en Passant

I was just reading through another news article about the fires in Southern California. The article was discussing the displaced families that were returning home for the first time. The focus family found that they had unfortunately returned to a burnt out shell of a home.

Among the possessions the a 56-year-old photographer lost were his transparencies, melted inside a fire-resistant box, and a photograph of his father.

"I've lost my history," Sanders said. "All the work I've done for the past 30 years, it's all destroyed."
- Yahoo News

This got me thinking. First, my computer has every digital picture (over 5 years and 20gb) ever taken of my kids on the hard drive. Secondly, a fire-safe box is not going to protect a stack of DVDs. What if my house burnt down while I was at work. I have visions of heroically racing into the den, grabbing my PC and running out of the house, but it is unlikely that my house will be burning while I am at home. "Hey, what's that burnning smell and why are the fire alarms going off? I am not cooking..."

Digital Disaster Recovery for the Home. With this, I have been implementing a backup methodology similar to those implemented in a corporate environment. This includes backing up all my digital files to removable media then shipping them to relatives. I currently have two stacks of 8 DVDs with 4GB of pictures and videos on each. Approximately every 2 months, I create 2 new DVDs containing the new pictures taken (one for me, one for off-site).

Next steps? A digital inventory of the house. As I stated earlier, digital images are virtually free to take and easy to keep. I plan to start taking pictures of household items, and their serials. I plan on starting with the electronic items (like the TV, TiVo, and digital camera). Then take pictures of the kitchen table and chairs (all wood), the bedroom set (also wood), the sofa and love seat, and well just about everything.

Insurance will cover replacing the material items. I can buy myself a new computer, stock full of all the applications I use. Unfortunately, there is no amount of money that can replace the happy moments we've recorded.