Your Survival Guy

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Your Survival Guy Caught Off-Guard, Again: Blackout Buddy

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We lost power early Friday night for about an hour. It’s incredible how much can happen in an hour and how you realize your prep isn’t up to par when the lights go out.

Life Comes at You Fast. Slow It Down with My Friday Email. It’s Free.

That’s where Your Survival Guy found himself at the start of the weekend.

Thankfully the generator kicked in without a hitch. But that doesn’t mean all was well. First off, my son left on Thursday for a weekend ski trip with his high school friends. He didn’t have a chance to go to the bank. That left me, Your Survival Guy, with zero cash on hand after giving him all I had, a needless and avoidable position.

Even with a generator, there are areas of our house that are not well lit. Take our foyer for example. Becky happened to be out walking our dog Louis at the time of the outage. When she left, it was still light outside but she came back in the dark to a darkened home. Dark, that is, except for me with my flashlight rummaging through the car key drawer. I nearly gave her a heart attack as she wondered why someone was moving around in the house with a flashlight.

Nice move Survival Guy.

Next, the upstairs hallway was unlit, but thankfully our Blackout Buddies kicked in, but the dimming light meant it’s time to replace the batteries (the time to replace them was weeks ago pre-blackout).

It was only a one-hour blackout but it was enough to be another reminder that you can’t be too prepared even if you think you are—Survival Guy.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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