Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you've ever done?

[Piedmont3]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I didn't do this, but I was in the shop at the time.
when we were kids (15...16...17 years old we were trying to build an engine for a race truck(at least to beat the other guys on main street on weekend nights)... We were using the farm/ag shop of one of our friends. one of the little brothers, 13 or 14 years old, grabbed the grinder and was grinding on something he had squeezed in the vice. His big brother walked over to see what charlie was grinding on.. it popped as he got close. I was under the truck trying to bolt up the transmission. something hit me in the heel of the boot...
We nearly skinned charlie when we found out he had been grinding a .22 caliber rimfire shell.. and I still have that pair of boot with the chunk missing from the heel. If I could have caught him that night I would have torn him apart. I see his big brother occasionally and we still laugh at that story.
Stupid lucky kids.

 

[Piedmont3]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I didn't do this, but I was in the shop at the time.
when we were kids (15...16...17 years old we were trying to build an engine for a race truck(at least to beat the other guys on main street on weekend nights)... We were using the farm/ag shop of one of our friends. one of the little brothers, 13 or 14 years old, grabbed the grinder and was grinding on something he had squeezed in the vice. His big brother walked over to see what charlie was grinding on.. it popped as he got close. I was under the truck trying to bolt up the transmission. something hit me in the heel of the boot...
We nearly skinned charlie when we found out he had been grinding a .22 caliber rimfire shell.. and I still have that pair of boot with the chunk missing from the heel. If I could have caught him that night I would have torn him apart. I see his big brother occasionally and we still laugh at that story.
Stupid lucky kids.

 

[Bird]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Jeff, from the time I was 11 years old, Dad & I both did a lot of hunting for small game with .22 rifles. My youngest brother, 6 years younger than I, had seen us pull the lead out of "duds" and dump the powder out and burn it. He had asked both of us what would happen if you hit a .22 shell with a hammer, and of course, we told him and also told him to never do it. He was probably 6 or 7 years old when we were visiting our grandparents and we heard a "pop" outside, then heard him yelling. I went running out there to find him bleeding like a stuck hog from his right arm. He had found a .22 shell, wasn't strong enough to pull the lead out, so he laid it on the concrete drive and tried to chop it open with a hatchet. We have no idea where the lead went, but it turned out that he had 2 pieces of the brass laying right against the bone in his right arm; one above the elbow and one below. By the time we got to the hospital, saw the x-rays, and the doctor started probing to get those out, Mother was nearly hysterical, and little brother laying there with the doctor probing, says, "I'm hungry!" It was about lunch time. And that ended Mother's hysteria. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Of course we asked him why he'd done that when Dad and I had both told him not to, and he said, "I didn't hit it with a hammer; it was a hatchet."

 

[Bird]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Jeff, from the time I was 11 years old, Dad & I both did a lot of hunting for small game with .22 rifles. My youngest brother, 6 years younger than I, had seen us pull the lead out of "duds" and dump the powder out and burn it. He had asked both of us what would happen if you hit a .22 shell with a hammer, and of course, we told him and also told him to never do it. He was probably 6 or 7 years old when we were visiting our grandparents and we heard a "pop" outside, then heard him yelling. I went running out there to find him bleeding like a stuck hog from his right arm. He had found a .22 shell, wasn't strong enough to pull the lead out, so he laid it on the concrete drive and tried to chop it open with a hatchet. We have no idea where the lead went, but it turned out that he had 2 pieces of the brass laying right against the bone in his right arm; one above the elbow and one below. By the time we got to the hospital, saw the x-rays, and the doctor started probing to get those out, Mother was nearly hysterical, and little brother laying there with the doctor probing, says, "I'm hungry!" It was about lunch time. And that ended Mother's hysteria. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Of course we asked him why he'd done that when Dad and I had both told him not to, and he said, "I didn't hit it with a hammer; it was a hatchet."

 

[Piedmont3]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Bird.
Are you sure your little brother's name isn't Charlie....
Because that sounds like what he said that night, Something along the line of I thought you had to hit it with something to make it go off.. I just wanted to see what was inside it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
If I could have caught him I would hace shown him the inside of that shell.. I would have stuffed him in there so he could have a real good long look. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif.
I'm just glad it is a funny memory instead of one of us being hurt or worse.

 

[Piedmont3]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Bird.
Are you sure your little brother's name isn't Charlie....
Because that sounds like what he said that night, Something along the line of I thought you had to hit it with something to make it go off.. I just wanted to see what was inside it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
If I could have caught him I would hace shown him the inside of that shell.. I would have stuffed him in there so he could have a real good long look. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif.
I'm just glad it is a funny memory instead of one of us being hurt or worse.

 

[catsco]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Great reading, everybody.

As with most of you, this brings back a memory of a stupid thing I accidentally did. It's pretty funny now.

In 1977 I was driving from Denver to North Platte, NE to visit my girlfriend. I left Christmas Eve as it was getting dark, and have little recollection of the trip other than as I was feeling very drowsy, I noticed that the road was really rough.

As I 'woke up', I realized that I was driving 75 mph in the frozen grass of the median, and was approaching a headwall with a culvert.

A quick swerve to the right, and I shot across the highway and off the North Platte exit.

Whew! This was in a Fiat 128!

Back then I was young and foolish. Now I'm older. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mark H.

 

[catsco]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Great reading, everybody.

As with most of you, this brings back a memory of a stupid thing I accidentally did. It's pretty funny now.

In 1977 I was driving from Denver to North Platte, NE to visit my girlfriend. I left Christmas Eve as it was getting dark, and have little recollection of the trip other than as I was feeling very drowsy, I noticed that the road was really rough.

As I 'woke up', I realized that I was driving 75 mph in the frozen grass of the median, and was approaching a headwall with a culvert.

A quick swerve to the right, and I shot across the highway and off the North Platte exit.

Whew! This was in a Fiat 128!

Back then I was young and foolish. Now I'm older. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mark H.

 

[AL_Josh]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I worked for a fire sprinkler company for a year and we ended up doing some pretty stupid things. Our crew foreman was notorious for sending us out in the field with equipment that would just do the job and sometimes it just would not do the job.He would send us out with a 8' ladder to do a 14' ladder job.

One of the things was at a saw mill were we were running a system. Most of the sprinklerheads were going over equipment and we could not use manlifts. But, there was an overhead crane. We rachet strapped a 24' walkboard to it and brought the controller up with us and used it as our work platform. I did participate in that one.

The next one was where there was a drop ceiling and we had pipe running near the roof. The ceiling to roof distance was probly 15 feet and the ceiling was 20' from the floor. We had a scissorlift and a 14' jack ladder. In case you do not know what a jack ladder is it is a a frame ladder that has another ladder coming straight out of the top so it looks like a big peace sign with no circle arround it. We once again rachet strapped it to the manlift gaurdrails raised the manlift up till the top of the ladder reached the ceiling and then climbed the ladder to the roof to work on the pipes.

The third thing I saw was another one of the guys rachet strapped a couple of 4x4s and a 2x12 to the basket of a 80' manlift.It looked just like a diving board. The place where we were working was a new building that the top 15' of metal was not on the walls and we were going through the gap to reach the top of the building to run our lines. well he could not reach far enough in in one spot. SO he made the diving board so he could reach. It stuck out about 8' from the basket on the manlift. He put his safety harness on and tied off to the basket walked out and hung the pipe.

The rachet straps that were used were the heavy duty ones. I think back and say to myself that we must of had some good guardian angels watching over us.

I have come along way since then. I am married now and would never do anything like that anymore.

Sorry for being so long winded.

 

[AL_Josh]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I worked for a fire sprinkler company for a year and we ended up doing some pretty stupid things. Our crew foreman was notorious for sending us out in the field with equipment that would just do the job and sometimes it just would not do the job.He would send us out with a 8' ladder to do a 14' ladder job.

One of the things was at a saw mill were we were running a system. Most of the sprinklerheads were going over equipment and we could not use manlifts. But, there was an overhead crane. We rachet strapped a 24' walkboard to it and brought the controller up with us and used it as our work platform. I did participate in that one.

The next one was where there was a drop ceiling and we had pipe running near the roof. The ceiling to roof distance was probly 15 feet and the ceiling was 20' from the floor. We had a scissorlift and a 14' jack ladder. In case you do not know what a jack ladder is it is a a frame ladder that has another ladder coming straight out of the top so it looks like a big peace sign with no circle arround it. We once again rachet strapped it to the manlift gaurdrails raised the manlift up till the top of the ladder reached the ceiling and then climbed the ladder to the roof to work on the pipes.

The third thing I saw was another one of the guys rachet strapped a couple of 4x4s and a 2x12 to the basket of a 80' manlift.It looked just like a diving board. The place where we were working was a new building that the top 15' of metal was not on the walls and we were going through the gap to reach the top of the building to run our lines. well he could not reach far enough in in one spot. SO he made the diving board so he could reach. It stuck out about 8' from the basket on the manlift. He put his safety harness on and tied off to the basket walked out and hung the pipe.

The rachet straps that were used were the heavy duty ones. I think back and say to myself that we must of had some good guardian angels watching over us.

I have come along way since then. I am married now and would never do anything like that anymore.

Sorry for being so long winded.

 

[Neil_D]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

After reading all the other posts, I guess I need to 'fess up and post mine. I can't believe we are all still alive to laugh at these. Here's my top ten (there are plenty more)

10. Hopping over the security fence at Watkins Glen racetrack during a brief period of no cars going by to retrieve empty beer cans (I was 13 and they were worth 5 cents apiece in NY)

9. At age 14 agreeing to drive 20 miles to pick up a buddy to bring back to the party because I was the "least drunk." Two years from the legal driving age and already intoxicated didn't stop me, neither did borrowing the car that belonged to my friend's parents who were out of state on vacation, and unaware we were having a party and using their car as a shuttle.

8.Forgetting to replace the oil cap after changing the oil in my first car. Do you know how heavy the hood on a Toyotal Tercel is with 3 quarts of oil soaked into the sound-proofing?

7.At age 22 thinking that going rollerblading through the quad at college after downing a 12 pack is a good idea.

6.At age 12 deciding that I will swing out on this vine, you wait for me to hit the oak tree and push off. When I do, you swing out on the other vine, we'll high five each other in the middle as we pass each other. Guess what? Instead of passing, we collided and both blacked out before we dropped about 15 feet to the gound. Lucky the ground was soft.

5. Around age 12 agreeing to be the one to light the 20 firecrackers we had fused together. Somehow 2 fuses together burn exponentially faster than 20 individual fuses. I couldn't hear out of my right ear or feel my fingertips in my right hand for quite some time.

4. Around age 13 bragging that I could clear the ditch with my bike. When the front tire hit the oppostite bank and stopped dead, my knee burined itself in the hex head bolt on the stem which left a perfect hex-shaped dent in my knee. It took a week to disappear. Still hurts sometimes.

3.Around age 15, got a speedometer fopr my 10 speed bike. Wanted to see how fast I could go, so went to the top of the hill on our road and started pedalling down. At 35 m.p.h. the neighbors dog ran me off the road, where I ran into a large rock that flipped me over the handlebars. Worst part was I had to push a bike with 2 flat tires and bent rims 2 miles home with a broken wrist.

2. Forgot to leave the parking brake on my future mother-in-law's Dodge Daytona Shelby Turbo Z at the after pary of our senior prom. Wrecked 4 cars although no one was in any of them. Ever have to call the father of your girlfriend at 4:00 a.m. to tell him you wrecked his wife's sports car and 3 others? Good times!

1.Decided not to take the job offer 20 minutes from Myrtle Beach to stay in Pennsylvania so I could be "closer to family." Do you think they plow my snow? Fat chance.

 

[Neil_D]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

After reading all the other posts, I guess I need to 'fess up and post mine. I can't believe we are all still alive to laugh at these. Here's my top ten (there are plenty more)

10. Hopping over the security fence at Watkins Glen racetrack during a brief period of no cars going by to retrieve empty beer cans (I was 13 and they were worth 5 cents apiece in NY)

9. At age 14 agreeing to drive 20 miles to pick up a buddy to bring back to the party because I was the "least drunk." Two years from the legal driving age and already intoxicated didn't stop me, neither did borrowing the car that belonged to my friend's parents who were out of state on vacation, and unaware we were having a party and using their car as a shuttle.

8.Forgetting to replace the oil cap after changing the oil in my first car. Do you know how heavy the hood on a Toyotal Tercel is with 3 quarts of oil soaked into the sound-proofing?

7.At age 22 thinking that going rollerblading through the quad at college after downing a 12 pack is a good idea.

6.At age 12 deciding that I will swing out on this vine, you wait for me to hit the oak tree and push off. When I do, you swing out on the other vine, we'll high five each other in the middle as we pass each other. Guess what? Instead of passing, we collided and both blacked out before we dropped about 15 feet to the gound. Lucky the ground was soft.

5. Around age 12 agreeing to be the one to light the 20 firecrackers we had fused together. Somehow 2 fuses together burn exponentially faster than 20 individual fuses. I couldn't hear out of my right ear or feel my fingertips in my right hand for quite some time.

4. Around age 13 bragging that I could clear the ditch with my bike. When the front tire hit the oppostite bank and stopped dead, my knee burined itself in the hex head bolt on the stem which left a perfect hex-shaped dent in my knee. It took a week to disappear. Still hurts sometimes.

3.Around age 15, got a speedometer fopr my 10 speed bike. Wanted to see how fast I could go, so went to the top of the hill on our road and started pedalling down. At 35 m.p.h. the neighbors dog ran me off the road, where I ran into a large rock that flipped me over the handlebars. Worst part was I had to push a bike with 2 flat tires and bent rims 2 miles home with a broken wrist.

2. Forgot to leave the parking brake on my future mother-in-law's Dodge Daytona Shelby Turbo Z at the after pary of our senior prom. Wrecked 4 cars although no one was in any of them. Ever have to call the father of your girlfriend at 4:00 a.m. to tell him you wrecked his wife's sports car and 3 others? Good times!

1.Decided not to take the job offer 20 minutes from Myrtle Beach to stay in Pennsylvania so I could be "closer to family." Do you think they plow my snow? Fat chance.

 

[VinnieNC]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Here's one that I am embarrassed to tell:

I rented a 24 foot U-Haul truck to move a couple hundred miles accross the state. The U-Haul dealer delayed me a day or so because the only one he had was being worked on; it had some kind of leak. When I picked it up, he assured me everything was fine.

My brothers helped me load up all my belongings and we hit the road. About 50 miles into the trip, the smell of raw diesel fuel filled the air. We popped the hood and noted one of the fuel lines going to one injector was not connected by about 1/2 inch. With the engine running, you could see the spurt-spurt-spurt of diesel fuel spray out. It was one of those things that would make the Preacher say "Day-amn".

We kept on trucking. Diesel fuel was all over the engine compartment, had to drive with the windows down to so I could breath "fresh" air. Fuel burning off the hot engine and manifold caused a smokey haze behind me. The truck wouldn't go over about 60 mph.

By the time I reached my destination, the fuel had leaked through the firewall and had saturated the floor matt. What a mess!

When I returned the truck to the second U-Haul dealer, I pointed out that there **might** be a problem under the hood to the little Indian man. I am not sure what he was saying in his language, but by his tone I could tell it was not good!

I was very lucky, as one little ignition spark could have burned up me, the truck and everything I own.

To paraphrase another member's signature line: "The older I get, the DUMBER I used to be."

-Vinnie

 

[VinnieNC]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Here's one that I am embarrassed to tell:

I rented a 24 foot U-Haul truck to move a couple hundred miles accross the state. The U-Haul dealer delayed me a day or so because the only one he had was being worked on; it had some kind of leak. When I picked it up, he assured me everything was fine.

My brothers helped me load up all my belongings and we hit the road. About 50 miles into the trip, the smell of raw diesel fuel filled the air. We popped the hood and noted one of the fuel lines going to one injector was not connected by about 1/2 inch. With the engine running, you could see the spurt-spurt-spurt of diesel fuel spray out. It was one of those things that would make the Preacher say "Day-amn".

We kept on trucking. Diesel fuel was all over the engine compartment, had to drive with the windows down to so I could breath "fresh" air. Fuel burning off the hot engine and manifold caused a smokey haze behind me. The truck wouldn't go over about 60 mph.

By the time I reached my destination, the fuel had leaked through the firewall and had saturated the floor matt. What a mess!

When I returned the truck to the second U-Haul dealer, I pointed out that there **might** be a problem under the hood to the little Indian man. I am not sure what he was saying in his language, but by his tone I could tell it was not good!

I was very lucky, as one little ignition spark could have burned up me, the truck and everything I own.

To paraphrase another member's signature line: "The older I get, the DUMBER I used to be."

-Vinnie

 

[JDgreen227]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

"I was very lucky, as one little ignition spark could have burned me up...."

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Not trying to be a smart alec, but a diesel engine has no type of ignition system, no distributor, spark plugs, etc. Perhaps you meant a spark caused by the alternator or a short in the wiring.

Yup, you were darn lucky. So was I, my first car was a '62 Mercury, the gas gauge didn't work so I thought I would drain the tank to replace the sending unit. Got a big metal five gallon can and crawled under the car, unscrewed the drain plug on the tank, and of course the plug fell right into the can, and because the gauge didn't work I had no way of knowing how much gas was in the tank. HINT...more than 5 gallons /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. You should have seen me trying to plug the tank drain with my finger and somehow manage to fish the metal drain plug out of the metal can without making a spark. Would have made a GREAT tape for AFHV.

When I think of this incident and all the other stupid things I survived as a teenager, it amazes me I'm still around to relate them to others.

 

[JDgreen227]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

"I was very lucky, as one little ignition spark could have burned me up...."

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Not trying to be a smart alec, but a diesel engine has no type of ignition system, no distributor, spark plugs, etc. Perhaps you meant a spark caused by the alternator or a short in the wiring.

Yup, you were darn lucky. So was I, my first car was a '62 Mercury, the gas gauge didn't work so I thought I would drain the tank to replace the sending unit. Got a big metal five gallon can and crawled under the car, unscrewed the drain plug on the tank, and of course the plug fell right into the can, and because the gauge didn't work I had no way of knowing how much gas was in the tank. HINT...more than 5 gallons /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. You should have seen me trying to plug the tank drain with my finger and somehow manage to fish the metal drain plug out of the metal can without making a spark. Would have made a GREAT tape for AFHV.

When I think of this incident and all the other stupid things I survived as a teenager, it amazes me I'm still around to relate them to others.

 

[MotorSeven]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

{sigh....stepping into confessional booth}

OK, there may be more than one that i am guilty of, so to make it easy, lets do the most recent. I was raised in N.O., and we had a few hurricanes in the 60's, so i learned to respect(depending on their size) and not fear them. Fast forward to Wilma. I watched the thing sit and spin down off the "yuccitan" listening to the "predictions that it was going to run right up tru FL and slap Ft. Lauderdale in a week.....RIGHT!
Well, i'll be darned if it doesn't take a bee line for us once it decides to move. Then the prediction is a cat3 at landfall on the west coast.....i'm thinking, no prob, by the time it gets to the east coast it will have slowed to a cat1(Because they ALWAYS slow down over land) So, i'm not really concerned because this will be a wimp of a 'cane, but we make arrangements for the wife to stay at a friends house. This is because we currently live in a 38' travel trailer(it's a long story) Sooo, i work all night the before, and leave at 0530 when the first serious gusts start to hit. Now the wife is 45min away, and i am tired from the 12hr midnight shift, so i go home and go to sleep. At about 1030, it feels like the jolly green giant is knocking on the door, almost throwing me outa bed. I look out of the window thru the blinds and it looks like a regular thunder storm....then it sounds like a train roaring thru and ALL of the trees(up to 60') lay flat on the ground and flap like flag on a pole! Then stuff starts hitting the roof, and the gust finally lets everything back-up....wait 2-3 min and repeat /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
My thoughts were, "Mr rick done made a baaaad mistake!". so i figure i gotta get outa here, so i jump in the car during the eye, and make the drive up I95 to the friends house..actually had to dodge falling light poles on the interstate, then pick my way thru 50-60 fallen trees on the side roads. Oh, and i was driving one handed while videoing with the other, because NO ONE WILL BELIEVE THIS.....what the heck /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif !
Certainly NOT one of my finest moments......... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif!
RD

 

[rox]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

I am amused by what everybody survived. I am rather amazed that there are not at least a few, about driving in snow storms.

I'm 4 months pregnant and there is a freak huge snow storm in early May in Wisconsin. Like 3ft of snow. We ahve one car, I drop husband off at work and decide I needed to go ??? I don't even remember where it was. I'm about 20 miles from town when I can't keep going and I pull over into msut have been 5ft of snow. Walk for a while and find a country gas station/country store. They let me call my husband but tell me they are closing because of the storm they want to get home. I call my husband and start crying telling him theya re going to lock me out in the cold. Can you believe it they left me stranded there, I told them I was expecting, they jsut closed up and left me literally out in the cold.

Now my husband is from southern France and he doesn't know how to drive in the snow but he gets another cook and some how they make it out to me and some how they get the car unstuck and some how we made it home. After he recovered form worrying about me he has a few words to say on what made me think to make that road trip in the bad snow storm.

I guess when you are used to driving in snow and you are young you just don't think. Just a few eyars ago we rescued a girl oh perhaps 20 years old, she did the exact same thing. She had a young baby in he car. My hsuband was driving his Ford Explorer, and I think at a light or something she got out of our car and came to us behind her crying she was to scared to drive. So my husband tells her to take the baby and go in the Explorer. I'm now in the lead driving the Explorer and she is telling me where to go, and my husband is behind driving her car. We finally get the girl home and all I could think about was when I was 21 and I went driving in that freak snow stoem in May.

I really did drive in a lot of snow storms when I was young that I would never do once I got a little older/smarter.

 

[turnkey4099]

Re: Dumbest (most unsafe) thing you\'ve ever done?

Okay, probably not the dumbest thing I ever did but it was in terms of the results.

Starting a 16 penny nail in a 2x4...done it a 1000 times no problem. Well this one time it did. Misstrike, zing...lights out in one eye. Safety glasses laying within arms reach at the time.

At least I got back 50% vision with an artificial lens but it is a constantly irritated, need to wear a patch in bright lights and that is the way it will be the rest of my life.

Harry K

 

[Bedlam]

Mine was similar to the person with the gas tank . I was trying to fix a fuel line on the car, Had it jacked up, and of course fuel got on the ground. It was winter and cold, snow everywhere.
As I crawled under, I must have pushed snow on the drop light. and the hot bulb was exploded by the snow. and , Yep the gas took off burning. I whipped out from under, and pushed more snow under it. Luckily it didn't burn the car up.

Years ago in the 70's Friend, weighs about 340 lbs. Gets drunk and goes outside . (snow and cold) Opens arms, and "falls" forward to do a snow angel. Bang his teeth and gum hit a buried rock. the angel looked good. but lots of red.
Did he learn? probably not . 1989. stands over a roman candle as he lights it. POOF. the balls explode, out come his dentures......
later lights "gun powder" on the ground, POOF Burns his sideburns and eye brows off.
Amazing 53 years old and still all there....