Stupid Things I Have Done

[Dftodd]

First, I'll say that I was maybe 14 years old at the time. There was a very heavy concrete bench that I was trying to do yard work around. So I decided to move it. I had a shovel and a rake. I had put the shovel down and lifted it off the bench and dropped the top of the bench to the ground..... on top of the shovel blade, which flipped up the handle and hit me square in the middle of my forehead and knocked me unconscious. This was my first lession in potential energy, and one I never forgot afterwards.

That's the same reason I'll get snippy with my wife on where and how she lays down a shovel or rake. She's gotten me a couple times. The second time around I got walloped really good and lost my cool.

 

[dirttoys]

I hope I haven't posted this before (dangers of being old).

Just a couple of years ago when I got my x I was prowling around the farm at 2 mph looking for something useful to do.
Found a little thicket of brush and cedars around a big old oak tree.
I pulled all the cedars and brush. Rooted around and found some dirt to cover and level the roots. Even jumped off and cut all the tree vines off. Pilled all the junk very neatly to burn, then rolled back to proudly see my work........

The oak was standing dead, and probably had been for years!

Best,

ed

 

[Eagle1]

I hope I haven't posted this before (dangers of being old).

Just a couple of years ago when I got my x I was prowling around the farm at 2 mph looking for something useful to do.
Found a little thicket of brush and cedars around a big old oak tree.
I pulled all the cedars and brush. Rooted around and found some dirt to cover and level the roots. Even jumped off and cut all the tree vines off. Pilled all the junk very neatly to burn, then rolled back to proudly see my work........

The oak was standing dead, and probably had been for years!

Best,

ed

At least now you have easy access to drop that oak....

 

[Jstpssng]

All day today I thought it was Thursday, and was trying to prioritize what I needed to do on Friday. At about 3:30 I had the radio on and wondered why the DJ kept saying that it was Wednesday. Dang, there are two more days in this week!

 

[bigtiller]

All day today I thought it was Thursday, and was trying to prioritize what I needed to do on Friday. At about 3:30 I had the radio on and wondered why the DJ kept saying that it was Wednesday. Dang, there are two more days in this week!

I did the same thing last week.
Saturday I woke up late and hurried around so I could watch Saturday morning cartoons at breakfast.

Imagine my disappointment when the cartoons weren't on.

So I decided it's Friday and I need to shave. I got all set up for that
when my phone rang and I figured out it was only Thursday.

That was a long week.

 

[oosik]

This happened LONG ago. I was only three. My Mom had a wringer wash machine. I pushed a stool up to this washer and proceeded to stick my hand in the wringer. Sucked my arm in - almost to my shoulder. Mom immediately hit the release - off to the DR office. That same week - same thing happens to another family.

However - rather than the lady hitting the release - she put the wringer in reverse. Rolled all the skin off the kids arm.

NOW comes the really icky part. We had to go by train from Spokane, WA to Ft Dietrich, MD. My father was stationed at Ft Dietrich. As my arm began to heal - I got infection and gangrene in the wound. Remember - at this time(1944-1945) there was very little that could help. That's why I have such a large scar on the underside of my left arm.

Anyhow - this situation began to smell - REALLY bad. After the first day on the train - one passenger gave up his compartment. So Mom and I could be in there and nobody else had to smell this mess.

Strange - all I remember of this long train trip - our cabin had a very pretty blue light on the ceiling. When we got to Ft Dietrich - my Dad took me to the Army medical facility. I remember being the only little kid in a room full of men.

 

[JasperFrank]

In 1980 I did a summer job as a summer camp counselor in Michigan. Being around a bunch of barking 10 year olds can be exhausting. We got off at about 5pm. I go to my apartment and crash. Like, black out, crash. We had to be back at work at 7am. I woke up and looked at the clock and saw 7. Which freaked me out, cause I was gong to be late. SSS, jump in the car and I'm on site at 7:30. But everyone is looking at me weirdly. I ask "okay, whats up for today." And they say, "Today?, You just left here, about 2 hours ago."

 

[rangerfredbob]

I'm sure no one has done this before, but I was working on something big and awkward for my brother that was taking up room in my shop, finished the project on Sunday and loaded it in the back of my Ranger by myself, this thing is basically a 6' wide 3pt work platform thing that has to weigh around 200lb... I leaned it against the tailgate and tried to push it over but it was digging into the concrete and wanted to tilt so I just did what I had to do to get it in... somewhere in the middle a part of my lower back got warm... now it hurts to stand for more than say 15 minutes and sometimes my left leg has some numbing pain thing and is very distracting... so, yeah, that's the most recent dumb thing I've done... should have taken the 10 minutes and rolled the A frame over and lifted it in...

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm sure no one has done this before, but I was working on something big and awkward for my brother that was taking up room in my shop, finished the project on Sunday and loaded it in the back of my Ranger by myself, this thing is basically a 6' wide 3pt work platform thing that has to weigh around 200lb... I leaned it against the tailgate and tried to push it over but it was digging into the concrete and wanted to tilt so I just did what I had to do to get it in... somewhere in the middle a part of my lower back got warm... now it hurts to stand for more than say 15 minutes and sometimes my left leg has some numbing pain thing and is very distracting... so, yeah, that's the most recent dumb thing I've done... should have taken the 10 minutes and rolled the A frame over and lifted it in...

That's the kind of thing which I do less and less as I get older, because I know the results. The problem is that now I'm paying for all of the times in my younger days when I couldn't be bothered to go get a jack, pry bar, or other back saving device.

 

[ning]

I'm sure no one has done this before, but I was working on something big and awkward for my brother that was taking up room in my shop, finished the project on Sunday and loaded it in the back of my Ranger by myself, this thing is basically a 6' wide 3pt work platform thing that has to weigh around 200lb... I leaned it against the tailgate and tried to push it over but it was digging into the concrete and wanted to tilt so I just did what I had to do to get it in... somewhere in the middle a part of my lower back got warm... now it hurts to stand for more than say 15 minutes and sometimes my left leg has some numbing pain thing and is very distracting... so, yeah, that's the most recent dumb thing I've done... should have taken the 10 minutes and rolled the A frame over and lifted it in...

I accidentally knocked over my motorcycle in the garage this one time... and tried to catch it. Spoiler alert, you don't catch a big motorcycle. I felt that one for a couple years but luckily didn't do lasting damage.

The next time something similar happened - I was actually riding in a parking lot at very low speed making a turn into a parking space when the back tire rolled over a small pine cone, and the pine cone rolled to the side like an inch under the pressure and the back wheel suddenly being an inch farther over at that speed was surprisingly destabilizing.... needless to say, the motorcycle was going down, and for 0.2 seconds I was going to catch the bike and then I'm just sadly singing this song

knocked the mirror out of the way (no damage), bent the rear brake lever (it's still bent like that tbh I kinda like it that way), minor ding in the plastics but nothing too distressing - and no back injury.