PREP FAILURE: THE WALL OF SHAME

[Tperkins]

I will add my personal FAIL to this thread..

we got a puppy, a wonderful, beautiful, pure-breed Airedale Terrier.

Early on, we figured out that if we grab a flash-light, and make the light reflection run across the floor, the dog would go crazy trying to follow it, and in a good 10 minutes of pure adrenaline craziness, she'll expend all her energy (until next time).

All was well and good, our dog is in a good shape, happy, and she is not constantly hyper.

That is, until we had a power outage, and went to grab the flash-light.

Now I'm in the dark, trying to find candles, and my dog is running circles around the house, jumping all over me, because she thinks its play-time.

If only I could quote that whole post I might bring that up with my Psychology teacher, as we are learning about that type of learned behavior stuff. That honestly made me laugh out loud.

..... At least my beer was always cold.

Well then everything is okay

But honestly, if you wouldnt of had a friend's house to stay over at, that would of been a crappy weekend. This is the problem that occurs often in winter (the whole no heat scenario) that causes deaths because people dont have a sleeping bag or heater. It's not so much a fail in the sense that you were mostly prepared for the situation, albiet specifically.

[Hydrostatic]

The battery for my F150 truck gave out about six months ago.
Instead of buying a new one I improvised with a boat battery thats starting amps are far too low for my truck, but it worked, and I knew good and well that it would be hell on my starter. Instead of fixing it right when I had the money, I left it on anyway. Present day: I got in my truck and turned the key....click click click click click click click click .
Moral of the story is: procrastination is a bitch and temporary financial discomfort is better than having it doubled down the road along with major inconvenience and potentially being fucked in a bad situation.

[Dogan]

This shall serve as a friendly reminder:

BACK.UP.YOUR.FUCKING.DATA!!!


I just lost a week of work. Thank you very much.

Damn, couple months ago my computer went tango uniform. I FEEL your pain.

I'm kinda bad about that too. My computer crashed because of a virus but I still lost a little under half the data on it. I was in the process of backing it up but never finished. Oh well, at least the REEALLY important stuff was saved but at the last minute.

Thumbdrives + Ziplocs. That's what I do.

[techmonkey]

Just got the house broken into last night. I was putting off applying hurricane film to the windows and surveillance cams in the living room and back and front doors. If I had done at least the cameras I would have gotten an image of the perp. He was in and out in less than 5 minutes so an alarm wouldn't have worked well. Now my Wii, games wife's wedding ring, and laptop are probably at the pawn shops by now.

Just got the quote for security film on the windows and I about shat myself. Leftover insurance money is going towards security system and a gun safe for the rifles. I got lucky those didn't get taken.

[Bad Penny 08]

Well, I started my water storage around Feb/March of this year, and a few minutes ago, found it to be mostly ruined. I figured I would do checks every 6 months, but I will probably change to every 3 months. Pics are included below:

Basically, my water storage was composed of (3) 2.5Gal Jewel water containers (little thicker than milk jugs), (1) 5Gal Scepter can, and a cheapo 3 gallon "military" can from REI. I checked the storage, and to my dismay two of the 3 Jewel containers had ruptured, and the 3rd was malformed enough to the extent that I wouldnt use it. Given, these are stored in a plastic tote, so it it was an emergency I suppose I could run them through my water filter and use them, but if I needed to bugout, I would be SOL except my scepter can.

20 Years ago or so most of my water was in those same style 2.5 gallon jugs from the grocery store.
I liked them because of the spigot.
I watched them basically crack and leak under their own weight and dump the contents all over my shelving.
I have never seen a brand of the thin walled grocery store type 2-2.5 gal that doesn't do this.
Avoid them like the plague.

The 1 gallon jugs don't seem to do this, or if they do its not nearly as frequent.
I have since abandoned the thin walled Wal-mart type stuff and gone with more durable containers of various sizes.
Some portable, some not, and cases of 1/2 liter bottles.

[mr_slappy75]

My personal favorite: Went on a boatride/very long walk in a third world county. Was stupid enough to not bring meds to deal with intestinal parasites, figured if I needed meds, they could surely be found locally. Guess who I found and made friends with, without a pharmacy anywhere nearby? EPIC (bloody loose excrement) fail that damned near killed me.

I was about 15-16 when my Royal Rangers troop (The Assemblies of God version of the Boy Scouts) took about 100 - 150 kids to a jamboree in my native Panama. We went to the mountains of Santa Fe de Veraguas and water and meals were supplied by the adult troop leaders manning the field kitchen.

Apparently our water source had not been secured properly and about 36 of the boys -mostly the younger ones 7 to 10 years old- had to be dropped off a the regional hospital in Santiago -the provincial capital of Veraguas- while the rest of off endured the 7 hour bus ride back to the capital where we were all originally from.

I had started getting sick during the trip, but when I got home it really hit. Yup bloody loose projectile big D + vomiting and fever. I -and all the other affected kids had contracted gardia- I lost 16 pounds in three days, the day after I got back I had to be taken to the doctor to have the proper shot administered, several of the younger kids convalesced for the better part of a week before they were released to their parents.
Even back then I was mad at myself because:
1. I AM from the 3rd world country in question, born and raised I thought that ‘I was safe because I was doing what everyone else in the group was doing’ -mom asking you that if your friends jumped of a cliff? Anyone?-
2. My family is country folk, my grandparents had always made it clear to my sister and I that you couldn’t drink water ‘from just anywhere’ because some folks were used to stuff you weren’t and there are folks who don’t boil or treat their water at all.
3. By the time this trip happened I had already been reading “American Survival Guide” for almost 2 years and had done my homework finding some of their recommended reading and educating myself and understood the importance of potable water.
4. I had brought along a 1 liter bottle of chlorine bleach, explicitly for treating water but seeing that no one else did it, figured that ‘it would be ok’.

Massive –and wholly avoidable- fail.

[Bad Penny 08]

Massive –and wholly avoidable- fail.

OMFG brother.

Glad you're still with us.

[mr_slappy75]

All I got to say is that the experience taught me to rethink the whole 'safety in numbers' thing.

[taskforce71]

This was a double whammy of fail.

I went to the local wal mart to go get some stuff for the family. Well when I get there I turn off the car and go in. I come out 20 minutes later and turned the key. I got nothing. I turned it again. I could hear the starter clicking but nothing from the engine. Not even a sputter. I realize that my battery is stone dead so I went to the trunk to find the jumper cables when I realized they were in the other car. Fail 1. Then I decided to call home so someone could bring the cables and jump me. I search through my pockets and remember setting my phone on the coffee table. Fail 2. I shrug it off and tell myself that 'someone else must have jumper cables'. An hour and about two dozen people later I finally find someone with cables. A 75 year old grandma. So she drives over and gives me a jump. The car starts and I thank her she goes on her way. I get going on the road and I hear a loud pop the my car starts to sag. At this point I was praying to god it wasnt what I thought it was, but me being the heathen that I am, it was: A flat tire. At this point I just want to leave the damn car and walk but I was well over 2 miles away from home. I go to the trunk and rummage around for the jack and to my amazement its not in the car. My dad and I had used it on a shop project and failed to put it back. Fail 3. I sit there and curse all that is holy when I see headlights pull to a stop behind me. I get out to see who the good samaritan was and to my utter shame saw the face of the grandma from the parking lot smiling at me. She gets out and without a word goes and retrieves her jack for me. I shamefully begin to try to change the tire before realizing that I didnt know how. Fail 4. (I was young and dumb.) The grandma just smiled again and walked me through the process. Finally after another hour I get the tire changed and Mother teresa (Thats obviously a nickname.) packs up and drives off. I finally stumble in through my front door with the jello in hand 3 hours after I had left. Yep, all of this was for jello, though in my defense that was damn good jello.
Anyway, i tell my parents the story and they laugh at me for the next few years. So not only did I fail in every way possible, I got schooled in all departments by some kids grandma.

I've kinda been through that before. Had a Jeep Cherokee once. I always made sure I had air in the tires and always checked the oil, wiper fluid, antifreeze etc. Thought it was enough. Right? WRONG! One day I feel the Jeep lugging and check the tach. Nope. Nothing wrong with the tranny or clutch so I pulled over. Flat tire. I shrug and open the tailgate. It's getting pretty cold and I didn't have a jacket. I rummaged through every inch of the Jeep. Nope. Forgot it at school. Fail 1. I cursed a storm as I struggled to decipher the owner's manual, which I SHOULD have learned to read the day I inherited the Jeep. Fail 2. After making sense of how the stupid jack comes off, I roll the spare tire out and try to put the jack together. It takes 15 minutes because it's so complex and bizarre. Should have practiced with it the day I inherited the damn Jeep. Fail 3. After finally getting it together, I shove it underneath and start cranking. The Jeep's tires lost their grip and it slipped off the jack! Should have moved to a spot on the road where the pavement wasn't falling apart and covered in so much gravel. Fail 4! Wow is it dark. I can hardly see as I finally get the stupid tire off and put the spare on. Spent another few minutes cursing as I try to get it into the mounting lugs in the trunk. Gave up and just laid it flat. Suddenly forgot to tighten the lugs. It's so dark I can't see spit. Fail 5! Now I always keep a flashlight in the glove box even though my B.O.B. has a keychain light and a flashlight inside. Ugh, never knew cars could be so complicated but like you, I was young and stupid too!

[DarkAxel]

My automotive prep fail:


Right after I got married I bought an old Chevy Corsica. Reliable little thing, always delivered when I asked. Right after I bought it, I went over the "new used vehicle" checklist: Jack? Check. Spare? Check. Tire tool, check. Changed the oil, changed the transmission fluid, and put new tires on it. I kept the best old tire, and flung it in the trunk, thinking that it would offer me a little breathing room if I needed to replace a tire when funds were low.

A year later, I'm driving down the highway in heavy traffic. At one point, my side of the road split into two so trucks struggling to get up the hill wouldn't fuck up traffic too much. Well, the right lane was full, and the left lane was clear. I stomped the gas and swung out to pass the long line of vehicles and get halfway there when I find out why the left lane was clear: a 4x4 the length of my car was laying diagonally across the lane. I tried to merge back into the right lane, but no joy, those assholes weren't budging. Swerving into the oncoming lane was out, too. Nothing left to do but pucker up and brace for impact. I managed not to run over it completely, but one of my wheels hit it hard (I was still at roughly 40 mph)

After I got the car stopped, I waited for a break in the traffic, then pulled in to a nearby parking lot. But instead of the normal flup-flup-flup sound of a flat tire, I hear and feel flub-thump, flub-thump, flub-thump, and watch the front of my car jumping like a low-rider with every turn of the rim. After I get parked, I get out to take a look at the damage.

Busted tire. No biggie, I had an emergency spare to get me to a tire shop, and a good used tire to go on my rim. Oh, the rim. Yeah it was fucked royally. Still not much of a problem. I went to the truck, lifted the rimless spare out of the way, pulled up the trunk liner and opened the spare compartment. Bad news. The spare was still there, but flat. Completely flat. And dry rotted on the bottom to the point that it couldn't hold air.

Thankfully, i was raised up in the area, and even though I had moved away, I still knew plenty of folks, and one of my best friends worked in the shopping center the parking lot serviced. I also got an emergency spare for free from a local salvage yard, and I also picked up a rim while I was there.

Back to my car with my prizes in hand. My friend went back to work, and I went to work changing my tire. I get the car jacked up and the busted tire off, and more bad news. The lower control arm was bent, and the strut was busted and leaking. By know I'd realized this wasn't something I could handle on the cheap, but I would be damned if I was going to pay a tow bill for a busted tire. I mounted the spare and limped in to a local garage. It took them four hours to fix my car, and when I went to pay for the work, I remembered that I had left my check-book with the wife so she could go shopping later. So I had to call her. It took her an hour and a half to get to me.

What started out as a there-and-back again day-trip to visit my kin turned into six hour endurance trial of my anger management skills and patience.

[Vicarious_Lee]

Stores were all sold out of those foam faucet covers when I went to buy some yesterday, because it's going to freeze today. I didn't buy them in June.

Towels, duct tape, and feeling like a dumbass it is, then.

[whisk.e.rebellion]

Stores were all sold out of those foam faucet covers when I went to buy some yesterday, because it's going to freeze today. I didn't buy them in June.

Towels, duct tape, and feeling like a dumbass it is, then.

Can't you just leave a faucet dripping? That's all I had to do the couple of times it froze deep (18ish) around here.

[squinty]

Lowes sells little electric blankets yo can wrap around your pipes.

[techmonkey]

Can't you just leave a faucet dripping? That's all I had to do the couple of times it froze deep (18ish) around here.

+1000

I do this every time it freezes here. My neighbor didn't once because he was gone, and the pipe going into the house from the main cracked. I shut his water off for him since it was a lot of water and it was flooding my yard too. That stupid drip tip works great.

I still can't get used to the fact that the water pipe coming from the main is exposed going into the side of the house. that and the water heater in the garage. Where I grew up, it hit -40 every winter several times.

Speaking of prep fail and taps off the water main. In the house I grew up in the water came in through the basement wall. Well a bad solder joint decided to spring a pinhole leak, just BEFORE the shut off valve to the main. The street was recently paved and it the shut off valve in the street had been paved over, never mind the fact we didn't have a shut off tool anyway. It took the city about 3 hours and twenty buckets of water to come, look for it, dig it up, and shut it off. When they were finished they left a lovely pothole in front of the house that didn't get fixed for 2 years. Now, in at my own house, I found the street main valve cover and have measured it out from a landmark in my yard (cement utility box cover). That way, if it gets paved over, at least I will know where to chop through.

[J.C.]

I have almost no cash stashed in the house.

I have lots of food, water and ammo but didn't have any rock salt to put on my driveway when we got some of our first real winter weather in several years. I used to live in the midwest and no stranger to snow but I think I left our salt at our old house when we moved last July.

[txKingfisher]

My BOB is currently stashed in a spare room completely empty (its former contents scattered about the house) and I haven't replaced the food I ate from it. (On a preparedness WIN side of things though, I was moving into my house and I ended up having to stay the night before I went to the grocery store and the BOB food was very handy. I ate the items that had just expired or were about to.)

I bought a fire extinguisher for the DD/BOV (after a couple of years of procrastination) and I forgot to install it or even chuck it in the back seat before I left for the latest trip. Hopefully the truck doesnt burn up before I get home next month.


Not prep related but, I finally got the tires rotated on the DD/BOV and the one armed dude doing it (shoulda done it myself, I know) didnt really crank the lug nuts down with the impact wrench. I made a mental note to check them with the tire iron when I got home (20 miles away) but I drove another few hundred miles before finally checking them. They were scary loose, but no damage was done.

[mariposa]

I thought I was well prepared for Hurricane Ike. After it went through, we had no electricity for several days. I got low enough on charcoal to where we could have only 1 hot meal daily. Because all I had was a charcoal grill, I had plenty of food (rice, pasta, etc.) that I couldn't cook with a grill. Part of my next income-tax refund went to a duel-fuel camp stove so I could better utilize my food.

I also had only part of a 2-gallon can of gas then, and it was very difficult to get gas during that time. I had 3/4 of a tank in the car, but had to run the car to charge cell phones. I now have storage for 12 gallons of gas---rotated, of course.

I also now buy instant coffee before hurricane season. I didn't think about that pre-Ike, and was lucky to get the last jar in town afterward. It's not pleasant to share living quarters with someone who is insufficiently caffeinated. I drink tea, and didn't pay attention to the coffee stash. I do now.

[ZombieGranny]

One of the boys moved back out into his own place, only taking a large container of white rice from here as he was going to stop at the grocery and stock up on his way to the new house.
He was tired, didn't stop, and got iced in.

Long story short, he had 37 hours of nothing to drink but water and nothing to eat but unsalted white rice before he chanced the ice and drove back here... first thing he did was eat, of course. LOL

I did NOT say 'I told you so'... oh but I wanted to so bad it hurt!

[Molon Labe]

Not a horrible FAIL, but still a fail. I somehow misplaced 36,000 calories worth of Mainstay. It was under my bed, last time I checked. Went to take stock of everything this weekend and found nothing but an empty box. I'm confused.

[Crocuta crocuta]

This weekend I trashed my Hammock



I went in made a 180 backflip. and fell out trough the roof.

[Krustofski]

Not a horrible FAIL, but still a fail. I somehow misplaced 36,000 calories worth of Mainstay. It was under my bed, last time I checked. Went to take stock of everything this weekend and found nothing but an empty box. I'm confused.

Sleepwalking much?

[Torvald]

My Epic Fail!

Just got my BOB, clothing, fire making, food, the works all together and packed up ready to roll. Then my mother says she's cold in the bedroom, so I go to the BOB and take out Mr. Liner and let here use it. Realizing the fail of using stuff from the BOB around the house and it not being in there when you need it the next day I hit up EBay and get a second poncho liner for her to use full time.

It arrives a few days later and I go to switch them out (mine has been modified to zip up) and find that one of the dogs has been sick on it so in the wash it goes. A day or so later I get it back all nice and clean and ready to be put away. Now being the smart guy I am I left the BOB open so I would remember to grab the liner if the need for the BOB came up. I was covered I wouldn't forget it I open the pack to put the liner back in and….

In the intervening days the pack was open a mouse (or mice) found my Mountain House food and had a good time. The pack was a mess, I had to go online to find out how to wash a pack it was that bad. Everything came out of the pack and I sat down with a tub of Clorox wipes and scrubbed it all, vacuumed out the pack, turned it inside out and scrubbed it down with the wipes. Buy more food and repack everything back up (fully closed at all time now). Then got down to mouse hunting,

Lesson: even when doing everything right, Murphy will still find a way to dick you over.

[Takaaco78]

Will im working the graveyard (12am-8am) shift at work. Went to hop in the truck for work and the truck wouldnt start, so went ahead and took my other truck to work, only problem is my 4wd is out on this truck. Well it rained all night then 2 hours before heading home the big snow hits and coveres everything with freezing rain then snow. Soon as i get into me truck i remember i dont have my get home bag,or any gear for that matter. Well the last leg of my trip home is a 3.5 mile drive down a twisty mountain drive up and down long steep grades. Im not even going to atempt to make it down this road so i park the truck at a church right at the start of this road with a plan of walking the rest of the way (3.5 miles) in the snow storm. Now its time to inventory what i do have laying around in the truck, and wouldnt you know i just cleaned it out yesterday. The only thing I have on is my work uniform (dickies work pants and a polo shirt, but atleast i have good boots on) so i turn around and the first thing i see is my old leather motorcycle jacket THANK GOD!!! next i grab my Glock 22, surefire G2, pair of mechanics gloves. Then off i go, first thing i notice is no tire tracks anywhere apparently no one else had tried this road either. Long story short i walked home with no problem even had to take my jacket off on a few hills because i was starting to sweat.

Moral of the story: At the very least keep a spare coat in the car during winter, and dont forget your GHB when you switch trucks.

[prepper7]

My fail, my $24.

I was using with one of my crank-lights and noticed the tiny print on the label. The print that reads, "Warning - Please be sure to recharge every three months if not used for long periods." "Doh!", I think, "Wonder if that's what killed the two that died several months ago?" I go to my stash of five new lights (purchased on sale to use in gift kits) and find that two are dead.

Now, I think of my Eton and Jobar (generic black one sold everywhere from hardware stores to A16) dynamo/solar/battery light & radio combos and realize they probably also require periodic recharging in order to be able to maintain a charge--yikes!

with a sense of dread, I unearth the two radios and nearly collapse in relief as they both switched on. I immediately dynamo charged the lights and radio combos and then updated my gear maintenance calendar to schedule quarterly charging for all such devices.

I lost four lights but was exceedingly fortunate that three lights and both radios were fine. If you have rechargeable items in your kits be sure to periodically service them.