Hello from Minnesota

Something has moved me to start preparing for God knows what. I don't know if the political climate, awareness of natural disasters, or God tapping me on the shoulder, but something is grabbing my attention. I recently acquired weapons, and started assembling items like sutures to water purification filters. I am far from paranoid or conspiracy minded. I am thoroughly surprised at my prior lack of preparedness for any number of situations that could occur though.
I am a single middle-aged male. I keep busy with the following: my children on weekends, full-time student(back trouble change of career), computers and internet, biking, and part-time residential painting.
There seems like so much to do to prepare for an emergancy, and I am wishing I would not have spent thousands on video game consoles and games this past year.
This looks like a very informative and fun site, and look forward to losing myself amongst the threads.