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- [00:01]
A
What do you carry in your pockets? How about in your bag or your purse? Are you forgetting anything that might Are you forgetting anything that you might need throughout your day? Today we're going to talk about that and we'll do an EDC dump on what I carry on a daily basis.
- [00:30]
B
Welcome to practical prepping. Today is September 29, 2025, and this is episode 527. This is the prepping podcast with no bunkers, no zombies and no alien invasion. Just practical prepping where we teach everyday people how to prepare for life's emergencies. And we're here to help you get prepared. I'm Krista.
- [00:58]
A
And I'm Mark. We have been taking a short break in releasing new episodes until October 5th. Today we've chosen one of our most popular episodes from 2023, everyday carry and doing an EDC bag dump. And if you'd like the expanded notes for this episode, go to practicalprepping.info 444.
- [01:22]
B
If you find value in our podcast, you can go to practicalprepping.info support, where you'll find that you can support our show. Or you can also start your Amazon shopping from our website. It costs you nothing extra, but pays us a small commission on qualifying purchases. You can leave comments and questions@practicalprepping.info contact. Thanks for being here today. Now, let's get to the show.
- [01:50]
A
Let's talk about edc, everyday carry and however you carry it.
- [01:55]
C
Yeah, it's different for different people.
- [01:56]
A
Yeah. I had a guy tell me one time in one of the forums that, and this was his words, EDC is only that which is on your body. If it's in a bag, not on your body, it's for getting home after an SHTF event.
- [02:12]
C
Well, I kind of disagree with that.
- [02:14]
A
I very well disagree with him.
- [02:16]
C
I have an everyday carry. I have several everyday carries. I have my everyday carry for work and I have my everyday carry for personal. Those are two different things. And there's different things found in each one of those bags.
- [02:26]
A
Yeah, in my everyday carry bag, I would not want to try to make it home for more than 10 miles. And if I'm going to take overnight, I don't want to do it there. There's no water filter in it.
- [02:39]
C
Yeah, it's a different purpose.
- [02:41]
A
That's my get home bag and that's in the car.
- [02:44]
C
So this guy was saying that unless it's on your person that it's not considered edc.
- [02:50]
A
Right. If it's not on your person, it's not edc. Now I carry a spare tire every time I leave the house in the car. Yeah, but it's not on my person.
- [03:01]
C
Right. So we define EDC as the bag that you carry with whatever goods actually.
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A
Back it up from there. EDC is everyday carry. What do you carry? There's some common items for edc. Telephone. I guess everybody listening to us carries a telephone every day.
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C
It's probably likely, yes.
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A
How about car keys?
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C
Well, some kind of vehicle.
- [03:24]
A
If we go off, we carry a car key, a house key, carry a wallet with an ID or some cards or cash. Women carry a purse.
- [03:35]
C
Yeah, we have all kinds of fun things in our purse. All sorts of things to keep children busy. And a lot of times we're carrying stuff for other people, like husbands who say, hey, do you have room in your purse for this?
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A
Yes, I do work in sheriff's department. I was always afraid of women's purses.
- [03:54]
C
You are.
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A
Don't put my hands in them. And if I arrested somebody, I would open the purse and look down in to see if there was a weapon and I would close it back and I would put it in the right front seat of my car. After I got the female into the jail, I let one of the females get the purse out of my car.
- [04:13]
C
Were you afraid of a mousetrap?
- [04:14]
A
I don't know what all is in there. I've seen some crazy stuff. Now let's talk about my personal own body. Everyday carry.
- [04:24]
C
Okie doke.
- [04:25]
A
Okay. And yours is gonna vary. You get to choo what you carry every day or have to carry. In my right front pocket I carry an RFID blocking card wallet that Krista gave me for Christmas several years ago. And in that I have business cards, I have the debit card and I have 20 bucks.
- [04:46]
C
Yeah.
- [04:47]
A
I carry a money clip in that pocket and I carry a pocket knife in that pocket.
- [04:52]
C
Okie dokie.
- [04:53]
A
Go over to the left front pocket. And I carry a lighter even though I don't smoke, still carry a lighter.
- [04:57]
C
Okay.
- [04:58]
A
Comes in handy once in a while. And I carry two challenge coins.
- [05:01]
C
Okay.
- [05:02]
A
That what's in my left front pocket. My right rear pocket. I carry a badge case. Now that has my retirement badge and my ID in it. And it has money in it Krista doesn't know about. I guess she does Now I check.
- [05:16]
C
Your pockets before I do laundry. I found out a lot of secrets out of yours.
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A
Oh yeah?
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C
You have no secrets from me.
- [05:23]
A
Nope. And I wouldn't keep them. But anyway, just I put a little money in there the other Day I'm not sure she knew I had in there. It's just a little get home money. In my left rear pocket I carry a bandana and a comb.
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C
You kind of, you've got a lot on you for a person. Okay.
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A
And then on my belt somewhere between 7 o' clock and 8 o' clock he's talking position time, 9 o'. Clock. Being the left hip, it's a little bit behind that is a full size multi tool.
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C
Yeah. Your knife, your screwdriver, your nail file, all kinds of, all kinds of Maltese.
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A
And then on the other side between 4 and 5 o' clock I carry a full size handgun.
- [06:04]
C
Okay, so you're pretty loaded down guy.
- [06:06]
A
I am. And that means that now even though in Alabama we have open carry, additional carry, but I choose to carry it concealed. So I wear a vest over it or a light jacket depending on the time of the year. But even in the summer I wear a little light vest over it. And so I can have an extra magazine in the left pocket and flashlight in the right pocket.
- [06:30]
C
Yes.
- [06:31]
A
And still have a place to put my car keys on that right side. So that's how I am when we go out the door. Yes, that's my general normal edc. But what's an EDC bag? That's something to carry all the other stuff that you regularly need or might need.
- [06:51]
C
Correct.
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A
We carry, Krista and I both carry small crossbody bags.
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C
I like the crossbody style, it doesn't slip off my shoulder. It's more secure. I can be wearing it while I'm in the grocery store. So I never leave a bag unattended in a cart. It's on me.
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A
Right.
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C
I feel so much more secure that way now.
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A
I used to carry a computer backpack but I no longer carry a laptop daily. And my tablet, which I do a lot of stuff on now fits very nicely in that EDC bag. In my EDC bag if you want to see it. It's, it's a canvas type brown. It's actually own, I think the featured items page of our website. I've had a couple of folks ask me about that one. But now what goes in the bag? What do you put in your bag?
- [07:42]
C
Well, like I said before, I have a professional bag that I use and in that professional bag I'm going to have a tablet computer. I'm going to have a level and L square. I'll have a 25 foot spec ops professional tape measure. I'll have pens, pencils, paper, business cards and likely tissues. Have a lot of Runny nose here, lady. But that's a whole different story. That's my professional bag, my personal bag. I've got that wallet. I've got lip balm. Really necessary this time of year again, Pens, pencil, paper, notepaper, sunglasses, you know, just the personal things. I'm going to need that sort of thing.
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A
But here's the thing. What goes in the bag is your choice. You choose what you should carry every day.
- [08:28]
C
Exactly.
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A
Now, there was a time that I carried trauma shears, a Venus tourniquet and a pin light.
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C
Okay.
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A
Yeah, but it was job specific.
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C
Exactly.
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A
I was a paramedic and Krista mentioned and this is odd for a woman to carry a 25 foot heavy duty measuring tape.
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C
Well, in my professional bag, I use it.
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A
It's on the job.
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C
Yeah. Now I'm lost without it.
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A
Now, my dad used to carry a 4 inch adjustable wrench in his pocket.
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C
Now why would he carry a 4 inch.
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A
He was always tinkering on something, some.
- [09:00]
C
Kind of motor or car engine or didn't matter. Okay.
- [09:04]
A
He'd find something to tighten somewhere, but he had, he had a little 4 inch that he carried in his pocket. And it comes down to what makes sense to you. Now, I was listening to a podcast earlier this week from several years ago, and it was a podcast discussing edc. And I was driving and I was thinking, you know, it's been a while since I've gone through my EDC bag, have some idea of what's in there, but I haven't really done what I needed to do in quite a while. So I decided it was time for me to do an EDC dump.
- [09:43]
C
Okay.
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A
Dump it out on the desk and rebuild my bag.
- [09:47]
C
Okay. That might have been very revealing.
- [09:49]
A
It was. I dumped it out on my desk and it was a mess.
- [09:53]
C
Oh.
- [09:54]
A
Now, gonna go quickly through some of the contents of my bag. Some of them make sense, some of them make you say, huh, Carry business cards. Carry business cards in my bag. Three microfiber lens cloths were in my bag.
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C
Okay.
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A
21 floss type toothpicks.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And a dental pick. Two thumb drives. A new key to something.
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C
A new key to something. Probably that new lawnmower.
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A
No, no, this. This looked like a house key or shop key or something, but I don't know what was. But I have a new key to something.
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C
Okay.
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A
I had a key to a truck I no longer drive.
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C
Huh.
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A
A lighter plug, charger head, a USB charger cord, a power bank, a hex key set.
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C
Okay.
- [10:48]
A
I've been carrying a hex key Set for years. Now, there's a reason I started carrying one, and that's adjusting ham radio antennas.
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C
Makes sense.
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A
But I don't carry my SWR meter with me all the time, so that doesn't make sense.
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C
That does not make sense.
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A
Anyway, all right. I carry a 5 inch adjustable wrench.
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C
Okay. As an homage to your dad.
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A
In my bag, two sets of nail clippers.
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C
When one just won't do, this must be the. Two is one and one is nothing.
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A
That and or one's left and one's right.
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C
You is ridonkulous.
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A
Had two knives in there, a pocket knife and a folder.
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C
Okay.
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A
An empty contact lens case.
- [11:30]
C
Huh. That does make you go.
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A
A huge wad of keys, carabiners, and four mini survival tools.
- [11:38]
C
That sounds like a prepper right there.
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A
A bag of small safety pins.
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C
Okay.
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A
A very rarely used wallet. One pack of Alka Seltzer, one Imodium tablet, one cough drop, one peppermint, and one double a battery.
- [11:57]
C
Well, you know, you just never can tell when you're gonna have an upset stomach causing a cough and some distress in your nether regions. And your tummy needs a little settling.
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B
So there.
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C
That's a Mr. Prepper right there.
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A
And I had a bottle of Naproxen sodium tablets.
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C
Well, that's not unusual for you. You do eat pain reliever like candy.
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A
Not as much as I used to, but. The whole bottle?
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C
Yeah. Why would you have the whole bottle? You wouldn't normally carry the entire bottle.
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A
And I had two small Altoid tins, and one of those was empty. Now, I started carrying Altoid tins in my pocket many, many years ago. And I would keep pain reliever in there. And so I just. I had it with me all the time. Well, we'll talk about those here in just a minute. So I had a lot of work to do.
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C
Yeah, you needed to do a lot of refining on this bag content.
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A
So I reworked my bag. And to describe my bag inside the main compartment, that's crossbody and it is probably 12 inches tall. It's about 6 or 8 inches wide, something like that, and 4 or 5 inches thick. You open the main compartment, and there are two small pockets inside that main compartment. They're really about the perfect size for business cards. So in those small pockets, I now have four floss type toothpicks, not 21. I have some business cards. I have four wet microfiber lens wipes. I wear glasses, reading glasses, sunglasses. And. And they need cleaning from time to time. Now, those two Altoid tins, I put Naproxen sodium in one and in the other one I put omeprazole and imodium.
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C
Okay.
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A
And they're inside those two little pockets along with a pen stylus, a mechanical pencil and one lip balm.
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C
Okie doke.
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A
And a small bottle of rewetting drops. Since I wear contacts, that's what's in the little bitty pockets. Go into the main compartment. And this is where I got a little more creative. You know I said I was carrying one double A battery.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And that's because I've used them off and on and probably threw one I thought was dead in the bag. Well, now I have a little small ziploc bag with 4 AA and 4 AAA batteries.
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C
Makes sense to have multiples.
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A
And they're down in the bottom of my bag I have a bag with 20 floss toothpicks.
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C
I guess if you're going to hand them out at parties.
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A
Well, somewhere back down the road I decided I do not want to be without one of those.
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C
I understand.
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A
I've cut down to one thumb drive. It's in a bag with power bank, a lighter adapter. And what I did not have in there was a wall charger. So I have a wall charger head now. And we have a three headed cord. One cord that will work on a C plug, a mini USB or an apple.
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C
Okay.
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A
So have that cord. Have a flashlight. I was surprised to see that I did not have an extra flashlight in my bag before.
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C
Surprise for you.
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A
I carry one on my person usually in that vest pocket. Got a little O light that'll carry in my shirt pocket from time to time with my telephone. And I put a bag in there that has an extra pocket knife, that 5 inch adjustable wrench, the hex tool set and a lighter.
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C
Okay.
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A
Have one SWAT tee tourniquet in the outside pouch, one cat tourniquet in the main compartment. Earbuds. And I built a new little first aid kit. It's out of a semi hard zippered sunglass case.
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C
That's clever.
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A
I've moved that thing around I don't know how many times. And I said one of these days I'm going to find something to really make with that. So it's a little bit bigger than a Boo Boo kit. It's got two four by fours in there. It's got three sizes of band aids, large, medium and small. Not the little bitty minis that we had when we were kids. Just the small 12 alcohol wipes, packs of Pepto Amodium. See a trend here?
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C
Yeah. Our digestive distresses are being well covered.
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A
Yes. Have sinus pills and a pack of small safety pins. And I have a small four by five journal. Four inch by five inch or so. Little journal or three and a half by five.
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C
Have to write a quick note, a.
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A
Quick note and to capture ideas. And I usually carry a small digital recorder as well, but there's still room to drop anything in specific to the trip. And so that's what I'm really happy about. Yeah, I got the right stuff back in my bag.
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C
Okay.
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A
Now, this bag is not set up for survival.
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C
No, I understand. This is an everyday carry. It is not intended to be a get home bag or an I'm never coming home bag or even a bug out bag. No, it's just when you leave the house on a regular day.
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A
Mm.
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C
This is what you have on.
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A
This is what I have on me now. I have the get home bag in the car. We have our car bags that have the things that we might need if we had a two or three day trip to get home. And a lot of people don't understand that. And so really wanted to point out today what we carry and encourage you to organize the things that you normally carry. That's the biggest benefit that I got from doing this exercise the other day.
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C
Well, it sounds like you really needed to because you had some things in your bag that needed refreshing or removal or bring some additional things back that were missing. So you did a really good turn there for yourself to take a good, hard look at what's really in there and refresh your own memory, because you're going to forget if you don't update that thing on a regular basis. You're not really going to know what's in there if you don't get in there every day.
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A
And that's another good reason. And this is a very good time of the year. Maybe you want to disappear from all the family that came to your house and go hide in the basement like Mike Baxter. And it's a good thing to do there. That was on Outdoor man down there.
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C
Yeah.
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A
So encourage you to do that. And it's a good time to go through our get home bags or car bags. And we try to do that on the changing of the season. It's a good time to update that bag and take the fall stuff out and put the winter stuff in. Encourage you to do that.
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C
Everyone can benefit from having a level of preparedness that keeps them confident and well resourced and panic free. And that's the kind of life we want to live.
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A
Yeah. And you can ask, how did you do during the COVID toilet tissue shortage?
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C
That. That should bring back.
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A
They relate. They'll relate to that.
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C
Lot of folks were not preparedness before that, but they certainly.
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A
Are you able to not go to the grocery store for some length of time?
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C
I mean, yes. Seriously. If you were, you know, remember locked down where things were not open and you couldn't go, were you able to stay in your dwelling for four, six, eight weeks? Were you okay?
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A
And I always ask the question of people. If we wake up Tomorrow morning, there's 48 inches of snow here in north Alabama.
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C
Oh, boy.
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A
Number one, you're not going anywhere in 48 inches of snow, not in north Alabama.
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C
And nobody's getting to you.
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A
You're not going anywhere in 4 inches of snow in north Alabama. How long can you keep your family warm and fed? That's what we talk about.
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C
Yeah. That's a love that's prepared.
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A
We don't do zombies, we don't do bunkers, we don't do alien invasions. But we talk about the practical stuff. And as Krista always says, stuff happens. Stay prepared and we'll see you next time.