11) I’m making a list, and checking it… obsessively.

So this is what I’m packing now.

Bedtime bag:

This a water resistant bag I keep hooked to a ring on a dog collar around my ankle when I'm sleeping. Which is annoying as hell when you are trying to get to sleep, but I've gotten used to it.

I also keep it within reach while I’m in the shower in the hope I’ll have a second to grab it if the world starts vanishing around me. Which is why I went with a waterproof bag.

1 - Survival knife with five matches, a coil of fishing line, two hooks, and a sinker in the handle.

I would also like to put a strip of microfilm in there since I could wrap it around the inside of the hollow handle, but I’m not sure what to put on it, or how to get it made. The technology isn’t something in common use anymore.

2 - Emergency foil blanket

3 - Survival Multitool with a ridiculous number of things that folded out of it.

4 – Three plain gold wedding bands, one silver, and 1 Iron nail ring.

Fairies, you just know they’re out there.

5 – My phone which I have filled up with useful files and books.

The power on my phone won’t last long, even if it survived being transferred to another world, and then works in that world, but transferring the files over to it was easy enough it seemed to be the effort.

Everything in the bag either ends up in one of my pockets, hanging from my belt, strapped to my leg, or on my finger as I get dressed in the morning, and then back into the bag and on my ankle at night.

It lets me sleep.

In addition, once I’m up and about I’m always wearing a good set of boots and a belt with some coins sewn in between the layers.

The Ready2go bag.

Alex Fierraro sent me one of the leather messenger bags he had made up. It’s a nice sturdy thing stained a light brown with the Ready2go logo branded on the flap.

I pretty much either have it hanging from my shoulder or in my hand all day long.

Inside-

1 – Survival axe with fold out 6” saw blade.

Not the best axe for throwing, but if I do need to throw it at something, I'm pretty sure it would hurt. It also has a bunch of tools built in like a nail prier and slots for turning a hex nut, but most of it would not be all that useful in a fantasy world.

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2- Tablet computer with a good battery and extra memory.

Loaded up with much of the same files as my phone, along with a large number of videos, both useful and for entertainment. As well as a lot of novels.

3 – USB Plug in solar panels.

Doesn't do much, but it can be clipped onto the bag and help keep the tablet charged up when I’m not using it.

4 – Hand cranked USB recharger.

Also takes forever to charge anything up, but it works when the sun don’t shine.

5 – Adapter cord to use the above on my phone.

6 – 4 boxes of waterproof matches and a chunk of flint with a striker in case I end up somewhere that matches don’t work.

7 – Road flare.

8 – Meal Ready to Eat. Torn open to take up less room. Pork with sauce and rice.

9 – Aluminum drink bottle. Filled.

10 – Water purification straw.

11 – Laminated pages from Ready2go with inventions and chemical recipes.

12 – Laminated photos.

My Mom, and some other people whose faces I don’t want to forget. Including my own in case I end up getting put in a new body.

13 – First aide pack. Sutures, antibiotic, knock off Tylenol, sterile gaze pads, alcohol wipes.

14 – Other loose stuff. Half a roll of toilet paper, a small roll of duct tape, and some hard candy.

15 - .45 Cimarron Thunderer with a belt holster and 60 bullets.

Atsmemum had posted in the forum about getting a legacy caliber to make it possible to do reloads with black powder, so I went looking for something that shot a .45 caliber bullet, and there was something about the Thunderer that just looked… lethal.

It looked like something that was made to fit into the hand of someone with no interest in playing fair or giving someone a second chance after they did something to make you point it at them.

I guess that just appealed to me.

So far, that's it. I got a limit not only in what I'm packing in the bag but how much weight I'm going to haul around,

The Oh Shit bag.

This is the large duffel bag I got sitting in my living room, or the trunk of my car. Just in case I got more than a few seconds warning that it's time.

1 – 6 bottles of water

2 – 6 MREs

3 – Backpacker dome tent.

4 – Insulated flannel coat

5 – Jeans, tee shirt, 2 pairs of underwear and socks. All are in zip lock bags to keep them dry.

6 – Pump action shotgun and 24 rounds of solid shot, 12 of buckshot.

7 - Zip lock bags of garden seeds, bulbs, and roots.

8 – Laminated pages of useful information downloaded from the Ready2go site.

9 - .38 revolver and 3 boxes of 20 bullets.

I had picked the .38 up first while looking for something better, so I thought I might as well throw it in since the weight in this bag isn't as much of a concern.

In addition, I had a lot more of the stuff from the Ready2go pack such as the toilet paper and straws, as well as a more extensive pack of first aid supplies.

All in all, as I came back from the airport, I was about as ready to go off to live in another world as I could be.

Instead, someone from another world came here to live with me.

Addendum:

So yeah, forgot the little black triple AAA battery LED flashlight that goes in the bed bag, and in my pocket when I'm awake. Its light is a little wan, but it doesn't have a bulb to burn out.

Is Wan too obscure of a word to use nowadays? It means pale and weak and it seems to describe the sort of blueish light LEDs give out exactly. At least in comparison to someone who grew up with the yellowish light you get from incandescent bulbs.

So atsmemum, made some suggestions in the comments that made me realize that everything I packed is either short term stuff, to keep me alive for the first day or so, or long term, to help me thrive in a new world.

What I’m a little short is stuff to keep me alive in the middle of nowhere for what might be weeks, months, or years.

So:

1) Two plastic pickle buckets with snap on lids for carrying stuff including water.

2) On order, a stainless steel mess kit with a frying pan with a fold out handle, a deep sided plate the same size, a pot with a handle and a lid, and a plastic cup.

I plan to replace the cup with something metal and will add a few carabiners to hold the pot above a fire and I'm sure there will be other uses for them.

Might as well add a scrubber pad and a small bottle of dish soap as well.

3) A coil of cotton string, and two fifty foot long coils of nylon rope.

4) An axe head. No handle, I can attach something to it later on.

5) A folding camp shovel with a pick on the back of the shovel head.

6) A one-pound box of one and five eights inch drywall nails.

At this point, the Oh Shit bag is about at the limit of what I can haul in and out of my car's trunk let alone haul around in a wilderness. So adding anything else means something else has to come out.