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My Newest Addiction: “Deadliest Catch” on The Discovery Channel

I know I am an insomniac. And I know I have an addictive personality. The “Deadliest Catch” converges these two negative aspects of my personality creating the perfect storm.

The “Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery Channel doesn’t aide me in my quest to get some shut eye. Inevitably, every Tuesday night at 1:30 AM, I catch a rerun of last week’s episode. It piques my interest and causes–nay, forces–me to stay up until 3 AM to watch the show that started at 2. (It wouldn’t have to be this way if I would remember to put the GD show in my TiVo.)

Last night, at well past two in the morning, I watched the show with equal parts empathy and paranoia. You see, one of the fishermen on one of the boats busted his ankle really bad in the previous week’s episode. This injury not only resulted in an ankle the size of a grapefruit, but also resulted in the captain turning the vessel around to get his foot x-rayed by a trained professional. Turns out the guy had to be flown home. That’s where the empathy begins.

And here’s where the paranoia kicks in: if he’s not working on the boat, then he’s not going to make money for an entire crab season. So, in the wee hours of the morning, I revisited an old habit. I was tossing and turning due to financial concerns. Not mine. His. How is he going to provide for his family? How is he going to pay his mortgage or rent? Where will he get the money for food or clothing for his wife and kids? I couldn’t sleep.

Even though there’s a level of choice in this guy’s life, you still have to feel badly for him that his plan was derailed–albeit momentarily. But it’s moments like that where the good ol’ emergency fund comes into play. I wonder how much money he had stocked away in a savings account. I wonder if he even had a savings account.

I assume too much when I worry about others. For all I know, he could be independently wealthy and this could be his perfect idea of retirement. However, as I was watching last night’s episode, it quickly became apparent to me how important an Emergency Fund is for all of us. Life happens. We break our backs, we lose our jobs, we get into car accidents. Every single day this happens to one of us, somewhere in this country.

But probably not.

The point of this post? 1. I am addicted to this show. Leave a comment and let me know if you are, too; 2. Make that ING or HSBC account grow. Build your emergency fund because–one day–you’re going to need it.