What would you do if the electricity in your entire state when out for months or even years? Are you prepared? 99.9% of us are not.

Some people would call me a “prepper.” But what does that really mean? Some think preppers are kooks who hoard thousands of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of pounds of rice and beans, dozens of barrels of water, and have a 1500 square foot, underground shelter in the woods. Admittedly, these kooks are the .1% who (along with most Amish) would be fine in the event I mentioned above.

Maybe the name “prepper” has been spoiled by some cable shows which thrive off of putting the kookiest kooks on display. But am I a prepper? I don’t have a bunker with years worth of food and water, but I do have a box in my closet with a few weeks worth of toilet paper and Clif Bars.

You might ask why. Well, turns out that our modern life is pretty fragile. Ask the people who survived hurricane Katrina or Sandy how quickly your life can devolve when a few basic services are taken away. But I live in North Texas! (I hear you say.) There are no hurricanes here! Okay, but say a tornado hits your local power plant. Or a flood destroys your local water supply. Or a terrorist blows up the nearest gasoline refinery. Or worse.

Did you know that a couple of weeks ago, a massive solar flare passed right by the Earth? A solar flare so powerful it would have destroyed more than half of all communication and GPS satellites. It would have melted telephone and electric transmission lines over half the planet. It would have destroyed almost all components used to get electricity to your house. My precious cell phone would have become less than a door stop. And if it had happened two weeks later or had left the Sun at a slightly different angle, the Earth would have taken a direct hit. Sounds like the making of a great disaster movie. But this time, it was for real. And it’s really terrifying.

For me personally, if there’s no power, there’s no internet, and I have no job. But even more than that, if there’s no power, there’s no… anything. No gasoline, no clean water, no food, no toilet paper… Yeah. Let that sink in.

So, am I crazy for keeping a survival box in my closet? Is it crazy that I want to buy a generator and plant a veggie garden? Maybe. Maybe not.