I always over-shop. Because what if the store suddenly gets set on fire on the day I need toilet paper. When I gotta go, I gotta go. I can't run an extra block when I gotta go, and all because buying in bulk seems strange to others. Take a guess who was already toilet paper stocked pre-pandemic.
Needle & Thread
Excited Jump GIF by Megan BatoonGiphy"I always carry a small sewing kit whenever I go to a wedding. I have sewed two brides into their dresses so far!"
Middle School Days
"All the teachers at the Middle School I taught at knew I was a pack rat and one day a kid split his pants and the school counselor came to me and said 'Mr. Thehogdog, would you happen to have a pair of sweats or gym pants in your truck'. YEP. So the the kid spent the rest of the day in a pair of nylon pants I had behind my seat."
"He is lucky because if he didn't fit he would have spent the rest of the day in a white disposable 'coverall' I had in case I had car trouble in nice clothes. Icing on the cake: It was a student I really liked who was super helpful to other kids and teachers, so it was nice to do something nice for him. I also carried a 'Swiss Army' brand soft side brief case (yard sale find) STUFFED and it had a few of each size of battery."
"One day Phil Niekro and 2 Braves players were there for an assembly and Phil's mic battery was dying so I SPRINTED upstairs to my classroom, grabbed a 9 volt from my bag, then basically rolled across the panel and switched out his battery and got back to the PA avoiding getting on TV News cameras."
Through the Hourglass...
"Not me, but my mother."
"Apparently at a party where my parents and their friends were playing board games, there was a realization that an hourglass was missing from one of the games they planned on playing. My mother proceeded to reach into her purse and pull out an hourglass she just so happened to bring, on the off chance they didn't have one."
"HOWEVER, later in the night when some drinks had been had, someone accidentally slammed a drink down, breaking my mother's hourglass. Without missing a beat, she reached into her purse and pulled out ANOTHER hourglass. She knew the first one, being glass, might get broken so she had a backup ready."
Former Flat Earthers Explain What Finally Made Them Come Around | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Creepers
"I didn't actually plan for this, it just worked out. But one day for some reason I put a suction cup in my pocket. I can't exactly remember why - it was from a shower hook that I think broke (?) and I put it in my pocket hoping to find a replacement or something."
"Later that day I was standing around with a few friends and one friend was lamenting that his bumper was dented. He showed us and said, "I bet I could pop it right out if I had like a suction cup or something." I wordlessly pulled the suction cup out of my pocket and handed it to him. Everyone definitely thought I was creepy as hell."
25 Plus
tom jerry GIFGiphy"When my son was still a baby, we had to take an 11 hour flight. As an overthinker, I brought at least 25 diapers for him to go through. He didn't need that many, but the mom sitting close to us was very grateful when she ran out of diapers not even halfway through the flight and I gave her a few."
See, these people get it. It's better to be safe than sorry. If I had a kid I'd be packing a hundred diapers. And to be a sewing aficionado and carrying around supplies, should be mandatory skill for everyone.
The Cut
scissors GIFGiphy"I carry scissors in my glove compartment. They came in handy when a kid tightened a skinny zip tie around my 9 year olds finger at a park. Completely cut off the circulation. Also the other kids mom was a nurse so that was helpful too. Carry scissors and a nurse at all times."
Clogged!
"One time, I waaaay over thought a concern I had around dryer vent fire. When the time came that we had a clog, didn't know, and there was a wee burst of flames I was freaking READY."
"Edit to add: I cleaned the lint trap religiously. I just had a gut feeling. I bough One of those things from Amazon to clean it and nothing came out so DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU."
"If your drying times are up and there's sometimes a smell, call someone or check every POSSIBLE location. We found basically Brillo pads of burnt hair inside the heating element. Stay safe pals!"
"Last edit: thanks for the award - my first of this kind!!! You rock fuzzybum."
just in case...
"Was at one of those trampoline parks with my kid when I look over and see several of the workers attending to an elderly lady sitting on the floor. Turns out she'd taken a shot to the forehead somehow and was bleeding profusely. They were trying to help with paper towels. Well I'd taken a free local Stop the Bleed class "just in case" and since have kept supplies in my truck."
"Asked if they needed some gauze and a bandage, went and got it, and brought it back. I told the guy, "Now if one piece of gauze fills up -" He interrupted, "Take it off and put on a new one." I said, "No! You put another one overtop that one, but leave the bottom one there." He said, "Well, you know more than I do. Come over and help." We were able to get her patched up."
- nchiker
Slim Jim
"I bought and learned to use a slim Jim ( open locked cars) I carry one in my car and have been able to help no less than 10 people who have locked their keys in their car. My brother was visiting me from out of town and he need something from Target, he called me and said an elderly man had locked his keys in his car and I was able to drive over and help. Also have jumper cables that have helped start a few stranded drivers."
I See Things
All That Magic GIF by NickelodeonGiphy"Went through a stage as a teenager where I thought I was psychic."
"I know, I know, stupid. A friend asked me jokingly to make a prediction. I told him to get a flashlight, because tomorrow would be dark. I grabbed one myself when I got home and put it in my purse. No idea why, just did it. The next day the Eastern seaboard blackouts happened. He still asks for predictions to this day."
Got It!
"I worked weddings for a while, during an age (26-28) where lots of my friends were getting married. I've helped to bustle pretty much every bride whose wedding I attended, including brides who I didn't know well (who were either friends of my husband, or I was close friends with the groom)."
"At work, I had one of those craft supply organizers full to the brim of emergency supplies: pins (safety, bobby, AND straight pins), hair ties, earring backs, a sewing kit, pain relievers, tums, granola bars (sometimes you just need to get the bride to eat SOMETHING), chalk (works great for covering up minor stains on white dresses), hairspray, makeup remover wipes, superglue, bandaids, blister bandages, you name it. People were always pleasantly surprised when they needed something random and I was just like "yep I've got that, here you go!"
Tiny Ideas
"I remember one day in school a teacher was complaining someone had tied her blinds so tightly she couldn't get them to open or close. Me being the weird kid, I ask her if she wanted a screwdriver to get it undone. She looked at me like I was crazy and a little scared as I reached into my wallet and pulled out this tiny screwdriver from those tiny finger bmx/skateboards and handed it over."
"Everyone thought I was crazy and my teacher laughed in relief when she saw it. Everyone thought i was weird until I told them I used it to tighten the screws on my glasses. They were constantly unscrewing themselves and I was sick of having to go to the opticians every time it happened. Obviously the solution was to carry a tiny screwdriver with me!"
- Zanki
Parent MD
"I found a nickel-sized lump on my fifteen month old daughter's temple, freaked out, obsessed over it, researched it exhaustively, and concluded it was a dermoid cyst that had worn through the skull. I was told by a pediatrician that it was a bone bruise that would fix itself over the course of three to six months, no imaging was needed, and I shouldn't make an appointment at the children's hospital because it would resolve on its own."
"I got an X-ray done anyway and the radiologist confirmed every one of my suspicions, but the pediatrician still said to wait and see because that's what you do with dermoid cysts and it was definitely not through the skull despite what the radiologist said. Made an appointment at the hospital anyway, and the surgeon swore up and down that although it was a dermoid cyst as I'd suspected, it would not be through the skull since in all his years of practice it never had been."
"Well guess what? It WAS through the skull, and it was pressing on the membrane between the skull and the brain, a hair's breadth from breaking the membrane or pressing on the brain. A couple more weeks of waiting and my daughter could have had seizures, a brain infection, lasting damage. I overthought it and now she's a happy, healthy three year old."
Firesaver...
scary movie burn GIF by UsGiphy"I carry a fire extinguisher in my auto. I witnessed a car accident where the engine caught fire. I quickly put it out before it burned the inside of the car. Everyone survived."
- mwthread
The Classmen
"In college on occasion upper classmen would randomly steal the under classmen towels from the shower stalls and then lock their room doors so they had to go to the RA bar messed. I had the idea to stash a towel in the drop ceiling tiles for just that event. Maybe a week later I became the victim of a towel snatching. However, the upper classmen were very unhappy to see me strut out with a nice clean towel from my ceiling stash."
- duck1914
Holding the Deck
"I always keep an unopened deck of cards in my backpack. You never can tell when some Hold 'Em may be needed to pass the time. But when I was at a business conference the bigwig who was presenting to us was having to wing it with a few things because his luggage had been lost, and he didn't have all of his materials. He had the PowerPoint deck, but he didn't have his props."
"He started going into explaining how he'd be able to demonstrate this statistical principle he was describing, only he didn't have the unopened deck of cards he needed. Voila! I was able to produce a shrink-wrapped deck of cards. My boss was also in the same presentation, and he was also impressed that I just happened to have a deck of cards on me, so that's nice, too."
- ronearc
My Left Hand
"Injuring my dominant hand... as a kid I had an irrational fear of having it chopped off. I spent all of grade 6 teaching myself to write and do things with my left hand. I made a conscious effort to remain as ambidextrous as possible. As an adult I broke a few fingers on my dominant hand... but it wasn't a big issue because I could do most things equally with my left hand. Anti climactic, but it was useful lol."
I am Here
ichabod crane map GIF by HULUGiphy"Getting lost in a foreign country. Relying on phone GPS to navigate, data stops working... had over prepared and memorized the map of the downtown area ahead of time."
The Back-up
"I am basically blind without my glasses, and I've always taken a backup pair of glasses when I travel. It went untouched for years, taking up valuable space in my luggage. Lo and behold, one trip to Montreal a few years ago I just woke up one morning to find my glasses broken - no idea how it happened. And I finally got a chance to break out my backup pair 😎."
- caruul
Got it All...
"I used to live out of my backpack, and I always thought I'd need to leave town, so I kept just about everything in there you could ever need. Often times I'd end up having to stay somewhere without much notice, and I'd have: a change of clothes, face wash, tooth brush, toothpaste, scissors, floss, phone charger, money, snacks, etc. Enough to cover me for at least two days without actually needing to go home."
I hope everyone is paying attention. Be more like the overthinkers. We're the ones you want on the island. You want to stay useful or be fed to sharks. Eventually, our day always comes.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.