The specific email I received this morning informs us that a police officer advised folks in his jurisdiction to use wasp spray in place of pepper spray because it was not only cheaper, but sprayed farther and would be useful to stop an attacker without them getting within physical range.

Now, the worst part about this email is that it is totally true. A police officer really did suggest this, and because of that many people will take it at face-value as information they can directly use.

That’s where you get into trouble. Here in Florida, to use a can of wasp spray in place of pepper spray is ILLEGAL. See Florida Statutes – specifically section 3, part b -”Tear gas gun” or “chemical weapon or device” means any weapon of such nature, except a device known as a “self-defense chemical spray.” “Self-defense chemical spray” means a device carried solely for purposes of lawful self-defense that is compact in size, designed to be carried on or about the person, and contains not more than two ounces of chemical.

Not only is a can of wasp spray not compact in size or designed to be carried “on or about the person”, it contains potentially more than 2 ounces of active chemicals, depending on brand. There are several states throughout our country that have similar pepper-spray laws and some municipalities ban the use of it completely. If one were to take this email at face-value because they don’t realize laws are not uniform, they could be getting themselves into a huge amount of trouble.

The second troubling aspect of this suggestion, even if you live in an area that would legally support using something other than pepper spray, is that wasp spray contains Pyrethrin. That chemical is known to be hazardous to humans and wasp spray cans are labeled such. There is also the warning that comes first on the can – “It is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with it’s labeling” – of which spraying a human for the purposes of self-defense certainly is.

Perhaps in our very busy lives, we have stopped questioning so much out of sheer desperation and time-management. If it sounds legit on a first-read and it came from a source you personally trust, you let it go. That might be easier and cut-down on the amount of time you spend at work surfing for information possibly not relevant to your job. However, checking facts like this saves much more than time. Would you want to pass this on to a relative and have them be sued? Would they then turn around and sue you because you told them it was ‘ok’? Whatever the time costs may be, I submit they are still worth it. If you get information like this, the best thing you can do is sit on it until you have a chance to verify the accuracy. I have come across a few emails that were legit, and I then sent them on. Many emails, however, contain false-truths, urban myths or downright dangerous information that to someone un-educated in that field, might sound reasonable. A little research goes a long way toward not only stopping the proliferation of false information, but perhaps keeping someone you care about from being hurt.
And while we’re on the subject, most emails that have a call to action involving emailing a certain number of friends or else you won’t win the lottery, or worse, you’ll be a terrible friend and it shows you don’t love them – aren’t going to change the world. They’ll just junk-up someone else’s inbox.

Everyone wants to feel safe – we install security systems, cameras and other gadgets to try and protect our families and property. All the gadgets in the world, however, need maintenance! So if you haven’t done it already, go around and change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. It really could be a matter of life or death.

After the storm passes, what do I do?

Hopefully, if a hurricane does hit, you’ll be fine. That’s always our wish! However, let’s say you’re not. Nothing catastrophic, no trees on your roof or lawn furniture through your window. But, lets say you suffered what we personally suffered back in 2004 during Charlie, I think it was. At that time, we still had some undeveloped land at the end of our street, and a power pole was knocked-down along with a tree. Since we were certainly not the only ones without power, and as we later heard, out-of-state crews were having difficulty finding neighborhoods; we were without power for close to a week. Did I mention? We run our business from our home. Without a disaster operation plan, many folks in our same situation – even companies who could loose their storefronts, could be in for a very rough ride. How do you operate? Where would you go? How would employees work if their homes were fine, but roads were cut-off and they couldn’t come in? It’s that question I explore here.

1) From backup to Back Up
In my initial post, I mentioned backing-up your data. This is obviously an attempt to keep your valuable information, personal or business, from being lost. What do you do, however, if you can’t get it right back on your own machines? Obviously, smooth operations are the key to surviving in a post-traumatic environment. The easier and faster you can get back to ‘normal’ for your employees and customers, the more they will appreciate you. One way is to have a secondary site picked-out. In our case, we invaded the spare bedroom of a friend, and in the immediate, charged our cellphones at a neighbor’s home on another block. If your business is less mobile, you may consider having your employees telecommute. Paying for a local company to backup your servers at a secure facility and having web-accessible software options for your salespeople and even management, will allow your business to continue on with minimal interruption. For home users, the explosion of social media offers another refuge in the storm. If your relatives want to contact you and phone lines are down and the cell towers are jammed, you might be able to get online at a friend’s home and post your status on Facebook. If you’re sitting on the fence wondering why you’d ever use a site like that – there you go!

2) Have some low-tech options available
We are as guilty as the next people about not having paper backups. Especially now, the push is to be ‘green’ and that means using less paper. Maybe you don’t need to print-out every single interaction, but at the very least, have a recent phone list for both your employees and customers. Go old-school: get a three-ring binder, print out a neat list in Excel or equivalent program, hole-punch and insert. Depending on the database you use, it should be as simple as exporting your contact list as a .csv file. If you are a small business like we are, sync your contact data with your PDA or Smartphone. That way even if you can’t get to a computer, at least you’ll know it’s a customer calling and your people can still make calls to current prospects. Paper work orders, even if they are just kept for emergencies, will help in the field to ensure everything is covered. Make sure they are up-to-date with your correct address, phone # and any appropriate information-gathering fields are relevant. For the homeowner, having a three-ring binder at all times with up-to-date contact information, insurance policies and phone numbers (home/car/health), health information if relevant and any other information specific to your situation is vital. (Pet photos, nursing home info, etc) If you need to go to a shelter, for example, the last thing you want to be thinking is ‘how do I even contact my insurance company?’

3) Prepare for the worst – hope for the best
None of us want to believe a storm will hit. “That, won’t happen to me“, we say. Every time we see folks on the news, spray hitting their backs or water creeping up their porch, as they stubbornly speak with a reporter about how they just can’t leave their home and belongings.
Can I say this? Don’t be an idiot. Prepare now. Prepare on an off-year, tweak the plan where appropriate and stick with it. Don’t get lazy! The one year you say ‘oh, yeah we’re fine. It hasn’t happened yet’ will be the year you could have used that disaster plan. There’s this guy named Murphy – I’m sure you’ve heard of him. If he’s going to have the last laugh? Don’t let it be at your expense.

“When most people think about deforestation, they think about the Amazon or even Central America,” said the Fund’s Louisiana state director, Ray Herndon. “What they may not know is that we have lost more than 24 million acres of bottomland, hardwood forest over the last century along the lower Mississippi River valley. Habitat destruction is more pronounced here than in any other area of the United States.”

The first iPhorest “grove” will sprout in Louisiana’s Boeuf Wildlife Management Area and will be managed by a team of foresters and biologists with Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The group aims to restore as much as 100 acres of forestland here.

Forest restoration along the lower Mississippi River Valley is now one of The Conservation Fund’s highest priorities and requires a creative mix of public and private financing. Opportunities like the iPhorest mean more exposure, and money to get trees in the ground.

The iPhorest application can be downloaded at the Apple Store or at iPhorest.com. To keep updated on the project in Louisiana, subscribe to The Conservation Fund newsletter, or follow them on Facebook.

The reality is electronics are delicate things. Even if we just get some heavy rain (much like we just had this past week) it can wreak havoc on un-protected systems. So, even though I can’t force you to be prepared for the worst a storm can bring I can give you advice on what you can do to ride-out this hurricane season while keeping your equipment as safe as possible.

• Check your surge protection/UPS – when did you buy, or have installed, the strips connected to your TV & components? Your camera system? Your computer(s)/phone system? If the answer was anything short of ‘a couple months ago’ start looking for sales and upgrade! It only takes one hit to ruin a surge surpressor. Unless you’ve got some serious backup, it’s definitely time to change it out before you get nailed and it doesn’t protect your sensitive equipment! Heck, if it’s a really good deal – buy two. **Note: Those ‘guarantees’ that come with some surge protectors will require pictures of the equipment you have, possibly serial #’s and they are very strict about how things must be plugged-in. If you’ve had it for a couple years and you get burned, don’t expect that warranty money!

• Backup your computer’s information – This is something we should all do at least once-a-month for personal computers, and daily or weekly for business. If it’s not something you’ve done before, or are spotty about keeping up with it yourself, consider one of the many online services that will backup your data for you, automatically. We use LiveDrive, which is located in the UK. Isn’t the internet great?! There are other companies as well – another popular choice here in the states is Carbonite – no matter if you do it yourself using a CD writer or external drive, or use a service to backup your data: start doing it now! If you get a surge or strike that hits your internet source (cable or DSL) it can fry your system and leave you starting over.

• Check any outdoor equipment and be prepared to bring it in – The cameras we provide are weatherproof with tight housings. If you purchased cameras yourself in a kit, it might be a good idea to take a look after it rains and make sure the housing is still in good condition. If you are getting a ‘fuzzy’ picture on your TV or DVR, there could be condensation in the lens and your camera isn’t as weather/waterproof as you might have thought! Also don’t forget about outdoor rock/planter speakers. It’s one thing to keep working if it gets some pool water splashed on it. It’s quite another to expect it to survive sustained high-powered winds and driving rain. **If connections will be exposed, put a heavy duty plastic bag around them and secure with duck tape. For extra protection, wrap the ends with electrical tape beforehand.

If you have a generator, now is the time to get it serviced! If you don’t, taking these extra precautions will help you to get through even the smallest of inconveniences with your devices intact. We always hope if a storm does develop it will miss us! But Mother Nature is un-predictable and it’s better to be prepared than sorry.
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But, for the rest of us – aren’t you just a little bit sick of the game? After all, how many different versions of the same movie do you want to buy in your lifetime? Personally, I’ve still not replaced the original Star Wars movies with the DVD set. I owned three – yes, three different versions on VHS. I wasn’t about to go hopping to DVD and then find out they re-mastered, re-vamped and re-released it again. And that’s just for older films. What about the DVD you bought a couple weeks before Blu-Ray was available?! Do you now feel cheated? Have the urge to go out and spend several hundred dollars on a new DVD player so you can get what everyone else has? I hope not. If this economic crisis has taught us anything, it’s to appreciate what we have. From leftovers in the fridge becoming lunch to the backyard becoming a family weekend destination once again, we are all in a mindset of enjoying what is already around us.

Of course, you argue, eventually you’ll be forced to upgrade. The manufacturers will play some dirty card like making future players that don’t ‘downgrade’ well. If you want to watch it and not feel like it’s 1959, you’ll buy Blu-Ray discs – right?
Wrong.
The inevitability of the ‘next thing’ is upon us even now. If you are one of the millions with a Netflix or iTunes account, you enjoy it’s benefits and don’t even realize it.
Digital Media. Right now, it might be a confusing term but it shouldn’t be. Just imagine every movie and song you own being completely bought and stored on a computer hard drive. No physical CD/DVD. No cases piling up in the corner. No wondering how big of a movie collection you can get because your wife will kill you if you have all those out in the living room.
Many websites take advantage of this capability, as well. Why order a CD, when you can simply download the software directly? Need instructions? Download the PDF version, instead of waiting weeks for a manual. Computer hardware keeps getting smaller, but the memory storage and speed capability keep getting faster, spurred-on by such hobbies as graphics-heavy online gaming. Your DVR/TiVO is a simple computer – there are just so many examples.

So don’t run to the store for that Blu-Ray player just yet. With more hardware coming out designed specifically to make digital media more accessible, like the Roku streaming Netflix player, you will probably be phasing-out of buying DVD’s and CD’s sooner rather than later. The good news here is, unless they can find a way to beam it directly to your brain, the only thing you’ll have to upgrade in the future should be a hard drive.