>> A rule of thumb I heard was 'stock what you know how to use,' with the possible addition of fancier stuff like CPR masks that could be handed off to anyone in the vicinity who knows CPR. <<
What you or someone else in your group knows how to use; stock for the people you have. If you expect to need something you don't know yet, learn it.
>> I have wondered why folks never seem to declare the 'master suite' with attatched bathroom 'the infirmary suite'... especially in a large house or with a large family.<<
Because you have to go through the bedroom to get there, which is awkward. The common bathroom, unless tiny, is a better choice. Kitchen is another option. Ideally, you want a smooth floor, a sink, and space to move around.
>> Related, I think stores might have better luck finding out about clogged toilets and other embarrassing restroom mishaps if they put up a fine/needs service sign on the door. (Let's face it, whoever reports it is assumed to have messed it up.) <<
Good idea.
At one point, we were meeting somewhere and someone accused our group of having left the bathroom locked with nobody in it. We dealt with that by fetching an employee every time we left and making them verify the door was open. They got tired of that pretty fast and quit bothering us.
I have a half-formed story idea where a the >>Friendly Local Subculture manages to deal with a huge influx of folks by...throwing a potluck party, and putting people up in their disaster bunker/community center. And the official government doesn't notice until they need to find some of the folks being housed, fed, and entertained.<<
Good idea! You should write that, you'd be good at it.
>>I don't envy the problems of the 1800's, but I do envy the fact that when my grandfather was a little boy, he went to these big family reunions with 50-100 people and everyone knew each other and were happy and glad to see each other, and he could have fun playing with a passel of cousins his own age.<<
Yeah, I miss that too. America has gone from extended families to nuclear families to broken families and singles. The result really is not working well. It turns out that loneliness is as lethal as obesity or cigarettes.
>>And official policy is often to call, rather than say drive someone to the ER, because of liability issues. (Source: first aid classes and that one time I had to call 911 for a diabetic emergency where I was volunteering, which is how I learned that they had a policy for that sort of thing.)<<
Official policies are routinely abusive. The problem is, they work once per victim. Someone burned by a $1000 ambulance bill will almost certainly avoid ambulances in the future and will probably tell the horror story to encourage others to avoid it also.
Another example is fire safety advice which often says to abandon your home if there is even a small fire. What happens then? You become homeless and society wants you to die. Better to fight for what you have. Better training would include how to tell if a fire is small enough to fight, how to do that, and when to retreat. Better support would be victim relief funds, counseling, and help recovering from a fire.
So much advice skips the steps where you decide what to do, it tries to force people to make a predetermined ethical decision. But that way lies "just following orders." If people don't develop their decision-making skills, they don't decide, or they make bad choices, and that snowballs into disaster pretty fast. The more decisions society takes away from people, the less safe everyone becomes. Just look at all the bitching about how useless college students are now. It's not their fault they were abused and imprisoned and forcibly prevented from having a life or learning skills. They are blamed for it, but society pays the price.
Re: Thoughts
What you or someone else in your group knows how to use; stock for the people you have. If you expect to need something you don't know yet, learn it.
>> I have wondered why folks never seem to declare the 'master suite' with attatched bathroom 'the infirmary suite'... especially in a large house or with a large family.<<
Because you have to go through the bedroom to get there, which is awkward. The common bathroom, unless tiny, is a better choice. Kitchen is another option. Ideally, you want a smooth floor, a sink, and space to move around.
>> Related, I think stores might have better luck finding out about clogged toilets and other embarrassing restroom mishaps if they put up a fine/needs service sign on the door. (Let's face it, whoever reports it is assumed to have messed it up.) <<
Good idea.
At one point, we were meeting somewhere and someone accused our group of having left the bathroom locked with nobody in it. We dealt with that by fetching an employee every time we left and making them verify the door was open. They got tired of that pretty fast and quit bothering us.
I have a half-formed story idea where a the >>Friendly Local Subculture manages to deal with a huge influx of folks by...throwing a potluck party, and putting people up in their disaster bunker/community center. And the official government doesn't notice until they need to find some of the folks being housed, fed, and entertained.<<
Good idea! You should write that, you'd be good at it.
>>I don't envy the problems of the 1800's, but I do envy the fact that when my grandfather was a little boy, he went to these big family reunions with 50-100 people and everyone knew each other and were happy and glad to see each other, and he could have fun playing with a passel of cousins his own age.<<
Yeah, I miss that too. America has gone from extended families to nuclear families to broken families and singles. The result really is not working well. It turns out that loneliness is as lethal as obesity or cigarettes.
>>And official policy is often to call, rather than say drive someone to the ER, because of liability issues. (Source: first aid classes and that one time I had to call 911 for a diabetic emergency where I was volunteering, which is how I learned that they had a policy for that sort of thing.)<<
Official policies are routinely abusive. The problem is, they work once per victim. Someone burned by a $1000 ambulance bill will almost certainly avoid ambulances in the future and will probably tell the horror story to encourage others to avoid it also.
Another example is fire safety advice which often says to abandon your home if there is even a small fire. What happens then? You become homeless and society wants you to die. Better to fight for what you have. Better training would include how to tell if a fire is small enough to fight, how to do that, and when to retreat. Better support would be victim relief funds, counseling, and help recovering from a fire.
So much advice skips the steps where you decide what to do, it tries to force people to make a predetermined ethical decision. But that way lies "just following orders." If people don't develop their decision-making skills, they don't decide, or they make bad choices, and that snowballs into disaster pretty fast. The more decisions society takes away from people, the less safe everyone becomes. Just look at all the bitching about how useless college students are now. It's not their fault they were abused and imprisoned and forcibly prevented from having a life or learning skills. They are blamed for it, but society pays the price.