Stupid Stuff I've done...

[RichardR]

Jeesh I am not so sure that I should admit this but pretty much "all of the above" + & then some ...

I'm still amazed to this day that I survived my childhood, for a really smart kid I did a lot of really stupid things.

Sometimes I think that the only difference between now & then is that I get to say "here hold my beer" prior to saying "hey watch this!".

[Wyldk2]

I Learned at an early age( Electricity hurts). Stuck a paperclip in an electric socket when I was 3 ( learned quickly not to ever mess with plugged in sockets). Fast forward a few years, My brother learned the hard way to never stand behind someone while they are at Bat( baseball). Never ride a skateboard down a newly fresh paved hill ( you can't see the asphalt pebbles). Yeah, Plenty of scars even from my mountianbiking adventures. Like never try to pop a wheelie right as you are coming off a drop at the end of a bridge( Tims Ford State park). I flew over my handlebars and have a scar on my chin to remind me of it. And last time, When parked on a slight incline, always remove the chains from your trailer before adjusting the hitch to your vehicle. ( I was trying to get my utility trailer hooked up to my reciever hitch and forgot about gravity). Sucks, I spent seven hours in the ER in Fayetteville waiting just to know I broke my left middle finger. Being left handed, it sucked cause i had to write with that one.

[Timestepper]

Ok, I'm not going to actually admit to anything here, but I will give just a tiny little tidbit of advice:

 

Never try to kill a skunk with a banjo...

[hipower]

Ok, I'm not going to actually admit to anything here, but I will give just a tiny little tidbit of advice:

 

Never try to kill a skunk with a banjo...

 

I snorted my breakfast up!!

 

What the hell did you do????

[tennessee01tacoma]

So I was getting some ice out of the freezer and it was stuck together so what did I do, ram my glass into it to bust some up that's a good way to end up with a shard of glass about and inch into your hand.

[TNMTBik3r]

120mph in a 40mph zone, two lane curvy hilly road, hitting the bridge over the interstate at 110mph and getting a 4 door sedan airborne over i65... But landed and drove away, only to discover the next morning every piece of wiring had melted and it took 2 months to have the car running again.

Pellet rifle wars, shot my sister and came a quarter inch from taking her eye out. Pellet hit right on the edge of the eye socket.

Thinking it was a good idea to hunt out of a shag bark hickory with a climbing stand.

Stealing a portapotty from a construction site, dragging it two miles down the road behind a truck and dumping in a friends yard.

And the best, middle school science fair project - what is more flammable, hair spray or spray paint? Not sure if this was my stupidity or my parents for letting me try it.... Just say both cans are explosive.

I have more stuff, but unlike several above nothing I remember with electricity.

[Wiljo05]

Senior prank in high school. Turning 5 goats loose in the school. Numbered them 1,2,3,7,10 with spray paint. I know it's been done before, but even 13 yrs ago we got threatened about not graduating! Not the dumbest, but looking back it wasn't smart. Funny, but not smart...

[Timestepper]

I snorted my breakfast up!!

 

What the hell did you do????

Well, amongst other things, I broke the neck out of a damn good banjo and ruined a really nice pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots...  :whistle:

[TMF]

Senior prank in high school. Turning 5 goats loose in the school. Numbered them 1,2,3,7,10 with spray paint. I know it's been done before, but even 13 yrs ago we got threatened about not graduating! Not the dumbest, but looking back it wasn't smart. Funny, but not smart...

Ha, we planned to do the same thing but we couldn't afford the goats. Instead we broke into the school in the middle of the night and cemented a beer keg with our class year painted on it in the quad.

[Wiljo05]

Ha, we planned to do the same thing but we couldn't afford the goats. Instead we broke into the school in the middle of the night and cemented a beer keg with our class year painted on it in the quad.

We "borrowed" them :-) then returned them

[UncleJak]

Okay, one more. I was installing thin metal tiles as a backsplash in my bathroom.  After two rows i realized they were uneven and slanting downward (I didn't use a level and just "eyeballed" it). I was a bit frustrated and was using a screwdriver to reach behind them and pop them back off. In my haste, the screwdriver slipped and the tile cut my right pointer finger off. Yes, OFF! It was dangling by a small piece of skin that didn't cut all the way through. It went right through the joint and all! I lifted it back into place and thought to my self that it couldn't be as bad as I thought. I released the finger and it dangled again. I wrapped it in a towel, got my kids, and drove to town to meet my wife for a trip to the ER.  The finger is back on and a lot of the feeling has returned (happened in 2010). I still cannot bend it all the way down as I can my other ones. 

That has to be my worst by far...

[tercel89]

My brother and me did a small "Cannonball Run" through Tennessee in the mid 90's LOL 

[tercel89]

Okay, one more. I was installing thin metal tiles as a backsplash in my bathroom.  After two rows i realized they were uneven and slanting downward (I didn't use a level and just "eyeballed" it). I was a bit frustrated and was using a screwdriver to reach behind them and pop them back off. In my haste, the screwdriver slipped and the tile cut my right pointer finger off. Yes, OFF! It was dangling by a small piece of skin that didn't cut all the way through. It went right through the joint and all! I lifted it back into place and thought to my self that it couldn't be as bad as I thought. I released the finger and it dangled again. I wrapped it in a towel, got my kids, and drove to town to meet my wife for a trip to the ER.  The finger is back on and a lot of the feeling has returned (happened in 2010). I still cannot bend it all the way down as I can my other ones. 

That has to be my worst by far...

Holy Moses !!!! Glad you are ok ! 

[hipower]

Well, amongst other things, I broke the neck out of a damn good banjo and ruined a really nice pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots...  :whistle:

 

This just gets better and better!

 

You must tell the whole story.

[Timestepper]

This just gets better and better!

 

You must tell the whole story.

Ummm... I don't  think the statute of limitations is up yet. But I can give you some more advice regarding that particualr adventure: Never try to kick a skunk in the ass with a pair of slick-soled cowboy boots! :whistle:

Edited October 2, 2013 by Timestepper

[hipower]

Ummm... I don't  think the statute of limitations is up yet. But I can give you some more advice regarding that particualr adventure: Never try kick a skunk in the ass with a pair of slick-soled cowboy boots! :whistle:

 

Really? I would have thought that would impair his defensive capabilities.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

As a kid, liked building powered planes out of balsa sticks and tissue paper. Had got a tail section glued on a little crooked, and needed to slice it off and reglue. Had been using the same razor blade a long time, which was dull and I'd got accustomed to really pushing to cut balsa. So I had a brand new razor blade and bore down hard on the new blade, and it sliced thru several inches of balsa and also the tendons on the back of my thumb. Had to have general anesthesia for em to dig for the tendons and re-attach em. They "pull up short" when cut.

Was building a kitchen cabinet a couple years ago, tacking down a glued 1/4" plywood back to the cabinet with the finish nailgun. I put on the backs a little oversize then use a router to trim them flush after the glue dries. So I was feeling with a finger to place the nail gun back from the ledge, then removing finger and shooting the nail. Got going a little too fast, didn't pull the finger back, and didn't have the nail gun set right. Shot the finish nail thru the plywood and all the way thru the finger (bone and all). It swelled up and turned interesting colors, but healed up without a doctor visit.

In high school summer vacation was working as a carpenter helper for an old grumpy carpenter, real cast-iron SOB. I couldn't do anything right and he was always telling me dumb advice and I couldn't do anything right. Couldn't even tote wood right according to him. So we were adding a couple rooms to a house and the new bathroom floor wasn't in but everything else was sub-floored. We had been throwing cut off wood scraps into the hole where the bathroom was gonna be. He said clean out all the wood scraps and said watch out for nails. So I jumped down in the hole and ran a 16 penny nail all the way thru the middle of the foot, poking up out of the tongue of the boot.

Picked up the foot with a three foot piece of wood attached, had to twist back and forth on the board to get the nail out of my foot. Luckily it went thru between two foot bones.

That old carpenter was such a cast iron SOB that I knew he wouldn't ever let me live down that dummass move, so I worked the rest of the day with a hole in the foot without telling him, and treated it myself til it healed up because I was too proud to admit the mistake to anybody. Edited October 2, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[hipower]

As a kid, liked building powered planes out of balsa sticks and tissue paper. Had got a tail section glued on a little crooked, and needed to slice it off and reglue. Had been using the same razor blade a long time, which was dull and I'd got accustomed to really pushing to cut balsa. So I had a brand new razor blade and bore down hard on the new blade, and it sliced thru several inches of balsa and also the tendons on the back of my thumb. Had to have general anesthesia for em to dig for the tendons and re-attach em. They "pull up short" when cut.

Was building a kitchen cabinet a couple years ago, tacking down a glued 1/4" plywood back to the cabinet with the finish nailgun. I put on the backs a little oversize then use a router to trim them flush after the glue dries. So I was feeling with a finger to place the nail gun back from the ledge, then removing finger and shooting the nail. Got going a little too fast, didn't pull the finger back, and didn't have the nail gun set right. Shot the finish nail thru the plywood and all the way thru the finger (bone and all). It swelled up and turned interesting colors, but healed up without a doctor visit.

In high school summer vacation was working as a carpenter helper for an old grumpy carpenter, real cast-iron SOB. I couldn't do anything right and he was always telling me dumb advice and I couldn't do anything right. Couldn't even tote wood right according to him. So we were adding a couple rooms to a house and the new bathroom floor wasn't in but everything else was sub-floored. We had been throwing cut off wood scraps into the hole where the bathroom was gonna be. He said clean out all the wood scraps and said watch out for nails. So I jumped down in the hole and ran a 16 penny nail all the way thru the middle of the foot, poking up out of the tongue of the boot.

Picked up the foot with a three foot piece of wood attached, had to twist back and forth on the board to get the nail out of my foot. Luckily it went thru between two foot bones.

That old carpenter was such a cast iron SOB that I knew he wouldn't ever let me live down that dummass move, so I worked the rest of the day with a hole in the foot without telling him, and treated it myself til it healed up because I was too proud to admit the mistake to anybody.

 

Lester, you may be the closest to dangerous around tools and worksites kinda guy I've heard of. Except for me, that is.

 

BE safer, my friend.

[McGarrett]

The Jake Locker story -with an injured hip and knee brought back the memory of my stupidity just a few months ago.  I thought we all might share a little laugh at ourselves.

 

Here's mine:

    We have a lot of stumps on our 1 acre property - 14, mostly mature, most cut off between 8" and 3' from ground level (thank you previous owner).  It would cost a boatload (to me) to have them ground and removed, so I thought I would just chip away at them one at a time.

 

    Stump #1 was a good candidate, only 8 or so inches high, I could chip a little each morning before my shower and be done in no time.  I started in with the pickaxe slowly and carefully - learning my technique. As I worked my way around the stump, the pieces really started coming off.  I was literally chipping away at the stump in good time.

     After making one full revolution around the stump, I turned up the heat and really started swinging... -no sooner did I do that, than a 6"x8" piece of elm came rocketing off of that stump and into the inside of my right knee.  I hit the ground like my leg had been cut off... no thought, no reaction.. just down.

   As I realized I was on the ground - rolling back and forth and groaning, I was sure I was ok - a serious injury would never hurt this bad.  - but I was looking around trying to see if anyone in the neighborhood had heard or seen me go down...   I was out of breath, dizzy, nauseous, and couldn't put weight on that leg.  Crazy pain was radiating up to my hip.    All of this pain (I could barely breathe), and my greatest concern was - how the heck was I going to get up and across the yard to the house?!  

     I grabbed the pickaxe and pulled myself up - using it as a crutch/cane to get across the yard and into the house.  I must've looked pitiful.  My 5yr old kids sprang into action - without me saying a word - ran and got the frozen peas out of the freezer and told me to lay down on the couch and prop my leg up - and put some ice on that knee (yes, I was proud - though a bit out of it).

 

     In hindsight, I could see my stupidity - that the angle of the pickaxe leveraged debris right toward my body - legs in particular - with the velocity of the projectile commensurate to the force with which I swung.  - I'm lucky I didn't break a tibia.  -if that piece had hit me in the nuts, I would've been in a coma.

 

    That stump is still there - just as I left it, and I still have the scar.  It's a "stupid" scar.

 

What about you?

I have a few stumps like that around my property. A little trick my neighbor told me about, buy a salt block and set it on the stump, rain and deer will do the rest. It will take a while but the salt will get all down in the stump and in the dirt around it and the deer with dig at it and around it and it will be gone in a few years.

 

+1 on not enough data space on the forums, and I also don't know where to begin.

[Chucktshoes]

Under advisement from my legal counsel, I will decline to post further in this thread on the grounds that in doing so I may incriminate myself. :D Edited October 2, 2013 by Chucktshoes

[LagerHead]

Made a bench vise in a metalworking class at TTU once. Milling the base, jaws, anvil, etc went smoothly enough. After cutting threads on the spindle successfully, I was clearly over-confident in my skills with a lathe. You cut threads at a slow speed, but turning the handle requires a bit more rpms, so you have to use a lathe-dog to hold the material in place.

That's where the rule about NEVER EVER EVER making tool adjustments until the lathe comes to a complete stop comes in. Only I was way too smart for that. I had already done so a few times while cutting the threads (with no lathe dog in place). I loosened the tool holder, inserted a new one, tightened the nut and BAM! I'm seeing stars, my white sweatshirt is red, my eyes are watering, and my nose is broken. Apparently my wrench hit the lathe dog, sending it hurdling at my face at what seemed like the speed of sound, based on the pain.

 

I'm very sorry, but I laughed out loud at this. I think it was the "speed of sound" part.

 

Ok, I'm not going to actually admit to anything here, but I will give just a tiny little tidbit of advice:

 

Never try to kill a skunk with a banjo...

 

Now you see, that's just the kind of wisdom you will NEVER pick up if you live up North. 

[Timestepper]

Really? I would have thought that would impair his defensive capabilities.

Ummm... not if you slip before you make contact with him... :yuck:

[Defender]

Well...let me see....rubbing chin, it all started back in the first grade.  My dad, despite my mom's objections, gave me my first pocket knife.  It was a Case folding knife, probably small but at the time it seemed huge.  My mom said he's too young, he'll cut himself.  I said Mom, no, I’m almost all growed up.  Ill be fine.  I know how use a knife and be responsible!  SO i got it...looked at it a few times then went out to play. Ran into the neighbor kid and I said  Hey look what i got, a pocketknife!  I then took it out and opened it and wanted to show it off so I started throwing the thing up in the air and then catching it it my hand.  The other kid was really impressed until the time it came down blade first and sliced my palm open! LOL, well I couldn’t very well go back inside and let my mom see that she was right and I was wrong, so as it was fall, there were leaves all over the ground.  I used about a thousand of them to sop up the blood and finally got it to stop bleeding eventually.  Now I’m 58 years old and that IS STILL ONE OF THE BIGGEST SCARS I HAVE!  I’m pretty certain it needed stitches, but there was no way I was gonna let my mom see that, lmao.

 

And I have continued to make similarly stupid decisions up to the present, lol.  You’d think a person would learn belter after a while.

[hipower]

Ummm... not if you slip before you make contact with him... :yuck:

Check with an attorney and find the limitations here, we really gotta get this story.

It just has so many images that demand explanation.

[DaveS]

OK, now that y'all have beat me into submission, I shall confess....

 

Last year I plugged an extension cord into the wall and then my drill into the cord. Went to drill a hole and the drill didn't work. Went and checked the breaker...all was good. I unplugged the drill and plugged it in another outlet...all worked fine. After a few more tests, I determined that the extension cord didn't work. So I unplugged it. When I went to plug in another one, it wouldn't go in the outlet. After close examination, I found a metal prong from the old cord still sticking in the hole. Well, it had came out of the cord plug and was stuck. So, being the handy man that I am, I reached down and grabbed the metal to pull it out of the outlet. Well, it was then that I remembered why insulated pliers and breaker switches were made!

 

I have more I will post later...

 

DaveS