It was a seemingly ordinary February day. I got up, took my son to school, went to work, finished my projects with a great sense of accomplishment, and headed to pick up my son before returning home.

Excited to get the family gathered back together, eat dinner, and relax, my son and I proceeded onto the road. It didn’t take more than a few minutes, however, to realize this was not going to be our typical drive home.

Just as we got onto the freeway, traffic started to jam. Actually, jam is a radical understatement; traffic was more akin to a parking lot. One minute we were driving along and the next minute everything came to an abrupt halt.

I turned on the radio and found out the reason for our state of being was a snow pickup to the north of our location. Instead of a usual run-of-the-mill snow fall that slows traffic but keeps people moving, wind caused whiteout conditions which jammed traffic for entire city lengths. In fact, several main highways and roads were completely closed due to the severe weather. And because nobody could have predicted the traffic entanglement, school busses, commuters, and families were all involved in the mess. Nobody was spared.

Hoping for the situation to improve (it couldn’t really get worse), I called my husband and told him we’d be home a little late— but probably not too late. We were, after all, less than 5 miles away.

Three hours later we were still two miles from home. Just to give you an idea of the agonizingly slow commute: At one point I called my mom to express my frustration. When I called her I was one mile from the freeway exit I needed to take. It took almost two hours to get to the ½ mile point. This was not a fun drive!

At several times throughout the night, police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances needed to pass through. With a great deal of effort, we all moved over and they safely got by. Much to my dismay, several people tailed these vehicles to edge ahead of the tumult of cars (which made me furious).

At this point I was feeling quite helpless and despair was sinking into the pit of my stomach. Somehow the original mess had become even worse and we were moving slower than ever.

And that’s when my son started crying.

Have you ever been in a car with frazzled nerves, just trying to make it through the drive? Have you ever had a screaming child thrown into that mix? Welcome to my life!

I have a tendency to get frustrated in traffic. I feel like most people are only out for themselves and will do almost anything to get even one or two car lengths ahead (seriously, how much is that going to help?). Anyway, I was about ready to kill everyone else on the road. And the crying wasn’t helping—at all.

But my sweet baby boy wasn’t asking to get out of the car or even if we were almost home. Not one complaint about our horrible situation was coming from his mouth. Heartbreakingly, the only thing he wanted was something to drink. He would have taken either milk or water (I’ve found it’s rare to have an actual choice of what kids will take). To my devastation, I had NOTHING to give him. The despair sunk deeper as I contemplated whether or not to pull over to grab him some snow. I ultimately decided against this as I had nothing that could have contained snow. Also, side-of-the-road snow doesn’t usually stay clean for long.

Fortunately, I had my son’s blanket and favorite stuffed animal. And although these items weren’t what he actually wanted, they calmed him down enough for the rest of the drive home.

After driving for a grand total of five hours, we pulled into our driveway.

Why, you might ask, am I telling this story? Because it taught me a valuable lesson: Emergencies don’t always entail massive amounts of devastation. I would categorize that night as an emergency. It took hours for thousands of people to get home; some people never even made it. Hundreds of students ended up either stranded on their busses or sleeping at school, and road closures caused many others to sleep in hotels and cars.

I now carry water in my car at all times along with a few basic emergency supplies. I never could have predicted getting caught in the situation my son and I ended up in, but I will never be unprepared if something similar happens again.

We often experience bumps in our lives; seldom do we get warning that they will occur. So all we can do is prepare. Preparing yourself for emergency situations away from home, no matter how drastic they may be, will give you peace of mind should you find yourself in a circumstance such as mine.

Last week I ran out to get milk, eggs, and orange juice. I noticed my tank was running a little low, but I decided to hit the gas station on my way home. By the time I got to the pump, gas was .05 higher than when I first passed by—seriously!

Sound like a familiar story?

Unfortunately, it seems that our days of low—or at least reasonable—gas prices may be over. Crude oil reached a new record high of over $125 a barrel last week. That is an increase of 150% over the last five years; it is also higher than the oil spike in the late 1970’s that followed the Iranian revolution.

Of course, we are all feeling a painful bite in our checkbooks. The dollar is weakening, wages are relatively stagnant, and the price of everything around us is constantly rising.

To make matters worse, go ahead and take a look at your immediate surroundings. Almost everything you see is petroleum based, from your carpet….to your fence…to your car’s tires. And unless you’re closet is exclusively stuffed with rarely found U.S-made garments, most of the clothes you own burned through a fair amount of oil to reach you. It’s fair to say that oil directly affects pretty much everything we do. Are you eating a hot dog? Oil was involved! Are you doing your laundry? Yep—oil touched everything there too.

Although I’d love to think otherwise, our oil dependence isn’t going anywhere. Even if we develop alternative energy sources (which will inevitably pose thier own set of problems), oil will most likely continue to have a large bearing on our everyday lives.

The recent spike in oil prices has caused harsh consequences both at home and abroad. As prices continue to rise (we can’t have the oil companies’ cutting back on profits), those consequences will have considerably far-reaching effects.

Luckily, the U.S. hasn’t experienced any major food shortages yet. But don’t get too relaxed; our oil dependence has caused damage in many other areas of our lives. For example, record-breaking prices have resulted in job cutbacks and delayed construction projects.

As discussed earlier, petroleum is a part of almost everything. Because of severely high production costs, a record number of manufacturing plants have recently announced cutbacks and layoffs. Many loyal, lifelong employees have been kindly invited to vacate the premises and start over. My question is: How do you start from scratch after decades of service?

Many local and state governments have also started to cut back or delay construction projects because asphalt is—you guessed it—petroleum based. Remember last’s years Mississippi Bridge collapse? I wonder if cutbacks in construction will cause similar problems. And what of those pesky potholes we all swerve to avoid? Well, watch out! They might be around for a while.

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If you think things seem bad here, remember the pain we’re feeling is nothing compared to the trials many of our brothers and sisters are facing around the globe.

Oil has contributed to skyrocketing food prices worldwide. Of course, oil alone is not responsible for shortages. It does, however, play a large role in the harvest, cultivation, and transport of staple foods. The demand for these foods has done nothing but rise with the population and economic growth of other countries. With shortages already underway, the amount of people who have access and the means to obtain basic foods has started to dwindle. To make matters worse, livestock, who also eat a large amount of grain, have been affected as well.

The riots we’ve been hearing about at a rising rate are a bit more understandable when the potential consequences of severe food shortages are realized.

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The political effects of oil are producing red flags all over the world, too.

Take Saudi Arabia, for example. While many of us are hoping to be able to afford our next trip to the gas station, the Arabian Peninsula is flowing with oil money. And, as we all know, he who has the money has the power. This means the Arabs will begin to have a large global influence in the political realm. While nobody can know for sure what they will do with this influence, if the past is any indication, they may start to buy the loyalties of dissidents and scattered tribes.

For us, a large rise in Saudi power will result in even more dependence on the Saudi’s, their oil, and their money. The latter may be the most concerning because if the Saudi’s start to invest in global real estate markets and equity firms, many of us will have no choice but to answer to big power half a world away.

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I can’t help but feel a little depressed every time I make a purchase of any kind. Sticking to a budget is hard enough without having to worry about prices rising hourly. Our family’s moderate grocery and gas budgets have almost doubled in the past few months. And since we don’t have a choice on these two items, other parts of our budget have been gobbled up. No more luxury purchases for us…..

Perhaps the most depressing thing about all of this is we are all helpless when it comes to oil and food prices. And it’s not like we can trade a good attitude for lower gas prices. We are being forced to roll with the punches….and there’s no end in sight.

Perhaps the only good thing about this is we have the opportunity to prepare for worsening conditions. We haven’t been dealt such a huge blow that we can’t recover at this point. We can grow our own gardens, build up a large supply of food, and preserve oil and gas by staying in more often.

We still have the ability to plan for the future, but the time to do this is now. If we wait until food and oil prices are so high that we have to choose between heating our houses and feeding our children, it may be too late to create a good preparedness plan.

My best advice is:

· Don’t panic! Create a plan that works for your family and stick to it.

· Start small. YOUR EMERGENCY PLAN SHOUL NOT INVOLVE GOING INTO DEBT.

· Keep your debts at a minimum, and, if possible, save something every month.

· Use your food storage as much as possible. This will keep your food and gas costs down.

NOTE: Although the subject is not directly related to this entry, I can’t ignore my urge to include the following information.

The three largest U.S. oil companies reported another record profit year for 2007. ExxonMobil announced a profit margin of $40.6 billion, Chevron’s profits totaled $18.7 billion, and Conoco took a profit of $11.9 billion. These companies have also been using much of this profit to buy back their own stock, which, of course, jacks prices up even more.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, harsh weather conditions caused a crop shortage. The crops that were left were in short supply, and with growing demand, prices began to increase. This left many people wondering how they were going to afford many basic foods.

On the other side of the world…

Media-induced panic no longer comes as a shock to me. In their quest for viewers and readers, the media often irresponsibly incites mass hysteria. You may recall the epidemic of Bird Flu that was rumored to kill us all and the SARS scare that kept so many people indoors…

Did you know that Bird Flu has killed less than 250 people in the last five years? And that SARS is responsible for less than 800 deaths? Malaria, on the other hand, is responsible for approximately 3 million deaths per year, as are diarrheal diseases. The simple truth is that you are more at risk of a getting hit by a car or being struck by lightening than you are of contracting either one of these diseases.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t worry about bad things happening. Worry keeps us in check; it helps improve our judgment in the face of danger. But raw panic without reason makes every situation worse.

Since the media is always looking for the next best scare, I would like to announce: The Food Storage Panic of 2008

The background story

Australia, one of the largest worldwide distributors of wheat and rice, has been suffering through a seemingly never-ending drought. Where rice and wheat fields once flourished, only dry dirt remains. Over the past few years, this has caused a decrease in 98% of Australia’s rice and wheat.

As exports have lessened, demand has significantly increased. Coupled with rising oil and commodity prices, the amount of available grains has caused quite a stir in several countries.

Fortunately for the U.S., wheat, rice, and other staples are thriving. Our market has had no problem keeping up with demand—until the mass hysteria started.

The problem

When the media equated Australia’s problems with a worldwide epidemic, we all started rushing to the grocery store to fill our shelves with the things the media told us we need most. Distributors, not planning on such a high demand, have become backed up on outstanding orders. In the spirit of keeping a loyal customer base, retailers have begun to place purchase limits on certain grains, not because of a food shortage, but because of a distribution deficiency and an inability to predict the sudden increase in demand.

Luckily, our outlook is bright. Grain manufacturers are working double-time and limits on food are certain to be short lived.

Let’s take this a step further

Even though we are not actually in a state where food is scarce, what would happen to you if the situation we have been recently scared into believing was true? What if there was a worldwide drought and wheat, rice, oats, and other staples were unavailable to the masses?

Would you be prepared? Would your cupboards be full, or would you find yourself looking into the eyes your hungry children trying to explain how the last bag of rice was clawed out of your hands at the empty grocery store?

Like I mentioned earlier, worrying can be good, but having knowledge and information is better. Are you prepared for hard times? Are you aware of your preparation options? Panic is never the right answer, so take a deep breath and create a good plan.