Has anyone ever done anything really really stupid?

thehappybutterfly

...and it made you thank your lucky stars you didn't really hurt yourself?

This happened a few years ago but something reminds me of it every so often. I was trying to light my wood stove and really struggling to keep it lit. I piled up all my paper twists, kindling and coal, stuck in a firelighter, lit it with a wax taper then sat close up looking through the stove window to see what was happening.

Here's the stupid bit. Just as I got up and walked away, the BIC cigarette lighter I had stupidly left on the stove top EXPLODED spraying bits of plastic and hot metal right where I was sat 5 seconds earlier. I break into a cold sweat just thinking about what could have happened if I hadn't moved when I did _pale_

What an idiot.

LandyAndy

Yep. I've twice had shocks off the mains electric while fiddling with stuff when I should have turned the supply off.

SailorSam

When i was fitting central heating, i had the floorboards up and fell through the ceiling from the bedroom into lounge. Not all the way just enough that my leg was dangling. A bit like in 'Some Mothers Do Have Em'

Another time i'd fitted a shower cubicle and after i'd tiled decided to put a 'grab handle' for safety on the wall. I drilled the wall and straight through the pipe.
I was standing trying to stop the water with my finger on the wall.

balletshoes

LandyAndy wrote: »

Yep. I've twice had shocks off the mains electric while fiddling with stuff when I should have turned the supply off.

:rotfl: my Dad used to do that all the time - as well as trying to change fuses/mend light switches with a knife instead of a screwdriver.

jenhug

yes, several things spring to mind.
as a child, I was laying on the sofa playing with an extending dog lead. I unravelled it all, and then just let it go and watched it all wind back in very rapidly and the metal clip missed my nose by millimetres. Would have broken my nose quite easily I reckon.

Another time I was in a swimming pool with a hard plastic float. I was playing with it by pushing it under the water and attempting to kneel on it. I missed, it flew into the air, narrowly missing my 2 year old cousin and it wacked me in the mouth, splitting my lip.

another time I was riding in an abandoned shopping trolley and it got out of control, fell off the kerb tipping me out and I gained a fat lip.

It would appear I have something against my facial features!

balletshoes

i fell off the top of a ladder while trying to empty the loft. The ladder fell away and I was left half in, half out of the loft hatch. I had to hang then drop onto the collapsed ladder (really hurting myself) as the alternative would have been to drop onto the stairs and potentially hurt myself a lot more. I always feel a bit sick when I think about it since.

thehappybutterfly

I also once stuck a pair of wooden tongs into the spinner in my step sister's twintub 'just to see what would happen'. I ducked as the tongs flew around the room at 100mph!

thefishdude

when i was a lot younger deciding to drive down a country lane at 60mph in thick fog because it would be ok i new the road. only to suddenly see the yellow bollard marking the entrance to the main road about 10 meters in front of me. queue slamming of breaks hitting central reservation with driver side wheel shattering wheel into 3 places spinning 360 in road and having cars swerve round me with horns going. i got out completly unscathed ( apart from my pants) but to be fair i was just very very lucky. needless to say i changed my driving style then.

thehappybutterfly

A lot of fat lips on this thread :rotfl:

time2deal

I once went off in a strop and went to my favourite place in the forest to stew. Our rather, into the Bush as they call in it Sydney. It got late and I was on a rock escarpment so I thought I would light a fire - it was far enough to be confident it wouldn't start a Bush fire.

So I find a pile a leaf litter and bury my hands in there to find some kindling. Next thing a bloody great black spider runs over my hand and away to my left. I an suddenly aware I am in funnel web spider territory, and am rooting around in the under growth, in dying light, and no one knows where I am - And I am foolishly thinking I can light a fire with zero experience and deadly animals. I packed up and ran home as fast as I could. I still stropped in my teenage bedroom, but never told mum how happy I was to be home safe!

Tropez

One of my ex's was a very angry woman (I'm not sure whether she was that way before she met me). She once threw something at someone who had the nerve to break down in front of her. She started shouting obscenities when she approached a pedestrian crossing, thinking someone had pressed the button for no reason, until two little kids started to walk across (rather timidly) and she had a nickname that I became aware of a few months into our relationship of "Scary Susie".

I once told her that I thought her sister was hot. This very nearly did not end well for me.