Our Friend B.O.B

You are awakened in the middle of the night from a sound sleep by the wailing of sirens blaring through the stillness of the cold night air.  You glance outside your window and see mayhem in the streets as people scramble to gather whatever belongings they can quickly shove into their waiting vehicles.

In a panic, you huddle your family together and order them to collect anything they can carry and meet you at the minivan in two minutes.  You rummage through your closet and find an old gym bag buried behind your pile of dirty underwear.  You empty the sweat stained socks and rancid shorts that have been stagnating in it for weeks, and make a dash to the kitchen.  You quickly fill the bag with whatever you can find and run to your waiting family. 

You drive off for destinations unknown, and after a while, you stop to try to gather your senses.  You assess the situation by first determining what supplies you were able to scrounge together.  Your daughter managed to grab her favorite hairbrush and her iPod.  Your son had the presence of mind to put on a dirty t-shirt, and your wife grabbed her purse and an extra pair of shoes.  You rip open your bag and see that you've equipped your family with a butter knife, a dead flashlight, and a can of green beans.  On top of that, you HATE canned green beans.  Anxiety and despair begins to envelop you as you see the terrified look on your family's faces.

In the distance, a mushroom cloud blossoms...

Granted, this is a worst case scenario, and a B.O.B would definitely come in very handy.  However, things don't need to get this bad for a B.O.B to be very useful.  While the concept isn't new, the recent political climate has caused more and more people to put one together, or at least strongly consider doing it.

Now, there are plenty of paranoid gloom and doomers that are preparing for the end of civilization as we know it, but paranoia and the belief in instant annihilation are not requirements to have a B.O.B.  Floods, hurricane warnings, tornado warnings (though, you should really stay in your house for that one), and power outages are just a few of the more mundane reasons to have some sort of bug out bag at the ready, especially if you live in a more remote area devoid of neighborly support. 

So, the question remains.  If you do have a B.O.B., does that mean that you are some sort of extremist freak that’s expecting the imminent end of the world?  Not at all.  In fact, if you do a search on YouTube for “bug out bag”, you’ll end up with over 3,000 results of videos on how to put together your own B.O.B.  There you will find everything from those that have already purchased land in some remote area to those that have nothing more than a first aid kit and a good flashlight.  Whatever your thoughts are on SHTF and WROL, it’s not a bad idea to have some basic supplies ready to go in case of an emergency, whether natural, or not so natural.

So, it looks like B.O.B. is our friend after all, because a true friend is always there when we need them the most.