Day 6: Digressing From Self to See the World Around Me

Today marks Day 6 on my journey to optimal health. While I am focusing on me, my optimal health, and seeing steady progress, I want to digress a little today. In a roundabout way, I will loop it back to my optimal health journey.

In the last few weeks, August 01, 2017 to today, September 08, 2017, we have been having crazy weather all over the U.S. In my neck of the woods, southern California, we experienced several days of high temperatures well over 100F. It was HOT. I do not do well in hot weather. I fell lazy, sluggish, and all I want to do is sleep in a shaded swimming pool filled with ice cubes. These last seven days have been great! Temperatures have dropped to high 80's and low 90's. It makes a big difference. Other things southern California has experience has been some wild fires. The La Tuna Fire started on September 1st. Today, September 8th, it is about 90% contained. The fire has been burning for 8 days and scorched over 7,000 acres. That fire is about 35 miles away from my home.
We also had severe monsoonal rain. Very short lived but it brought some trees down and made messy streets. That was 10-15 miles away from my home.

If I look a little further out from where I live, I can see Hurricane Harvey (cat 3), Irma (cat 4), and Jose (4). striking Texas, Florida, the Caribbean, ... and laying out a path of destruction. I can see the 8.2 earthquake that hit Mexico and am still hearing about after shocks and threats of possible tsunamis.

Northridge Earthquake 1994

 I live in Southern California and am fortunate to not be experiencing the hurricanes and the earthquakes. Earthquakes are a very possible, relatively speaking, I live right along the San Andreas Fault Line. If an 8.0 earthquake hit, what would I do? I can be fully prepared with food, water, first aid kits, essentials, ... but what good is any of that if my knees hurt so bad I can barely move. Will I be able to "run" to help my kids? Will I end up getting so winded from racing out the door I won't be able to reach my safe destination in time? I know there is the adrenaline rush, but what when it wears off. Will I end up sitting in a wheel chair because I damaged my knee(s) pretty bad that now I am forced to "sit" instead of going out and helping my family and others. I saw images in the after math of Hurricane Harvey sitting in wheelchairs, fully conscious, not hurt being forced to sit and wait for help.

I hope I don't ever have to experience first hand any natural disasters. None the less I want to be able to help my family and others in the event of an emergency. I need more than just my health back, I need to achieve optimal health.