Speaking of Go Bags, Holidays, and Bouncing around like Tigger.

#wawx #AtmosphericRivers

First RantWoman sends heartfelt holiday wishes to everyone displaced by recent flooding and / or struggling with cleanup. May there be joy in spite of all the struggles.  Closer in, RantWoman knows two people having lumpectomies for the holidays, a friend having a root canal, on top of what RantWoman is about to recound about RantMom. This year, all this is just going to be what is.

RantWoman feels VERY lucky to live warm and dry and far away from flooded roadways, communities, and agricultural fields. RantWoman watches evacuation orders and sometimes checks in with people who might be affected. RantWoman realizes she can be more robust in meeting the moment as far as one part of her network and has filed the observation for now. Mostly RantWoman listens to news, exchanges weather info with a couple friends. RantWoman is also collecting such data as others want to share about travel disruptions, extra long paratransit rides, and related experience.

And then a family member has a medical emergency. RantMom has been showing signs for awhile that a chronic condition is wearing on her. Friday after monitoring some concerns for several days, Little Sister decided that "bouncing around like Tigger" and hands fluttering sounded sufficiently odd. Little Sister persuaded RantMom to call the consulting nurse. The consulting nurse told RantMom to call 911. RantMom lives far away from direct flooding risk but in an area where a lot of first responders are dealing with flooding related deployment. RantWoman has no idea of the response time. RantWoman just needs to offer the following observations:

--look up Go bag via your favorite search engine and plan accordingly.

--if you are a senior with recurring reason to need to be scooped up by paramedics, don't wait around for disaster weather forecasts. Consider having a Go bag just in case of more specific first responder needs. Maybe also have a list of things to grab at the last minute.

In RantMom's case, her Go bag needs to include charger for phone (or other devices) and charging container for hearing aids. One may be able to grab such things before the paramedics arrive but it is probably not wise to expect paramedics to be able to help grab necessities, but having some kind of a plan seems like a good idea to RantWoman

In RantMom's case, it took a couple days before Irrepressible Nephew, the only driver in the family was able to take Little Sister to RantMom's to retrieve the needed items. The next parts of the story get to be told another day.

"Bouncing around like Tigger" makes RantWoman smile. Ads for ridiculous sugary cereals were one reason besides mindrot programming that RantMom for a number of years had strict limits on the Rant children's consumption of Saturday morning cartoons and weekly series. More recently, RantWoman notes that 20 years ago RantMom was finishing chemo for her second cancer treatment.