I might end up involving the Pi, but someone must make one that works.

I will deal with it because I have to – it is that simple.

If you work and train long enough, you accumulate solutions that will work for almost any problem with reasonable modifications.

The military trains in conditions as close as to real as possible so people don’t panic when faced with the real thing. Some forms of training are actually worse than what you may face, which is why some of the exercises are called ‘confidence courses”. Back in the 18th century Russian General Suvorov established the maxim: ‘Train hard to fight easy’, and it is still true.

Most people avoid thinking about the worst, so they can’t even deal with mildly annoying. It’s amazing, especially down here in hurricane country. People who can’t be trusted with a butter knife are out and about with chainsaws. It’s nature’s way of improving the species.

sounds like a raspberry pi project to me! wire up your raspberry pi to some kind of listening gadget that will hear when the alarm goes off, then have it text you or call your cell phone. see, easy as pie! 😀

I remember my teams first assignment, an island somewhere in Oceania. I had to attend several planning sessions with my 2nd, and several briefings. Updates on the trouble spot, which I could see changed daily. And not in good ways. I was pretty nervous I can assure you! As it happened, it all went quite smoothly. We were well trained, and once on mission, all that training took over. We rounded up the local troublemakers without a shot being fired (and they had a reasonable assortment of nasty weapons, though mostly old AK’s and the like. We did it by the numbers at night. We only used a single round for the mission. A bullet to the thigh of the lead troublemaker to get the message across, to make sure he knew I wasn’t messing about and he’d better do what I said! 😉 😀

Then, we were sent to Cambodia. And all the planning was well-and-truly out the window on day one. I am still not entirely sure how most of my small team survived a year there, even with an extra SAS security force (if not for which, I would surly be dead.) When we were not on a mission, we were constantly training and running possible scenarios (war games). It saved us. I learned that I NEVER ever wanted to go on another UN *Peacekeeping* mission again! The rules changed often, and sometimes contradicted our standing orders and even RoE (rules of engagement) a common problem with a multinational force that is hurriedly thrown together, as well as the language problems! Several times when I was on target and had to call for confirmation, I’d be told to stand down. After weeks of planning, and usually several days scouting and getting to the target zone, we’d get called off. Twice that happened, and a week or so later we were told to find that same target, which was much more difficult the 2nd time around! When you have to watch out for foe’s & *friends* causing problems, planning for *whatever happens* get’s pretty difficult.
/rant

Anyway, I’m sure you know how it is m8. *shrug*

Good luck, and best wishes to your Mom and family. 🙂 I know you’ll handle things OK. 🙂

I’m afraid that in the next few decades, the opportunities for emergency responders to prove themselves are only going to become more and more frequent. As for coast dwellers, we’d better get good at dog-paddling around the house as it sinks beneath the waves…

Thinking positive thoughts toward your mother.

As you know, once you’re on the mission, you had better be ready for whatever happens.

Our problem is that these are major lines that don’t lend themselves to being buried. They tend to caused explosions when they get flooded in conduits by vaporizing the water. They are also a major problem to repair.

As said before Bryan, our training does have some benefits. Especially in disaster planning. When Mom had cancer and I had to deal with everything, I went into a kind of *paranoid* mode and planned for just about everything (just short of such things as an alien spacecraft crashing into the house, though I could have gotten some black-market stingers to cover that! 😈 😉 yeah, where a loved one is concerned, we do tend to go a bit farther than would be considered normal (or *sane* by many, until something that could have been prevented happens to them of course. Then you get the “Why didn’t you tell me?!”) Which is the point when I walk away (generally thinking “Serves you right, idiot”). Another *benefit* of our backgrounds is a low tolerance for fools. 😉

Well done, but not surprising. 🙂 I’m sure you have other trials ahead, and you will handle them equally well. Again, I wish I could be of some use.

Cheers m8. 🙂

my present abode, like my previous one, is just a hop-skip-jump from a major road, but at least on this road the big old oak trees got there before the power lines did. the power outages since I’ve moved are still annoyingly frequent but maybe half what they were in the old place. at least now the lightning strikes outnumber the car strikes.

keeping my fingers crossed for your mom.

When you live on the Gulf Coast, you have to assume electrical outages, and make provisions for them. The tanks are fine for short term outages, but you need a long term solution as well. Always have a back-up plan ready to go.