Stupid odd things you don't want to do

[gtrguy]

Stupid odd things you don't want to do:


I was cleaning the terminals of a 9v battery for my wireless unit today for a show tonight, using a bit of fine 0000 steel wool.
And; the steel wool burst into flames in my hand. Now I know steel wool will burn, but I never put two and two together that shorting a 9v battery would cause this. Luckily I was able to get it into the fireplace before getting me or my house burned up.


Anyone have their odd stories to add?

[bigredbass]

There was the time I was underneath my Nissan Stanza doing an oil/filter change.  I had the passenger wheels on a high curb, the driver's side on the driveway (poor man's jack stands), Emergency brake on, car in neutral (this is the part where I proved God watches out for idiots . . . . ), driveway wheels chocked.  The oil filter stuck out of the block . . . . right below the starter. 

Put the filter wrench on it, started to rotate it off, and the handle spanned the hot and cold terminals on the starter . . . and it started right up with me under it.

You can bet you *** the next time I did it, I pulled the hot post on the battery.

[pauldo]

Is the story required to have a battery involved with the foolishness?

[BeenDown139]

Is the story required to have a battery involved with the foolishness?

well i would think any kinda stupid move that involves the sudden release of stored energy out of an everyday sort of item would do hte trick, especailly one that leaves some kinda mark - i.e.  picking up a cocked mousetrap, driving over a spray paint can, looking for a gas leak with a lit match, that sorta thing.

btw you'd be surprised what kinda current you can pull out of a 9-v battery if you short the terminals.  at least for a little while anyways.

[cozmik_cowboy]

OK:  1984; I need to put a new (well, new from the junkyard) driveshaft on my '76 LeSabre (if you are unfamiliar, this was before downsizing; a serious pile'o'steel).  Backed it onto the ramps, put it in park, set the emergency brake, climbed under, unbolted it, and whacked it with a hammer.

You will note the lack of any mention of wheel chocks.......

Came off the ramps, dragged me about 10' through the crushed limestone (destroying ny beloved Nighthawks T, given me by Mark Wenner his own self - didn't do the epidermis beneath it a lot of good either, i must say).

So, there I am - my right arm across my chest, a frame member across said arm (the scars are still there), my glasses pushed into my face so hard it required stitches (yeah, that scar, too), the then-youngest (getting potty-trained) butt nekkid with my Spitfire as a playpen, and Her off at work.  I couldn't fully exhale, because if I did, I couldn't have inhaled again.

Bright side?  Number 1 son was in 1st grade, and that week they'd learned to dial 911.  He got an award from the PTA (who were nice enough to not point out in the ceremony what a idjit I is....)  It took about 20 minutes for the cops to get there with the tow truck that lifted it off me.  I have not even been able to change my own oil since.

Peter

[cozmik_cowboy]

Then of course.....

You know how when a washer is in spin cycle and you lift the lid, it stops?

Well, I'm why.

5 years old.  Sitting on the machine, watching it spin, and thought "Ya know, when we put a card in our spokes, it makes a neat noise; I'll bet if I put my foot in the agitator......"

Snap.

Left tibia and fibula, 1" below the knee.

Those 2 stories are, I fear, just to brush the surface; that I am here now is a source of utter amazement to all who have known me (including me).

Peter (who, 62 years later, still cannot put both knees and feet together, due to a bad set and a "walking cast" - a rubber stump set in the plaster at the heel)

[lbpesq]

When I was a teenager, the washing machines didn’t automatically stop when you opened the top.  When the spin cycle was over, my Mom would pick out socks and other items from the wall of the spinning barrel as it slowed down.   One day  I was upstairs in my room when I heard a scream from the basement.   Mom had been washing a sheet which had twisted around the center agitator.   Mom’s hand got caught in the sheet, pulled around the agitator, and broke in 16 places.   Typically, when we got to the hospital and they started to cut her sweater off, she protested and asked if they could just pull it over her head because it was such a nice sweater!

Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

   Typically, when we got to the hospital and they started to cut her sweater off, she protested and asked if they could just pull it over her head because it was such a nice sweater!

Bill, tgo

When I was 19, I went face-first through a (closed, pre-safety-glass) car window into a brick wall (as Bill & I have discussed, on his 20th b-day).  When they went to cut the Shimer College shirt off to start putting the ±1000 sutures in the left side of my face - I was in such a condition that I died 4 times while they did so - I refused; made them take it off over the wreckage, as I'd given it to my sister, then stolen it back.

Peter

[lbpesq]

Peter, you would have made a great Jewish mother!

hehehehe

Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

Why, thank you; thank you very much.

Peter