With all this build-up toward war, you begin to think about what would happen if we were struck here at home. I mean, as far as I know, we've only been hit three times on American soil by foreign "attacks". Once at Pearl Harbor, and twice at the World Trade Center. The last time we had an actual war here in America, it was the Civil War... and we were fighting ourselves.

But what if we were attacked in an all-out war by another country? What would we, the citizens of the United States, do?

Do you have a plan thought out? Should we even bother having a plan? Is it silly, paranoid, survivalist bullshit to even consider it? What about a natural disaster? Would your plan for that be flexible enough to adapt to war? Do you have a plan for a natural disaster?

Fire... earthquake... tornado... hurricane... urban warfare... whatever?

Makes you think. Would you and your family be able to survive three days, a week, a month or even longer if the country as we know it changed abruptly? What about medical supplies, food and water?

Yikes. I only ask because The Princess had a horrible nightmare last night. It was about war on American soil. It was about everything falling apart. It frightened her. And in the wee hours of the early morning as I comforted her, it scared the hell out of me. It made me wonder.

I'm not the paranoid type. I tend to chuckle at the survivalist mentality. Y2K was enough to show me that all the gloom and doom wailing was silly and not researched fully enough. Y2K made several highly-respected, well-educated folks look like Chicken Little... or The Boy Who Cried Wolf. And it made me miss a great New Years' Eve party as I sat in front of a server waiting for a melt-down that never came.

But this isn't Y2K. It's 2003 — and it's terrorists with no fear of death and certainly no respect for life. It's oil, weapons of mass destruction, religion, ignorance and fear.

What are your plans? Do you have a meeting place? A place to wait for your loved ones to count heads and blessings... home would be the first logical place. But what if home is gone?

Tonight, I want to dream of puppies and flowers.