Our terrorist attack box

Sometime shortly after we moved into this house, some appointed official decided that we all needed to get duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal ourselves in in the case of a dirty bomb attack.

Now, we're maybe 25 miles from the White House as the plutonium flies. We know that's still pretty close but we weren't ready to participate in such paranoia. We did, however, put together a box of emergency supplies, to sustain us as we holed up in the hills.

Our rally point was/is the Bob Evans restaurant just off the campus of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va. That's 50 miles west of here, a little over an hour, or six hours if we're all trying to evacuate Northern Virginia at once. And while we were refugees, here's what we'd have had at our disposal.

A box of Gerber single grain baby oatmeal (packed with Robert in mind, not Colleen)
Three trash bags
Two brand-new toothbrushes
A box of kleenex
A 4.6-ounce container of toothpaste
A half-ounce tube of Neosporin
Two 8-ounce cans of fresh cut green beans
Four 5-ounce cans of chunk chicken in water
Two 8-ounce cans of sliced pineapple (best used by July 2005)
Four rolls of store brand toilet paper
A 17.7-ounce can of Carnation instant breakfast (14 servings)
A container of hand sanitizer
Eight AA batteries -- don't tell Elizabeth!
A nine-pack of apple juice drink boxes (best used by Nov. 25, 2003)
A 20-pack of sturdy rinse and reuse bowls

I should point out that this box has been raided several times over the years. I remember there were snack bars in here at one point, for example, that I've since eaten.

I think we'll still a lot of this, even the edible stuff. I mean, it's canned food. It's been kept out of the sunlight in a cool place. Though I don't know anyone who will eat the instant breakfast. And I wouldn't foist the juice boxes on anyone.

Now watch the attack come tomorrow. It would take me a long time to bike to the rally point.

Then again, it might be the fastest way out on Route 7 in that scenario.