should I have? No idea.
3. I have enough triple-antibiotic ointment, but I really could use some “spray” version of the same, or something similar. How much should I have? No idea.
4. I didn’t use exam gloves while working on her wound, but, if it was a human’s wound I should have, and would have. I don’t have enough exam gloves. How many should I have? No idea.

Why no idea on how many of the different items? Just that, I have no idea how much is enough. What I have might be enough if there aren’t many injuries. But one good car wreck with multiple victims and my supply would be all but wiped out. So I have no true idea how much is enough. It probably falls into the category of “you can never have too much.”

I felt good about my medical skills that I used while working on her wound, done it many times before on humans and animals. But if it had been really serious I would have to draw on skills I used 10 – 15 years ago. And those skills are no longer fresh in my mind. Maybe I would have to dust off one or two of the six or so medical books I have.

I also had no way to “put her under” if it had been bad. No, not as in euthanasia. Put her under as in anesthesia. Actually, I had no real way to deaden the area locally to relieve the pain while I did any cleaning or other procedure. I depended on her patience and tolerance for discomfort I caused.

Conclusion –

When the grid goes down, or when a serious emergency or disaster strikes, times are going to be tough. If an animal or person gets injured, precious medical supplies will be used up quickly. It will be a tough decision to restrict medical supplies to humans; priority-based decision making (i.e. triage) says humans will need them the most.

I need to get my wife more first aid training. I can render pretty good care but what if the injured person was me?

In our little group of friends we have a couple of nurses and a paramedic so we are really blessed. But they have to have equipment and supplies to work with or their skills lose lots of value very quickly.

I will be adding more medical supplies to our preps with some overtime money this fire season.

And most of all…I love the cute white dog so much it makes my heart hurt to see her suffer. And she can make me feel like a million bucks when she says, “thank you” with her eyes for providing the medical care she needs.

She knows, she knows…

2009 - 2019 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

note: originally written/posted in 2015

So how many conversations have you had about this Greece thing? You know what I am talking about, Greece’s default, bank holiday, ATM restrictions, lack of cash, etc. Well, I have had a number of those discussions and I keep looking at it like a huge “lessons learned” opportunity.

Things that I saw thanks to the Greek tragedy:

1. Bank holidays can be real and can cut off your debit card purchasing quickly, as well as restricting access to your own cash via ATMs.
2. The Greeks never thought it would happen to them. Hence, the long lines at ATM machines withdrawing $67 a day until the ATMs ran out of money.
3. Progressive, liberal, socialist countries with their big-spending, big-government, debt-loving habits will not work. They never do, never have.
4. The utter arrogance that the Greeks expressed that is was everyone else’s fault but their own.
5. That I never wanted to be in those ATM lines…ever.

So what did I learn?

1. Always have a stack of cash on hand, large or small. I won’t tell you how much or where to keep it. I have some and it makes me feel more secure. Think about Greeks who didn’t have to stand at the ATMs for hours worrying about the money running out. And then if it ran out, you wouldn’t be able to buy food for your family.
2. Always have some precious metals on hand. Can you imagine if you were a Greek shopkeeper and had some “X” on your shelves and a person came in asking for credit until the banks opened up. How receptive would that shopkeeper be? Now, another guy comes in with a handful of silver rounds or a couple of 1oz gold rounds? Yeah, you get my point.
3. Always have enough food to feed my family for “X” number of days. You have to fill in the “X” part based on what you feel is important. < click here to read this for my opinion >
4. Don’t be arrogant!! Never think you are too good compared to others, and admit when things (i.e. decisions and bad habits) don’t turn out so well. But especially admit when it is your fault. Then you an learn and grow.

There is so much more that I could write about as far as “lessons learned” but those are the biggest ones with one exception…government debt.

The problem with Greece was the fact that the Greek government was unable to pay their debt payments. And they had to go begging for the IMF or the ECB to lend them more money to make payments on loans they already owed money on.

Yeah, borrowing money to pay interest on money they already borrowed. Does that sound even remotely responsible?

Well, here is something to think about…”The USA is in the same exact position. We have to borrow money to make debt payments on money we already borrowed.”

But here is the kicker…the USA just prints more money. Yes, we don’t have to borrow it, we just print it. Actually, we don’t even print it, someone at the Federal Reserve just pushes a button and it appears in the government’s computer system that tracks the country’s money supply.

How stable and “right” does that sound? Do you think that at some point people will begin to think that isn’t such stable and responsible way of doing business? And those people are located all around the world.

And here is the wildcard…what about the $90,000,000,000,000 ($90tillion) dollars that the government owes in pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and all the other entitlements and liabilities?

Where is that money going to come from? How is the government going to produce that much money to pay out in addition to the huge national debt that exists in real terms right now? Simply create those dollars on yet another computer? Or even print it by the pallet & truck load?

What does your gut tell you will happen when that day comes?

So, what are you going to do about it today, tomorrow, or the day after?

May I suggest:

1. Always have a stack of cash on hand. I won’t tell you how much you should have. I have some. Think about Greeks who didn’t have to stand at the ATMs for hours worrying about the money running out. And then if it ran out, you wouldn’t be able to buy food for dinner.
2. Always have some precious metals on hand. Can you imagine if you were a Greek shopkeeper and had some “X” in stock on your store’s selves, and a person came in asking for credit until the banks opened up. How receptive would that shopkeeper be? Now, another guy comes in with a handful of silver rounds or a couple of 1oz gold rounds? Yeah, you get my point. What if you were the guy with the gold or silver?
3. Always have enough food to feed your family for “X” number of days. You have to fill in the “X” part based on what you feel is important.
4. Don’t be arrogant!! Never think you are too good compared to others and admit when things (i.e. decisions and bad habits) don’t turn out so well. Admit when it is your fault, you can learn more that way.

You think Greece was bad? There are four more countries in similar circumstances, Puerto Rico being one of those. And remember, Puerto Rico is considered part of the US for all intents and purposes.

There is so much I want to tell you to do. But that isn’t my place, not my responsibility, not my right. But I can make suggestions and hope they help. But more than anything else I would like you to do the following:

• If you are spiritual or religious please pray and ask what is best for you and your family to do right now, today, to be better prepared. Then when that inspiration comes…do it!! Do it without any hesitation, without any reservation, without any regret and with a glad heart.
• If you are not religious, think through the situation in your mind. What does that “gut feeling” tell you to do? Then when that “gut feeling” hits you…do it!! Do it without any hesitation, without any reservation, without any regret and be grateful.

There you go. I am with you, we are in this boat together, you have a place at my table.

2009 - 2019 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.