PREP FAILURE: THE WALL OF SHAME

by **Regular Guy** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:44 pm

This weekend I convinced my wife to abandone half a closet for prep foods. Well, she had moved some of my mylar bags previously and she wasn't very gentle. Anyway, her rough handling caused one of the mylar bags to rip. I thought, not a big deal, I have some packing tape to cover the holes.
I take everything out of the bag and there is a brown mold or dirt inside the bag and on a 20 lbs rice bag. I'm thinking, damn it. I grab some simple green and wipe out the inside of the mylar and repair it. Then I inspected the rice bag, no holes but I found a small bug. I'm thinking great, bag is infested. I wipe the rice bag off and get it clean. I further inspect the bag and there are no bugs in the rice bag. I ask my wife to check it out, she see no bugs.
Thankfully, since I left the rice in it's orginal bag, I dodged an infestation. Anyway, this caused me to inspect the entire stock of food and I found no more problems. Since this occurred, I resolved to inspect the food at least once a month.

by **whisk.e.rebellion** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:30 pm

I've posted about my office FAK before, but...

I cut my hand at work right before lunch. I throw a band-aid on it, go home, clean the wound, tape some gauze on and go back to work. I figure it's time to change the dressing, but don't want to use up more gauze and the last of the tape from my own first-aid kit, so I go to the wall mounted kit in the office. I get a 3x3 gauze pad, fold it up, hold it in place. I grab the tape and pop the cover off only to find that it's TEFLON TAPE (you know, the kind for pipe threads) and not adhesive :gonk:

by **Dogan** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:32 pm

Wrong kind of leak. :lol:

by **dustycanuck** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:52 pm

Vicarious_Lee - I feel your pain.

Making chocolate toffee with a friend's kids, and being very careful to help them learn the safe way to cook. yeah.
So, I carefully take the pan out of sugary melted goodness of the oven using, of course, an appropriate oven mitt. Again, yeah.
Of course, I have to take the mitt off to help them pour the chocolate chips into the pan, and of course, you have to swirl the pan around to spread out the melting chips. Now, as a responsible adult, I do this part of the job myself. I wouldn't want the kids to burn themselves, like, if they forgot to put the mitt back on, or anything. Well, they say we learn from our mistakes, and I hope the learned from mine. What I learned is that I have an awesome reaction time---I was able to drop that sucker back onto the stove and only wound up with some 1st degree burnlets on my fingers.
Oh, and the kids not only learned some new words that day, but how to use them in interesting combinations.

Not so much a prep fail, I guess, as a just plain fail.

by **USPHack** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:04 am

My very first prep fail.

I was driving my wifes Trailblazer from west central Louisiana to southeast Texas along FM 363 at about 9pm when a friggin dear leaps out in front of me. There was no avoiding this bugger, it hit dead center on the front of the vehicle, whiping out the grill, both headlights, the front bumper, and caved in the radiator. I had my wife and both kids in the car so naturally my kids are screaming and my wifes is flipping out. I guided the vehicle to the side of the road, got out, and went to check on the truck and the deer. It wasn't pretty. The deer was doa, pieces of it and the truck scattered down the road. This was a bit of a challenge to check because the only light I had was from my friggin cellphone. My wife attempts to call roadside assistance and nadda, no service. By this time I'm rather miffed. I take a closer look at the truck and determine I can limp it down the road if I wedge one of the headlights back in place and get a piece of the fender well out of the way. A closer inspection shows a single 10mm bolt holding the piece on. No problem right? Except I didnt have a friggin wrench, ratchet, or even my damned multi tool. I could have cut it off, but I didn't have a knife either!

As luck would have it, out here in the middle of BFE Texas a good old boy lived off in the woods and heard the crash. He almost screwed himself by sneaking up on me unintentionally and that is a bad thing when I was already on edge. After almost drawing my EDC on him I introduced myself and explained what happened. He provided me with a ratchet and socket to take off the offending piece of car body. He also called one of his buddies who drove up about 3 minutes later drunker than a skunk to get the mangled deer.

During all this my wife and kids were eaten alive by mosquitoes since I of course didn't have any repellant and the car windows had to be down due to the temperature.

Eventually I limped the truck far enough down the highway to get service and we had the car towed and us picked up. $8000 or so in damage.

In short, I failed to prep on the most basic of levels. The only thing I had was a pistol and a spare magazine. I almost wish the deer had lived so I could have felt like I was prepared for something.

by **angelofwar** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:43 pm

Wow...I hate those last minute trips when you forget pretty much ALL your EDC gear. My two bare essential edc's are a good knife and a good flashlight...ALWAYS...

Neat, albeit unfortunate, story.

by **willo** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 6:57 pm

Nothing major, but I was in my swamp a few years ago looking for an old ditch and lost my bearings after falling into it. I didn't have a compass on me and walked the wrong way for about half an hour when I realised that I just could hear the trucks on the main road and that they were behind me, when they should have been in front of me. So I was able to find my bearings after all, and in spite of not being properly prepared.
In that same swamp my great grandfather and a few friends got turned around and couldn't find their way out and it was getting dark. It's not a safe place to stumble around in the dark but they found a hollow tree and spent the night in it. Turned out the next morning they were only about 100 feet from the high ground, and the tree is still standing. My dad showed it to me when I was a kid.

by **Silent Kube** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:18 am

Not a huge deal because I discovered my failure before it became an issue but I was just in my combination guest/prep/panic/disaster room cleaning it out as all the empty boxes from Christmas were just tossed in there. No that's not the fail although it would have sucked had we needed to hunker down. Anyway after I got it cleaned up I decided to make a quick inventory of my preps and realized that while I have a ton of oil lamps, oil & candles, I had neglected to put any sort of lighter, matches or anything to light them. This means that if a tornado were to strike, which is the most likely disaster here, I would have had to leave the safety of my shelter in search of fire when the power went out.

by **angelofwar** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 9:03 am

Silent Kube wrote:Not a huge deal because I discovered my failure before it became an issue but I was just in my combination guest/prep/panic/disaster room cleaning it out as all the empty boxes from Christmas were just tossed in there. No that's not the fail although it would have sucked had we needed to hunker down. Anyway after I got it cleaned up I decided to make a quick inventory of my preps and realized that while I have a ton of oil lamps, oil & candles, I had neglected to put any sort of lighter, matches or anything to light them. This means that if a tornado were to strike, which is the most likely disaster here, I would have had to leave the safety of my shelter in search of fire when the power went out.

Yeah, I've been buying little packs of bics here and there, so soon, I'll have enough so they're laying just about everywhere I would need one. Not a bad investment at $.45-$.50 a pop.

by **squinty** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:19 pm

angelofwar wrote:Wow...I hate those last minute trips when you forget pretty much ALL your EDC gear. My two bare essential edc's are a good knife and a good flashlight...ALWAYS...

Neat, albeit unfortunate, story.

I add a lighter and phone to that mix. I never need the lighter unless I leave it at home. Every time I leave it on the nightstand a need crops up - like twice a year...and I get tired of people looking at me funny and saying "but you don't smoke, why do you carry a lighter?"

Of course, I'm asked that question, mostly, by the smokers who constantly bum lights from me. I think that's Gonkworthy - I need a lighter a few times a year so I carry one "just in case." These floopers need a little flame 20-60 times a day yet they always seem to be without one - and they make fun of me for having it.

Sorry, maybe this should go to "awkward responses to your EDC" thread instead of "prep fail" thread. My actual prep fails are to numerous and severe to describe in an internet post.

by **bhesler** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:37 pm

Well, this is a mix of failure and success. About a month ago, my car's low tire pressure warning light came on. All tires look OK, and I checked with a gauge, and one tire was a couple pounds light. Weather had just turned cold, so I didn't think much of it, and I was planning on getting snow tires sooner or later. I kept an eye on the tire for a week or so, and the light would go off on warmer days and come back on on colder days. Then, on Friday, I hop out of my car at work, and notice that I just drove about 20 miles on a very low tire. Failure... (I think car maintenance is just below Cardio in the rules)

Now comes a partial success. Since college, I have had an emergency kit in my trunk, and a couple years ago, I grabbed a $5 compressor for good measure. I say partial success, because the valve on the compressor is finicky, and I wouldn't want to fiddle with it on a really cold day. Also partial success because it took about 15 minutes to fill my tire. As I was waiting for the tire to inflate, I noticed the head of a screw in the tread.

So, snow tires are ordered and I am planning to get a better compressor for the trunk.

by **Magnumbr** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:22 pm

About two weeks ago after leaving my home in Mississippi, I noticed a slight squeal from under the hood... (Actually it had been off and on for about 2 months now) and figured I would check it out when I got home from work in a couple of weeks. So fast forward 2+ hours of driving and another 3 to go before I arrive at the heliport in Louisiana. My battery light comes on, followed by a high heat engine light. I immediately pull over and get out to check under the hood. No belt... I didn't even hear it break, I notice how cold it is.... 24 F to be exact and call for a tow. The tow truck shows up an hour later and says the only dealership around won't be open until 0730 am. It's 0130 now, and he informs me that he can either drop my car off at the dealership or they can keep it at the yard for a "small fee" ($125) and I tell him dealership. So, he drops me off at the dealership in BFE... What he forgot to mention was that "unattended cars" are not allowed and i needed to stay in my car. Sitting in my car and freezing I break out some of my kit. A Mylar blanket and a few changes of clothes and start layering. It helped somewhat, but freezing for 6 hours, not being able to fall asleep, and missing my flight until the next day sucked. I have no one to blame but myself, And I learned a couple valuable lessons. Take care of any unusual vehicle noises as soon as possible, my first time being stranded and it was not fun and I kicked myself for not fixing it sooner. Also, keep a blanket or some form of warmth in your vehicle, weather can change drastically for the worst in an instant. If I had not had my pack with me I don't know what I would have done.

by **Psypher** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:44 pm

Why do I see this quickly turning into the ZS version of People Of Walmart...

by **Regular Guy** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:50 pm

Psypher wrote:Why do I see this quickly turning into the ZS version of People Of Walmart...

Yeah, 12 pages of people admitting their failures so others can learn from them. Yeah, I hear you on the people of walmart comment and how quickly it's happening. :roll:

*

*I put 3 eye rolls because my eyes literally rolled 3 times in my head, it was quite an experience.

by **Little John** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:12 pm

At the hotel in the wilds of Dallas, waiting on my tractor to get done at the dealer. I grab my trusty mini mag that I edc to light up the ethernet connection. Blink, blink kaput. wtf? batteries are dead, and naturally no spare AA's. :roll:

I use this thing constantly, and i have no spares i feel like such a dumbass. :oops:

(but i do have a little bitty led flashlight in a survival pouch, a nitize clippy thing, and an AMP led that lives on the belt of my tactical shower bag. so all in all not a total fail?)

by **angelofwar** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:52 am

Little John wrote:At the hotel in the wilds of Dallas, waiting on my tractor to get done at the dealer. I grab my trusty mini mag that I edc to light up the ethernet connection. Blink, blink kaput. wtf? batteries are dead, and naturally no spare AA's. I use this thing constantly, and i have no spares i feel like such a dumbass. (but i do have a little bitty led flashlight in a survival pouch, a nitize clippy thing, and an AMP led that lives on the belt of my tactical shower bag. so all in all not a total fail?)

I ALWAYS carry at least one long run time light (usually my Surefire E2L-AA/LX2/ or E2L). I will NEVER be with-out a means of light...even in broad daylight, a flashlight can come in handy, or even make or brake a potential survival scenario you may find yourself in. In the 9/11 Comission Report, one of the findings was that they believe more people would have gotten out if there were more flashlights, as they interviewed those who did get out, they stated there was a lot of confusion, and it was dark, and people couldn't find the stairwells, etc.

by **Elrikk** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:10 am

I do not fail.

Failure is for the weak.

Um...except for the time I shot my door, or the time I left my iPod on my car and drove away or the time I locked myself and a group of friends outside the house in a Nor'easter or... Never mind.

by **duodecima** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:30 am

Left entire EDC at second job. :gonk:

Not only no multitool, flaslight, etc. No cellphone, wallet, credit card, atm card. Couldn't get back to get it for 5 days.

Emergency house cash stash = grocery shopping as ususal.

(I note that many of our preps are used to save us from our prep fails...)

by **ZombieGranny** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 11:24 am

Ouch!

(Although I lol-ed at the last line - been there.)

by **Krustofski** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:21 pm

duodecima wrote:(I note that many of our preps are used to save us from our prep fails...)

Preps are a fail-safe mechanism to begin with.

by **max v** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:59 pm

So yesterday we start the paintjob on my friend's appartment early and I went out the door without my trusted folder. Of course not a half hour passed before my buddy asked me for a knife, and all that was laying around was a raggedy boxcutter down to its last 2 blades. Lost count of how often I could've/would've/should've used a proper knife yesterday. Also I felt naked walking home after.

by **Laager** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:25 pm

Okay here's mine..........anyone that has ever been in the military knows that part of military life is that eventually you are going to get orders, which means you pack up your crap and move. Sometimes to places that are not firearm or even weapons of any kind friendly. Does not really matter, they will not ship your ammo in household goods.

So I ended up with a bunch of left over ammo from guys and gals that I knew that moved overseas. Did not matter what caliber, I'd take anything.

Some I'd shoot, some I'd stash in an ammo can, you know for that just incase I run across a firearm that only shoots .22 Jet.

After six and half years I had a really nice stash. So what happens, we get orders to Hawaii.

Hmmmmmm, what to do with all this stuff.

1) use it up
2) give it away
3) seal it up

Might as well seal up some of my non milsurplus and open milsurplus ammo. So I do.

Four long years go by and we get orders back to the states.

I check all my preps when we get back.....looks good.

A couple of years go by and a friend of mine (on the run for the latest and greatest LA riots) moves up to South Dakota. Seems he has some firearms, but not a lot of ammo. He left it with his brother in LA. So my way better half gives me the look, and then the kick and then the look, kick and pinch. At this point the light bulb clicks on and I say Hey, I have some that you can borrow.....get the look change that to have.

So I tell him wait here and I go to loan him some ammo. I like him and his wife, but no way am I opening up a tuna can, sealed battle pack or giving him one. Crap I know he only had a few hundred rounds or so that he left behind.....and ten for his SKS.

So I remember all the stuff that I had sealed up and I figure I can spare some of that. It's not like I paid for it and well I kinda wanted to see what kind of shape it was in. It's been about 10 years or so since I sealed it up.

I go out to the garage and open up my tubs and well I had a wtf moment......I knew it was ammo, but since for some odd reason after making a bag, tossing in some desiccant then heat sealing it all up, I did not mark the outside to indicated what type or when I had packed it.

So now there I sit with sealed mylar boxes of ammo that I have absolutely no idea which gun they fit.

What if I had really, really needed it...right then, not five minutes from now....but right flipping now. Hmmm, this one feels about right....nope....30-06......how about this one.....nope 7mm mag....hmmm where did that come from?.....okay what about this one....nope 7.62X54R....getting close....ah crap.....shotgun shells? WTF??

Inattention to detail has just bit me right in the ass........a big chunk.....in front of other people as well.

Screwed from the get go.....I ended up opening them all up, giving him the ones he could use and then later on reusing the bags I could, making new ones for those I could not and marking the heck out of each and every one.

by **CoTTer** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:22 am

Was at the local target a few weeks ago, during that really bad snow storm had. Well I am sitting on the toilet as I do my business, all of a sudden the lights go out (Find out later that power was out pretty much every where due to snow.) As I sit there and wonder wtf just happen, I notice that I am not in the best of places for a power shortage. Luck have it, I was carrying my mini mag lite with me, I reach into my bag and pull it out, go to turn it on, discover it was already on, that the batteries are now dead.

So I learned to keep extra batteries on me at all times, for what ever flash light I have with me. I was just happy I had a zippo lighter to help me out when came time to wipe.

by **Vicarious_Lee** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:11 pm

Kid locked himself and my wife out of our new rent house. No hidden key outside yet. Had to rush home.