Tunnel vision can be used to describe many things, usually it implies some sort of error. Tactically you don’t want to get tunnel vision when clearing a room which is why being able to fire with both eyes open is great. You don’t want to get tunnel vision when you drive, which is why you need to always check your mirrors like they taught you back in Driver’s Ed. When it comes to prepping one could fall victim to tunnel vision if too much emphasis is placed on any one product (or even skill), thus making it difficult to achieve a well balanced prep strategy. Last night I realized I had fallen victim to tunnel vision prepping and although the impact was not that significant it still made me shake my head in disgust.
During the day yesterday I was working on some things around the house. I went to the garage to grab one of my tools which I hadn’t used in a while, only to find out that it was dead. I opened up the back and expected to see AA batteries, instead there was a 9V. No problem, I’ll head down to the basement to grab another one from the battery stash. Only I was soon to find out there was indeed a problem, within my entire Tupperware “battery box” there were no 9v batteries. I had packages upon packages of AA and AAA but no 9v. I couldn’t believe it, what was I thinking only buying two types of batteries?
Fast forward a few hours into the evening, the wind was howling outside and we were hearing of sporadic power outages due to the storm. My wife told me that one of the flashlights needed new batteries, it was the large one that sits on a stand by our bed. I already knew I didn’t have the replacement D batteries after the 9v fiasco that took place earlier. No D batteries, no 9v, but I sure did have a ton of AA and AAA which were absolutely no good to me.
Here’s the point. I can make my way over to our local home improvement store and rectify this problem later today, it’s just a minor inconvenience really. The lesson learned however is that I definitely had tunnel vision because I only thought to buy AA and AAA batteries for my preps, probably because that is the most popular type of remote control and small flashlight battery. While you might be thinking that it’s only batteries (i.e. what’s the big deal) the larger point is that I’m now starting to wonder where else I might have had tunnel vision. Maybe too much of one type of food or not enough redundancy in my water purification plan. I need to re-evaluate my strategy as a whole to check for gaps so I can fill them where necessary. I’m thankful for the battery episode yesterday as it shed some light on a potential problem that needed to be addressed. Don’t fall victim to tunnel vision while prepping!
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