This past weekend was the in-person culmination of my Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training. The training itself was great, and the people (facilitators and trainees) I met were awesome. But…
When I committed to doing the training, we did not yet know that HA would be gone and that I would be taking care of the compound including Luna the Big Dog™, the sheep, and the chickens. It also hadn’t really sunk in that it would involve three hours of driving each day.
I found that I had to get out of bed in the dark at 5am, rush to get out the door and leave a howling Luna behind, drive for 90 minutes, do nine hours of intensive training, drive 90 minutes home, then rush to take care of the livestock and walk Luna before the sun was completely down. It was a lot, particularly when the gate malfunctioned on the first morning requiring urgent repairs while the controller screeched into the otherwise silent morning. Sorry, neighbors.
Because Joulee the Free Salvage Tesla had made the hour-long drive to a friend’s farm on Friday and then was out at CERT training all day while the sun was shining on Saturday, by Sunday she was out of power and I had to take the truck. Not that there’s anything wrong with Timmy the Titan, but it’s just not as relaxing a driving experience.
So I got to drag a lot of simulated disaster victims out of a building, triage and provide first aid, review and learn a lot of stuff, and yes, wrestle a fire hose. I also found that the chickens (probably the rooster) had killed a mongoose which I had to clean up and two of the sheep (Vinda and Lu) managed to stick their necks in the same slot in the hay feeder and get hopelessly tangled up. Detangling the sheep and handling the mongoose corpse felt like just more CERT intervention.
Now I have a sore back and am mightily tired, even though I mostly rested today. Sure, it wasn’t as harrowing as some days of medical training, but I’m out of condition.
I would not want to dissuade anyone from doing CERT training, but do it when you can get some support with your activities of daily living while you’re doing the intense in-person part — and maybe find training that is within fifty miles or so of home.
—2p