Rootless Weaponry

Weapons and rootlessness. What?

I do happen to be re-reading Friday, a Robert Heinlein favorite of mine (and for which there will be a Rootless Lit review later), in which defensive and offensive security techniques are prominent features.  

And there's the whole zombie apocalypse to consider. And the end of the world is coming up later this month.

But, really, it's all about mountain lions. 

Decision made: I'm going to buy a knife. It turns out one of my sisters, let's call her Xena, has been carrying a knife for years on her wilderness hikes, for the express purpose of self-defense. And with mountain lions specifically in mind. I have now consulted her and one of her sons (a master hunter) on this matter, and while her son was a little blase about the mountain lion thing, Xena got it immediately, and shared these thoughts: 

1. Once you make the decision to stab an animal in self-defense, then you need to go all the way, which means you need to: 1) stab many times - not just once and then wait to see what happens; and 2) stab and twist, stab and twist.
2. Get a 4.5" or 5" blade.
3. Get a knife with a good, non-slip grip.  
4. Don't carry your knife at your belt. Carry it over your chest so you can grab it with either hand. I always carry a pack when I walk, and it has a chest strap, so I thread the chest strap through the knife sheath's belt loop. 

Xena also had a good idea on light.

Now, I've got this flashlight that I love, but unless the great flashlight is in your gear when you need it, doesn't make any difference how great it is. Now that I'm temporarily rooted, it's easy for me to get sloppy and not move the flashlight among my three bags as I change them. Xena gets around this completely by always having on hand those lightsticks that you break open to create light. They are: 

• Inexpensive
• Don't have an expiration date (on further research, the manufacturers say up to 4 years)
• Are very packable

So that's another thing I'm getting. Some lightsticks to stash in each of my bags and in my car.

And mace or pepper spray. Because there are bears here, too. Yeah. 

I've got shopping to do.