Wednesday, May 27, 2009

But a Book Doesn't Need Batteries...



Sony E-Book Reader...so cool.

I love gadgets. I would own every gadget that came down the pike but I also have a frugal gene that makes it almost impossible for me to spend hundreds of dollars on a cell phone or iPod or E-book readers but I want them all. I mean I really want them. My baby brother, the computer geek buys all the cool gadgets so I get to play with them and find out if they are worth it, but I have total electronic envy.

I was thinking though the other day about survival. Hey, I'm not a nut job...we had an earthquake and someone posted a web site that showed what a 7.8 Richter scale earthquake centered near the Salton Sea would look like. Sheesh. Talk about a downer. I vividly remember the Northridge earthquake thank you very much. We had been out visiting my mom in the Valley. Hot Tamale was 10 and Teddy Bear was about 4. Four thirty in the morning. I remember when it started thinking, "I hope this just rolls and shakes and then stops." Nope. It started with the rumble and the rolling and then literally, and I mean literally, it felt like a giant was outside the house shaking it. It was a violent back and forth motion. I could not have moved if I wanted to. Teddy Bear was in bed with me and Hot Tamale was sleeping in the pull out couch in the same room, thank god. There have to be guardian angels because just a few days before that my dad had tightened the screws holding up the solid glass closet doors because they were incredibly loose. If he had not done that, they would have shattered and fallen on us. As it was, it wasn't until daylight that I realized the TV had fallen on the pull out couch right at Hot Tamales feet. I am so thankful she slept curled up in a ball with her woobie clutched in her hands.

I still remember the feeling of not knowing how bad it was and wishing we could turn on the TV. It is still embarrassing to me that I was not sure how bad off we were until daylight came and we found a radio to hear the news. Like it wasn't real until I had seen it on TV. I am truly a product of the television generation. Today's generations probably won't feel it's real until they see it on the Internet~!

But, anyway back to survival. My earthquake kit is nonexistent since I moved. I was thinking how hard it is to survive without electricity, running water, etc. I have been trying to fashion a list of what I need and trying to imagine the worst case scenario. I would definitely include books in that survival list. (No, World War Z will not be on that list.) Can you imagine if the only books you had were ONLY on your e-book reader and you had no batteries or way to recharge it??? I'm getting palpitations just thinking about it.

Books are so cool but they are so old fashioned I guess. But you don't need to plug them in.

5 comments:

namaste said...

a prayer:

dear God,

please don't let real books go out of fashion or become obsolete.

amen.

@eloh said...

Do you remember the old Twilight Zone, the one where the little bank teller was hiding in the bank vault when bombs ended life on earth, and it was just him and millions of books and he was sooooo happy. Then he stumbled and broke his glasses.

Even when I was a kid I remember thinking, what an idiot to sit there and cry, dig through and find a drug store buddy.\

I love paper books. Oh, and reading glasses.

Happy Hour...Somewhere said...

@ehoh...Do you have any idea of how close I came to putting that exact clip in??? Eerie. That episode gave me vivid dreams for weeks. I guess the philosophy would be the same--no glasses, no reading or no batteries, no reading. Either way, that would be a real Twilight Zone nightmare for me.

I love books. A friend of my ex one day asked me why I kept books after I finished reading them. I am quite sure we looked at each other like, "What the hell?" If you don't get it, how to explain?

Now, I have to run out and buy extra pair of glasses for my earthquake kit...*door slamming*

Happy Hour...Somewhere said...

Namaste-From your lips to God's ear~! Books are the best...hope you got lots for your birthday!

Housewife Savant said...

I can't sleep which is okay with me cuz I'm having fun here.
I've been reading and watching...
This post required my comments. Now I shall ramble.
I am also fascinated by electronics but too cheap to buy 'em.
Add to that I'm too dumb to fully enjoy 'em, so there's no real "envy", just interest.
We had an inland hurricane here in May. It was very strange to be cut off from hearing how bad/widespread it was, and when we found a press conference on the radio it was a Godsend.
We didn't have a lot of damage to our home, but our yard, trees and fences were destroyed. The weather was unseasonable mild, so we didn't suffer. We have a delightful screened patio. We live near a convenience store that was up and running on generator power within 24 hours.
We read. We read lots and lots. We had nothing charged - no gadgets to entertain us. We charged phones in the cars but other than that it was our paper books that kept us sane.
I'm not so good with the running of a chainsaw, so what was there for me to do?
We showered at the prison where my husband works; a maximum security federal penetentiary. What? You've never?
The 5-6 days we were without power were actually pretty cool although I'll pass on a do-over.
Vivienne (at The V Spot) is a Californian and she has the most detailed preparedness list I've ever seen, FYI.