Part 6 - Entertainment

If a Level 3 or 4 outbreak were to occur, as I've mentioned previously, chances are good that we'd lose power. During a prolonged home-defense situation, nerves would get frazzled. Keeping ones mind elsewhere, when not on guard duty, would become very important.

How would you entertain yourself while holed up in your home with no power?... and likely no internet?

Well, as previously mentioned, I'm preparing for the power issue; solar and human dynamo generated power.

Books don't require power, just light to read them (when it's dark). I already own a human powered flashlight. (By the way, we'll be preparing our windows for black-out purposes.) I've also been doing a lot more reading since I've been taking transit to work. So it doesn't hurt to keep buying more books. (I hope the rest of the family likes sci-fi and Tom Clancy books.) Some puzzle books like crosswords or sudoku, would also be good. This book might seem like a good read now, but maybe not during an outbreak.

Our home stereo would be somewhat of a power hog compared to our iMac. The stereo would be good for scanning through the radio waves, but I'd also want a "wind-up" radio; they're portable.

We have several pairs of headphones, so noise won't be an issue.

The iMac, in use, only consumes about 100W. Very easy to accommodate. The iMac plays CDs and DVDs. Most, if not all, of our CDs have already been imported into iTunes. The DVDs, on the other hand, will be finding their way out of the basement and will be stored upstairs. (Out of sight so as to not upset the wife during our current daily lives.) Books will also find their way upstairs from the basement.

I've been collecting a lot of TV shows on DVD, lately.

It doesn't hurt to have educational/reality-based shows, either. For example, I've been watching a lot of Mantracker, Survivorman, and Man Vs. Wild, lately.

Beyond that, we have a few board games, good for family interaction, but they're not suitable for really young children. My daughter got the old board game, Candyland, for Christmas. She can play it over and over and over again. Me? Not so much. We'll have to start including a new board game for the kids each birthday and Christmas.

Puzzles are also a good time-waster. We only have little girl puzzles, so we'll have to look into getting some "big people" puzzles. The more pieces the better.

So, books, music, movies (and TV shows) on disc, puzzles, and radio.

I'd also look into art supplies. Mostly paper and pencil crayons. Keeps the kids busy.

Oh, and back to the iMac. Video games help. Unfortunately, unless you got to a duel-boot configuration, there aren't a lot of games for Apple computers.