Three Tips for Tuesday: Code Words, Sunglasses, and Fire Escape Plans
What are code words, and why are they useful?
There are many good reasons to have code words setup in advance with your immediate family. A code word is a single word you use to quickly and easily communicate something vital to a loved one. My family for example has a code word that our children are told. Then that code word is kept a secret.
If we need to have our children picked up by someone other than us due to an emergency, the person picking them up has to provide the code word. They don't know the code word? Our children respond as if the person is a potential kidnapper instead of cooperating. If the word is used, make a new one.
I also have two other code words that my family knows. If I see something near me that could be dangerous, I will say, "alert." Saying it makes my family aware of a potential danger. It means for them to get behind me, and it also means they should look for cover. The second code word is, not surprisingly, "cover." If I ever say cover, that means my gun is coming out. My gun will never come out unless someone needs to die immediately.
Sunglasses are bad for you in general, but Private Investigators love them.
Your body's natural reaction to the sun is determined by what your eyes detect. If your eyes detect darkness, your body assumes you're in the dark. Quick Google searches for this biological response are not helpful, so do more thorough research to confirm the truth behind it. Regardless, I only wear sunglasses when I have no other choice due to glare while driving or while doing surveillance work.
As you control the camera recording them, your eyes will go back and forth from the camera to the subjects over and over. No one near you will notice those eye movements though because of the sunglasses. Now when you go out in public, pay closer attention to who wears opaque and reflective sunglasses. This trick is great for people watching in general too!
Make sure you have a fire escape plan for your family.
It does not have to be a complicated plan, but children should be taught at least a few simple things. A rally point should be setup, and then they know to go there and wait. In addition to a rally point, they should be told to never go back in the house no matter what happens. Leave the heroics to the adults and first responders!
For children too young to go down a ladder, make sure you have a large duffle bag or similar container to place them in positioned near the escape ladder. Have a rope already attached to the bag or container to lower them to the ground. You do not want to be trying to hold your baby while you escape a fire! The bag can also be used for your family pets.
I wrote about fire extinguishers in a previous post. Make sure all rooms in your house that have a high fire risk have a fire extinguisher within them. Those rooms usually include the kitchen, any place with kerosene or similar space heaters, and rooms with fire places or wood stoves. I keep one in the master bedroom to fight my way through a fire to get to my children's rooms as well.
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These are great tips to know. Thanks for sharing this. We have a system of where to meet up in case of a disaster. But, especially since we do live in an area where both natural and man-made disasters can happen, a little prep goes a long ways. As we continue to make our contingency plans I am going to suggest the secret word.
Thanks! Other rally points are a great addition to the above list of tips. I also keep pictures of all of my children on me at all times, and I even have an old license of my wife. That way I can show them to someone and say, "Have you seen this person?"
Funny you mention that. I was just thinking yesterday how I really should have pictures of my mom and son. (My mom doesn't speak any Spanish - even though we live in Colombia)
A while back I reserved disasterbracelets.com for one of my many crazy ideas. There are medical bracelets and similar, but I wanted to make snap bracelets for kids that had their parent's phone numbers, etc.
Then if separated in a large public gathering like Disney World, people finding the child can more easily reunited them with the parents.
They would work well for disasters too.
You would go to a webpage, upload pictures for the outside of the band and info for the inside. Then friends could make friendship bracelets as gifts and families could make disaster bracelets.
The disaster bracelets would allow you to put passport type photos on them.
I just never did much with the idea.
When my son is bigger I could do something like that. Right now he won't wear bracelets. I need to put a leash on him...
Schools had to ban the snap bracelets for a while because of trouble with them, but now they are allowed again. Kids usually love them, and you'll see them given out at fairs and such. He might wear one if you had pictures of his favorite super heroes and other cool things on it.
I'm assuming that you open carry. NJ will not make that available to the general population, something like 1000 permits are currently issued. I would very much enjoy, not feeling a criminal, if I choose to keep a weapon near me.
I conceal carry to keep criminals guessing and cowardly agents from harassing or killing me.