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An Ounce of Preparedness is Valuable

An old habit I have from being stationed in Northern Japan and finishing school in Upstate New York is that from October through March my car has permanently living in it:

  • a short handled snow shovel
  • a wind-up or shake-charged flashlight/radio
  • a heavy blanket
  • a beach towel
  • a bag of mulch, or top-soil, or sand
  • dry gloves, scarf, and knit cap

When the weather says a storm is coming, I frequently add a long handled snow shovel and snow boots.

I rarely get to use any of them, but that is just using the power of Murphy in my favor. When I do need them, they are handy and where I need them. Last night would have been immeasurably better if just 10% of the cars on the road had similar equipment stowed in them.

I know I need a generator now, as we are getting more and more heavy snows and ice storms with warmer winters… You know you need to stick those things in your car now.

If you can afford it, switch from those Z rated, low-profile, high-performance racing tires and rims every winter for cheap, repairable, steel wheels and all-season tires. I passed a lot of fancy cars immobilized by just having street legal racing slicks instead of proper tires for winter driving. Heck, if you can’t afford the second set of wheels and tires, you should not probably have the racing gear on your car at all… but that is just my opinion. In some ways it’s a shame that manufacturers and dealers started including the slick racing gear as standard equipment… too many people don’t even think about it anymore.

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