I seek forgiveness for the lack of updates. Life has been crazy and I've been lazy. Now that, that is out of the way, let us get to meat of this post.

Now most of you know that a record setting winter storm blanketed Canada and most of the Norther half of the US. As it happens I live in the Norther half of the US. We knew it was coming. With every news source, from radio and newspapers to our lovely time wasting websites, was warning of the horrendous danger that we were all in. The first day that we were suppose to get snow, I knew that I would have to be prepared for anything. So I took a shower.

No, I didn't go to the supermarket to stock up on bread, milk, and eggs like everyone else seems to feel a need to. No, I didn't panic and spread rumors of how we were all going to die and that 2012 was going to be a bit early all over the internet. I simply took a shower and get dressed in what most people would only wear as pajamas, insulated underwear pants and a t-shirt.

Now before you think that I wasn't prepared (if you haven't already), let me explain. My choice of clothing was carefully thought out. When I dress for cold weather I always use a layer that is light and close fitting, this isn't to provide insulation, it's to keep me dry. Our bodies produce liquids that will act as coolant and greatly reduce our resistance to cold weather. Or if I stop pretending that I know what I'm talking about: sweat makes us cold.

So now that I was dressed in a way that would allow me to get fully dressed without getting undressed first, what did I do? I did what any self-respecting teen would do, I plopped down in front of my laptop and waited for something to happen. Well we didn't get much snow.

After all the warnings and dire predictions it wasn't until the next day that I think we got much snow. The first day all we got was ice. Nice sticky, round, balls of the stuff. Reaching outside you could grab up hundreds of miniature frozen water marbles. After a little bit of marveling at the spectacle the sky was spitting at us and the wind whipping it around, I went back to my computer. Around 6 o'clock something happened. My grandma and grandpa called my mom.

Now it is important to the story that I give some quick background on my grandparents. Neither one of them are healthy, they both smoked for years and now are paying with their health for the habit they already spent hundreds of dollars on. As it is neither of them can so much as walk across their own yard in the best of conditions.

Now the nasty weather had taken out a power line near my grandparents and the line leading from the main line to their house, denieing them power in two places. They like most people had spent most of the day getting ready for the storm, non the less, it didn't take long for them to call us. With the roads near unpassable and incredibly dangerous, more ice pouring down, and who knew how many power lines and trees could be blocking us, my family's plan was clean. It was time to activate our Boy Scout Powers.

Me and my dad both got dressed for the weather. And me and dad never feel completely dressed without being loaded with survival gear in normal circumstances, as it was we loaded our pockets and belts with everything you could imagine. Then we loaded ourselves into the Secret Mobile Survival Shelter. Well maybe we didn't, but I had to say something cooler then our minivan, right?

Here's where I explain why going out in the worst storm of my life time wasn't a bad idea. Or, not. It wasn't safe, it wasn't something I will recommend to anyone, and it isn't something I want to repeat anytime soon. Now that I've gotten that disclaimer out of the way let us continue. It felt great.

Living on the edge of life, the horde of danger and panic held back by the shield of preparedness and shear luck. Helping people. Bringing them back to your shelter. Fighting off the brain sucking zombies with your trusty twelve gauge. Oops, wrong memory.

The roads were nasty, they were so covered in ice that we could only tell were the road led was a slightly flatter area, and occasionally, only by landmarks. This mattered less to my dad then it would to other drivers. Dad is from South Bend, where 3-5 inches of snow is “just a little bit,” not only that but he also practiced driving in bad conditions whenever he could. Even with my dad's driving skills the we still didn't go more then 20 miles an hour. On the whole trip, there and back, we saw less then 5 other vehicles, and we went along a major highway for a while. When we were close to our destination we started to stop and get out of the van to check for downed power lines with flashlights, luckily, we didn't find any across the road.

Once we got there it was only a matter of deciding what to do. It didn't take us long to decide to take them back to our house. We didn't know how long they would be without power and they couldn't do without it. We then loaded them some spare clothes and their dog into our van, checked on their neighbor, and took off back home. The whole adventure took about 3 hours total.

Once we got home we stashed my grandparents inside and went out to the garage to start up the generator, “just in case.” (Or in other words, beating Murphy with a stick.) This is where I think I learned the most important lesson. Generators need to be started about once every 3-4 months to keep them ready to start at a moment's notice. It took about 20 minutes of being in the freezing cold for my dad to get the bloody thing started, and in the end we didn't even need it.

After the first day it became a wait and see. Wait for the city to clear the roads, wait for the power at my grandparents to come back on, see if they had a bust water line, see that all our friends were OK. It took most of the week for things to settle back to normal. Of course I didn't think to check my school email until the end of the week. When I did I found that I was assigned homework to do while stuck at home. That made me happy.

Next post should come sooner and involve ZoMBiEs!

Zombie killing technique #100: Shrapnel. Doesn't matter how you make it because everything is better with flying chunks of metal.