PREP FAILURE: THE WALL OF SHAME

[Jaxathon]

I remembered one just now after a while of reading and lurking this thread.

Last year my Brother in Law and I went on a Kayaking trip. I spent the night before going through everything to cover all the bases and make sure we had everything we would need just in case and whatnot.

Well after a few hours on the water we got out before it got dark to set up camp, shelter, fire and food. Well while setting up the tent we realized that we packed the wrong tent poles as well as no rain fly.

Picture Related.


ANYWAY we had the poles for a larger tent and thank god we set up camp on a sandy location so that we could drive the poles down into the sand to keep the tent up. Also It did not rain. Other than that and a cooking mishap we were ok.

We tried to cook spaghetti in a stainless steel water bottle and ended up letting all the water boil off and got the noodles stuck in it.

[Real_Ale_Act]

I have a propane stove for cooking at home. The setup is a single 20lb (barbecue sized) bottle out back under the kitchen window, and I've got a second same-size bottle because running out whilst cooking is bigtime suck. A bottle lasts about 2 months.

The propane ran out this morning. And guess who had failed to refill the second bottle that came off empty 2 months ago?

...yup, that's right.

And guess who even went so far as to put the aforementioned empty right outside the front door and then looked at it every damn day and thought "I'll get that filled next trip down the hill." ?

...yup, that's right.


*facepalm*
For twelve dollars worth of propane.
Oh well, at least I've got an electric coffeemaker. It would have been a much worse day if I only had a french press.
(Note to self: buy a french press so you can have coffee when the power fails.)

[orion]

Here's my most embarrassing recent epic fail.

This past winter, I noticed that my truck was taking a crank or two longer to fire up in the morning than normal. I get to thinking, "The truck's 5 years old and the battery's original. Maybe I should change it." Of course, I don't, as that would require me not to procrastinate about it.

Fast forward to that Saturday night (or the next Saturday night, I don't really remember) when I'm stopping for gas around midnight. It's got to be just barely above 0deg (F.) I fill the tank, grab a coffee from the station just as they're locking up and get ready to head out. Of course the truck won't start. Of course the battery's dead. Of course my jumper cables are on a shelf in my garage. No, I don't have the faintest idea what they're doing there. And--of course--the guy locking up the station doesn't have any of his own.

Luckily, I was able to get a friend on the phone who did have cables and was probably about 10 minutes from where I was. I fired up the truck and drove immediately to the nearest 24 hour WalMart, grabbed my spare key, locked up the running truck and bought a damn battery.

Had I not been able to get anyone on the phone, the good news for me was that I was no more than 2 miles from my house and had more than enough other gear jammed in my truck to make the walk relatively comfortable. Of course, I'd still have had to figure out what to do with the truck the next morning.

[HHaase]

This one is a classic for me....
Bought my Land Rover about 6-7 years ago now. AAlways had a plug kit in the truck... but oddly I STILL don't have a compressor in there (Continued fail?). One day, a few years back, I got a flat. No compressor, no air, no sense in plugging the hole. So I go to use the spare. I pull the tire cover off, and notice the 8-10 knife holes in the sidewall. Seems that the slimy dealership that I bought it from found that it was cheaper to put a tire cover on the spare instead of replacing the tire. And it only took me 3 years to figure it out. Now I regularly check the spare. But strangely enough, still haven't gotten a compressor to keep in the truck.

I also should probably mention that the jack doesn't go high enough with the current tires, and my high-lift jack was "lost" about 4 years ago. So I can't change it anyway.

I just today, finally, got the new pins to re-attach the trailer wiring that was bad since I bought the truck.
Same with the connector for the front-mounted jumper connector. (Battery is under the driver seat, really annoying to access)

I never did hook up the rear wiper.

My clutch master has been leaking for 4 years.

Power steering for two.

New ball-joints are sitting in a box for three.

The list goes on, but you get the point.

-Hans

[T-Boon]

Lol at the actual facepalm !

[Jaxathon]

Lol at the actual facepalm !

We were ashamed at our own stupidity!

[squinty]

Epic fail: I just slept through a tornado. Like a jackass. I heard the air raid siren, but it sounds off two or three times a day every day so I've grown accustomed to ignoring it. Worked third shift last night, slept in, funnel cloud touched down less than a mile from me. Flipped a couple trailers. Woke up to my phone ringing, it was my GF's mom calling to see if we were ok. Storm has moved on to the north of us. Waiting to see if the hospital calls us in.

[leadpulaski]

A couple years ago I took my 2 year old offroading in our new SUV. Once we were a few miles up the mountain our tire blew out. No problem right? Wrong, the spare was flat too. Go to call in the calvary and find my cellphone battery is almost dead. Txt my sister my location as best as I could and told her to look for smoke. Start a fire and she comes to the rescue.

The story :http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32889

As always, live and learn.

Oh yeah, and we use to have 2 wheel drive in North Idaho Yeah that worked out real well

[Jaxathon]

Epic fail: I just slept through a tornado. Like a jackass. I heard the air raid siren, but it sounds off two or three times a day every day so I've grown accustomed to ignoring it. Worked third shift last night, slept in, funnel cloud touched down less than a mile from me. Flipped a couple trailers. Woke up to my phone ringing, it was my GF's mom calling to see if we were ok. Storm has moved on to the north of us. Waiting to see if the hospital calls us in.

Sounds like a cry wolf story. Which is whoever decided to sound the siren 3 times a day is at fault for that really. The only time I hear mine is when there is a tornado or when they are testing it on the first day of spring.

EDIT:
They do the test sounding in the morning here too. around 8 am. for 4, 1 minute intervals with 30 seconds between them.

[squinty]

Epic fail: I just slept through a tornado. Like a jackass. I heard the air raid siren, but it sounds off two or three times a day every day so I've grown accustomed to ignoring it. Worked third shift last night, slept in, funnel cloud touched down less than a mile from me. Flipped a couple trailers. Woke up to my phone ringing, it was my GF's mom calling to see if we were ok. Storm has moved on to the north of us. Waiting to see if the hospital calls us in.

Sounds like a cry wolf story. Which is whoever decided to sound the siren 3 times a day is at fault for that really. The only time I hear mine is when there is a tornado or when they are testing it on the first day of spring.

EDIT:
They do the test sounding in the morning here too. around 8 am. for 4, 1 minute intervals with 30 seconds between them.

Yeah, I talked about it on another thread. Where I spent most of childhood, in rural Kentucky, that air raid siren meant only one thing and people took it seriously. Here, they sound it for any number of reasons - wrecks on I-85 for instance - so it's become background noise. Only my dogs pay attention to it because they like to sing along. But, I knew there were thunderstorm warnings. I could have checked the freakin' weather channel, or turned on my radio, or logged onto weather.com to find out what was going on but instead I slept. And I live in a mobile home. Glad I didn't wake up in Oz.

[allofthemonkeys]

I got a flat a while back, I had my jack, had my spare with air. The fail? I was in my Air Force Dress Uniform that if it gets a speck on it the S really HTF. I had old shop overalls at home that I could leave in my car to cover up. Anyway I stand around looking like a fool looking at my car trying to figure out how to change a tire without getting dirty.

[Vicarious_Lee]

Just came back from the parents. Holy crap within 72 hours I'm an algae farmer! Didn't check the pool's chlorine tab before I left. I wanted to, but we were all being bitchy to each other about leaving (as families do on vacation). It's not there. There was no chlorine.

Dammit. This sucks.

[shrapnel]

Just came back from the parents. Holy crap within 72 hours I'm an algae farmer! Didn't check the pool's chlorine tab before I left. I wanted to, but we were all being bitchy to each other about leaving (as families do on vacation). It's not there. There was no chlorine.

Dammit. This sucks.

So much for that emergency water supply.

[Real_Ale_Act]

Just came back from the parents. Holy crap within 72 hours I'm an algae farmer! Didn't check the pool's chlorine tab before I left. I wanted to, but we were all being bitchy to each other about leaving (as families do on vacation). It's not there. There was no chlorine.

Dammit. This sucks.

So much for that emergency water supply.

Nah, that's just extra vitamins and protein...even better...hell, find out if it's one of the oil producing strains and start making your own biodiesel!

[Norseman]

I'll admit to one
My generator has sat for about two to three years. Now when it's cold I know the gas is old and it won't start.

I didn't crank the generators last year due to preoccupation with my father passing. Hurricane season will be here soon, so I need to do so ASAP, and get them running.

Also now that I am retired and a gentleman farmer, I need to research and find a ginny that will run off of the tractor's PTO (a mechanic told me about one), have a 55 gallon drum of diesel delivered, and just run the whole house with the tractor's power, which is designed run at idle for long periods unlike a regular generator.

[mercdeking]

Was assembling my ar pistol today when the upper and kit came in. I launched my detent pin! Damn, after waiting so long and getting excited I rushed a job. Double star to the rescue because there was an extra pin!

Went night shooting! Fail two, called it quits after round one, since i forgot my ear protection and the 'blast' was deafening.

Several months ago, my brother and I went shooting and I forgot the ammo for my gun.

At another shoot he forgot to tighten his scope down properly on his Remington 30-06 adl and he wasted a box of ammo on trying to sight it in. The movement was small and he kept trying. At the end it moved really loose and he realized his error.

My brother once left my steel ammo can of .308 ammo on the edge of my truck and it fell off beside my truck. Drove about 2 miles before I remembered that the ammo was on the edge drove slowly back until I found it. It fell when I first reversed to get out of my yard so it was ok. It also fell into rocky dirt so only a small ding.

Another fail, not prep related, I was doing something with my laptop and I left it open on the floor since I had to go outside. When I came in I sat down and while bending down to get it i hit the open bottle of water on my desk. It fell and water fell onto the keyboard area of the laptop. Immediately flipped it over. and pulled the battery. Left it upside down and pulled the keys to let it dry. Still works! But I destroyed a phone this way when I dropped it into the sink when washing some dishes.

Bought a set of tools and left them in the back of my truck. Some asshat must have been looking around my truck where it was parked in my yard and stole it. Stole a kobalt hammer I left on a chair outside my house too. My neighborhood is going to shit with some shits coming into my yard. open area in fence, I have renters who also leave out that open fence area hence its not closed often even when i did have a gate there, plus they backed into it but can't prove it so the original fence gate is was pulled off; been too lazy to fix it. Big defensive prep failure here. Been thinking about fixing this for a while; anyways its still not done and that happened several months back.

Saddest fail although not prep related, cute coworker at work was hitting on me and I did nothing so she got laid up by another guy, a customer who hit on her!; epic fail or epic luck? She was a cutie... still not sure! Had another who was flirting and I did nothing; got boned buy a coworker who was a manager! Had a baby and his marriage is over! I recently talked to another and she showed some interest. Did nothing again. I'm a manager and boning your coworkers is the quickest way to get asked to step down or step down to customer. But damn, some hot coworkers out there. Still consider this an epic fail for my other head though!

[Spaghetti Monster]

So this actually happened a few summer ago but I thought I share my personal bit of ‘unpreparedness’. SWMBO and I our some acreage in N. Arizona. It’s very pretty but also pretty remote (18 miles north of Williams (closest town) then another 12 miles back along a dirt road). We bring a pistol with us even though the wife is really not big on them, so normally while not in use it’s locked in its case. Sooo one night we are sleeping away in the tent when all of sudden all three dogs all sit up, ears all up and pointing in the same direction. Uh ok. Then we hear what sounds like steps outside the tent. Shit. Where is the gun? Can’t find it!!! Finally find it buried under a sleeping bag. And guess what it’s locked. Gotta find the keys now. Meanwhile the dogs have stopped paying attention to what ever is outside and are watching the wife and I fumble like two lost blind kids at the county fair. Eventually after much whispering and fumbling gun is hand and flashlight at the ready. Never saw or hear anything else the rest of the night. It was most like just a cow (free range cattle come through all the time, although the owner at the comic swears it was probably bigfoot, even though he wasn’t even there -_-) and we laugh about it now but it was a bit stressful at the time.

[Patient Zer0]

Managed to lock my keys in my truck at my cousin's wedding yesterday. No spare key, the wife didn't bring hers. Had everything I needed to get the door open in my EDC kit, SITTING ON THE BACK SEAT OF THE TRUCK! Had to call the local sheriff's dept. to let me in, in doing so they set off my alarm, and the batteries in the key fob were dead. Had to unhook the battery until I could figure out how to manually disarm the thing.

Spare keys will be made for both me and the wife to keep in our wallets, and the batteries will be replaced ASAP.

[meanstreak]

I bought a generator, candles, propane grill, all kinds of gear in preparation for TEOTWAWKI. When a Hurricane came rolling thru Ohio 18 months ago i thought i was more than prepared. I had the genny, i had plenty of food, etc.

After the power went out, i went out to start the genny and realized i forgot the gas. Every gas station in a 40 mile radius was without power. My car only had a 1/4 tank of gas.

Thankfully my power came back on that evening but many were without power for a couple weeks. I now never let my tank go below half and keep gas on hand (yes i rotate it).

[Vicarious_Lee]

Didn't get that contract for my new job signed before I counted those chickens. Due to a government hiring freeze, they're not hatching for a while. At least a year. Maybe two.

So, I'm unemployed in 3 weeks.

When am I gonna learn?

[jdavidboyd]

You guys forget that to get a balanced meal out of rice you need to add a little protein. Weevils fit the bill! Just ask any ex-POW about it.

The weevils themself wouldn't bother me, really. It's the whole weevil shit I don't want in my rice.

Meh, that's just recycled rice, right?

And as long as it is cooked first, could it really hurt? Back a few (many) years ago, when we had first moved to florida, we had no money, and made some pasta to eat for dinner. We noticed all these 'things' floating on top of the water when we cooked it. Shrugged, drained, rinsed, dug in. What you gonna do?

[Krustofski]

And as long as it is cooked first, could it really hurt?

No, despite the bitter taste a lot of insects have, it normaly won't hurt anyone when cooked. If I didn't have a choice, I'd just take the bugs for additional protein.
Still, the nutritional value of rice is naturaly higher if it hasn't already been processed into weevil poop.

[PistolPete]

So I was at the range, trying some new loads in a rifle. The rifle I had just put together (bought one of the ZS marked AR lowers in the group buy last fall) and it didn't have iron sights. "That's not a problem!" I thought, "Modern optics today are very durable and reliable". So I put an older Bushnell Holosight on it and sighted it in. No problems that day.

But this day, shot #2 and the battery cover hits me in the face. The spot where it threads in broke out. This made it 100% useless, as it's a holographic sight that needs power. If I can't get the battery cover affixed, I'm SOL. So my fancy rifle now doesn't have a way to aim.
Duh.

So I think maybe I see the point in having back up sights. Even if they are in a bag or something, iron sights, a scope, something. A rifle without any sight isn't very useful.

It's even more annoying that I hadn't used this Holosight much at all and it's no longer covered under warrantee. When I bought it I was all "It's not hardened like an Eotech, but I'm not going to be a war, it'll work fine.". And now I realize I'm a moron.

Oh well, live and learn. Glad it didn't happen at a time when I actually needed it.

[jdavidboyd]

Here's my most embarrassing recent epic fail.

This past winter, I noticed that my truck was taking a crank or two longer to fire up in the morning than normal. I get to thinking, "The truck's 5 years old and the battery's original. Maybe I should change it." Of course, I don't, as that would require me not to procrastinate about it.

Fast forward to that Saturday night (or the next Saturday night, I don't really remember) when I'm stopping for gas around midnight. It's got to be just barely above 0deg (F.) I fill the tank, grab a coffee from the station just as they're locking up and get ready to head out. Of course the truck won't start. Of course the battery's dead. Of course my jumper cables are on a shelf in my garage. No, I don't have the faintest idea what they're doing there. And--of course--the guy locking up the station doesn't have any of his own.

Luckily, I was able to get a friend on the phone who did have cables and was probably about 10 minutes from where I was. I fired up the truck and drove immediately to the nearest 24 hour WalMart, grabbed my spare key, locked up the running truck and bought a damn battery.

Had I not been able to get anyone on the phone, the good news for me was that I was no more than 2 miles from my house and had more than enough other gear jammed in my truck to make the walk relatively comfortable. Of course, I'd still have had to figure out what to do with the truck the next morning.

Which is, of course, the point of being a AAA member. Saved my bacon many, many times....