I'm a schmuck, after all

For years, each fall, I inevitably see someone in Florida on TV complaining about the depleted stores as a hurricane approaches. The camera will pan to the empty shelves. No water. No canned food. No batteries. No generators. No plywood to board up the windows. You get the picture.

And I always wondered? Why didn't you have this stuff BEFORE the hurricane hit?

I've always tried to make it a point to stock up on a little of everything, just in case there's an emergency of some kind. Four years ago, I had a good supply of cyalume sticks, which provided light after a mega-storm hit my neighborhood. An old tree in my backyard fell, destroying my neighbor's fence and swimming pool. (I was a renter, fortunately.) Unfortunately, the sticks were old, and little good.

Where I live in Kentucky, we obviously have no hurricanes, but do get tornadoes. Hurricanes take time to form and more time to travel, giving plenty of time to prepare and get out. If you're lucky, when tornadoes form in the area, you've got maybe 10 minutes, at best.

So why don't so many of these people prepare for the hurricane season earlier in the year? I guess many do. And many are also schmucks.

Well, I'm a schmuck too, now.

Yesterday morning, I noticed gas was $3.53 a gallon here. I said I need to fill up. Well, instead I sat on my butt, and was forced to fill up at $3.78 a gallon.

Consider my lesson learned.