Escapade Artist

Recently I was asked to be an emergency contact for a friend's kid. This is new or at least newish. I'm an emergency contact for a couple of adults and I've been the bag man (in charge of money for minors) in wills before but never, I don't think...no, once before. But only once. I'm not high on this list of contacts but I am on it and it's the kind of thing that feels pretty serious to me without getting all crazy about it.

If you know me at all you know I immediately began to overthink. I got the address and phone number of the school. I don't want to have to ask the school where to come in an emergency. I want to engender trust. And it got me started thinking about emergency plans.

Over the course of two city-wide emergencies Pony Express and I have honed our plan. We call, use a land line if possible, and always choose where to meet on the first call. Always. You don't know when or if phone service will become unreliable. I have an umbrella under my desk. I rarely am out and about in shoes that I couldn't walk 8 miles in. I always have cash on hand and PE knows where that is. We have keys to each other's houses. I'm a little obsessive about having my cell charged since having to work from home by cell during the blackout. I know the swiftest ways home and the ways to modify that walk if the sun sets.

So I've been thinking how I'd need to re-examine my escape plan if it involved scooping up someone else along the way. He's certainly not walking 8 miles but he's not too heavy. I'll need to be more aware of where I can grab snacks and water. Oh and milk or juice because he hates water. I'm looking at the path from where I work to where the school is and home...or to his home.

Yeah, and then I thought, They probably mean in the case of illness or a snow day.

I can stand down now.