What's your trigger point?

This is moving weekend for Mrs. Bug-out renter and son and his family.  She is moving out and he is moving in.  Mr. Bug-out renter is coming back from Nevada to pick up his stuff.  He's also said that he wants to get a dumpster to dump the trash.  It would be nice since it's his trash but I'm not holding my breath.  Son and I have discussed them getting trash service and for the first month getting a huge dumpster sized container rather than just a trash can.  It may be a lot more expensive but considering the amount of money that will have to be spend on gas hauling all the junk to the dump it may be well worth it. 

 

Normally I have very little trash, so it usually gets dumped off at oldest daughter's house (since I pay for her trash service out of the property tax bill).  But at the bug-out place some of the carpet was pulled up and just left, a king-sized mattress was dumped, and some other big item things that just won't fit into a trash can.  If there was some area that had erosion I'd use the carpet to help stabilize the ground but there's none of that going on. 

 

That's not what I was planning on writing about today.  Do you know what your trigger point is?  What set point do you have before you take some action?  You have trigger points for just about everything in your life.  How many rolls of toilet paper will you be down to before you rush to the store for no other reason than to buy more?  Sure you will put other things on your list but that trip just will not wait another day...  That's something simple.  Never let the gas gauge go below 1/2 tank.  Again, easy trigger point.  What about a wildfire coming your way?  At what point would you say it's time to pack it up and scoot?  When it's 5 miles away, 2 miles, 1/2 mile? 

 

It's September 11.  I'm sure you remember where you were eleven years ago.  My cousins were in New York City, within spitting distance of the twin towers.  After the first tower was hit they didn't turn and run but after the second tower was hit, which they witnessed, it was an instant turn and walk away.  They didn't stop walking for about 15 miles until they reached a relative's house.  I was in Sacramento, several hours from home.  I got into my truck, stopped at a store and picked up some additional gas cans, filled them with gas then headed home.  After that was done I called the office there in Sac and told them I wasn't coming in.  We were all kept on duty that day.  Fine I'll stay on duty, just closer to home.

 

What about now.  I'm even further away from home this week.  What's my trigger point to make me leave and head home?  If something happens I'd want to get home before panic sets in and clogs the roads.  Would that be one hour, five hours, days, or nothing at all would happen?  When the terrorists attacked us, other than airports shutting down, which affected many, not much happened here on the west coast, other than we all stopped doing everything so we could be glued to the TV.  The roads didn't shut down, people still showed up for work, the stores were still stocked.  If we didn't have TV or radio or Internet life would have continued like nothing happened.  So for there to be some disaster to shut down my five or six hour trip home it would have to happen here, to block my return path.  But would it be something instant?  Even if there was a huge earthquake, people wouldn't be packing the freeways to head out of the area, would they?  What about a riot?  Perhaps after some high profile racially tensioned trial but that would be something predictable.  You'd know something could happen due to that cause.  A wildfire normally takes a while before it gets large enough to cause mass evacuations.  So how long would I have?  What should my trigger point be?  On a fire they have trigger points.  We attack the fire this way but if it gets to -here- then we pull back and attack from -here-.  Specific written trigger points.  Then there's no second thoughts when it gets to that point. 

 

Since the reason I'm away from home is I am teaching a class, I can't just up and leave if there's some sort of disaster that happens elsewhere.  But where does that obligation to the thirty students who paid lots of money for this class end?  Would it be that the classroom would no longer be available?  No power, no water?  Is there a trigger point?  I've never thought about it.  That's not wise for someone who is supposedly so prepared.  My get home bag would be sufficient but it would take me two weeks to walk home if I didn't have too evade many obstacles.  But how do I know when to go?  What has to happen?  Major accident with my mother or one of the kids - I'd be out in an instant and the other instructors would have to just deal with it. 

 

But what about something that would affect everyone?  EMP?  I'd be in a world of hurt if that was the disaster as I'd not have a vehicle.  Wildfire?  No, I'm not afraid of that.  Neither am I worried about earthquakes...unless Shasta Dam breaks.  Then I could be in trouble!  Terrorist attack?  From what happened in New York, that would only affect me if it was in the direct path of where I am at or where I am headed.  Should I just keep my head in the sand and not even think about it since I don't expect anything to happen?  It sure would make it easier if I didn't ever have those thoughts in my mind. 

 

Proper planning means you don't just do things off the fly.  You prepare.  You have to be flexible but your preparation should make things so much easier.  Once I watched this man's child.  His ex-wife had tried to kidnap the kid the week before.  He was terrified that she'd succeed.  What was my trigger point?  The doors or windows.  If the slime put in step into my home that would be the last step she'd ever take.  I was armed and ready.  She wouldn't get two steps.  She wouldn't get a chance to try to talk to me.  There was a specific trigger point - my line in the sand.  So my question for the day is do any of you have trigger points in place?  What are they?