"Be Prepared." - the Boy Scout Motto

Ah, beautiful Cincinnati--all the benefits of a Category 1 hurricane with none of the ocean front property.  Where gas, ice, food, and Duke Energy repair trucks were rare and valuable commodities.

Fortunately, my power is back on after about 2.5 days of darkness (my office is still running on generators, though).  I can't believe how dependent I am/we are on electricity--that's an interesting, but scary dependency to consider.  Some things I need to think about when planning for the next power outage/apocalypse:

1. D batteries are essential
2. I need to get that battery backup for my sump pump (fortunately, we had no rain during the outage, but you can never be too careful)
3. Wouldn't it be great to have a generator?  I wonder how long it would take my Homeowner's Association to write me an angry letter/take legal action?
4. Does no one make cheap transistor radios anymore--particularly those capable of running off of batteries?  Forget those clock radios with the "battery backup."  That feature won't power a radio when the power's out--it only saves you the time of resetting the time when the power comes back on again.  The standard radios I have take an average of 43.7 D batteries.  What sort of conspiracy is this from Portable Power cartel?
5. Generate my own power?  Solar paneled ridge vents (a roofer I spoke to mentioned the existence of such things but I can't seem to find them)?  Opportunity or hype?  Discuss amongst yourselves.
6. Ample battery-powered lighting is good as well as alternative ways to cook food--like the grill I've never used with the propane tank I've never replaced.
7. Real men take cold showers.  Good thing there was still some luke-warm water left over in my water heater tank.
8. Are my bills getting paid?  Am I receiving important emails I need to answer?  I pay most of my bills online and I maintain a variety of accounts to do so.  Many of these account credentials I manage from a centralized, encrypted file...on my hard drive...which I can't get to because of the power outage.  I back this stuff up to a local independent storage device and do offsite backup in the form of DVDs kept in my safe deposit box, but I wonder if I need to rethink this strategy and include something like Amazon S3 (perhaps via Jungle Disk; Steve Gibson's take on Jungle Disk).  Some time ago, Scott Hanselman shared his interesting backup strategy.  Maybe I should borrow some/all of that.
9. While I sat in the dark smelling my food rot, apparently, my life savings were rotting away, as well.  Note to self: convert as much of my monopoly money as is reasonable to gold.  Oh, and make sure I read Murray Rothbard's What Has Government Done to our Money?
10. Fortunately, the people in my neighborhood remained civil, even helpful.  We were lucky that this situation didn't merit an invasion by FEMA or any other government henchmen.  However, I'm always thinking about the safety and protection of my family, friends, and property (in that order).  One interesting book I've read recently (well, partially read) that addresses this topic is Boston T. Party's Gun Bible.  And, no, I'm not some nutjob alone in a cabin writing my manifesto.  I'm just trying to be prepared--for all situations.