OT or non car related "admit to you stupidity" thread

vash · vash's Garage

i am a idiot. my drain line from my kitchen sink to the main sewer line rusted and broke. i dont do plumbing, so i got a pro. he gave me a price, but said, " you cut the access hole in the house" no prob, i plunged my skilsaw and made the neatest hole possible. it was perfect. the plumber showed up, made all the neccesary splices and left me to seal the hole. since i am leaving for the ski country today, i elected to do the work last night in the dark. i went fast. cut, nailed, sealed. no issues. 2am last night i woke up with a sick thought. "did i just put a nail thru my new sewer line?" i pulled out my tape, and made some measurements, and mother effer if i am not really close. now i have to pull the patch, and check it out. hopefully, i still dont do plumbing. crap, crap, crap!

cliff

Superman · 01-21-2005, 06:38 AM

Duct Tape

Rufblackbird · 01-21-2005, 07:13 AM

or zip ties.

oh wait that wouldn't work. Just epoxy it.

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

leave the nail in, it will act as a plug. you did use galvanized nails right?

lets see, what have i done thats stupid as of late? prolly drinking a bunch and writing "if you can read this move right" in mirror view on my magnetic bra deal. it did clean up good with paint thinner.

that and falling into the trap of replying to SS's hate threads.

djmcmath · 01-21-2005, 09:05 AM

Admit to my stupidity? How about when I was troubleshooting the 120VAC control circuitry in my coffee machine, and I forgot to unplug it before reaching in after taking voltages? "Oh, I have 120V on this end of the wire, but not over here, I see ... all I need to do is BRZZZZAP!" 120 only tingles for a moment, really, once you get used to it.

Or how about the time my room-mate and I got liquored up and started lighting stuff on fire? Did you know that, if you have a cup of liquid candle wax, you can use a rolled up paper towel as a wick? You should stand advised, of course, that the rolled up paper towel will consume wax a lot faster, and therefore produce a lot more heat. It's kind of cool for a moment, 'coz you've got a 14" tall flame, 4" wide at the base. Then the heat causes thermal stress in the glass cup and causes it to shatter violently, spraying hot glass shards, molten wax, and flaming paper towel bits across the room. Fun stuff, if you're really drunk.

Yessirree, I've got more stupid stories than I could list here ...

Drago · Drago's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by djmcmath
Then the heat causes thermal stress in the glass cup and causes it to shatter violently, spraying hot glass shards, molten wax, and flaming paper towel bits across the room.

I once watched this meat-head body builder type put an ashtray full of his girlfriends used chewing gum on top of a lit candle.

I thought "I wonder how long..." shorter than I though as it happened. Hot shards of glass mixed with molten used bubble gum and ashes...can't forget the ashes flying everywhere...

Bartender tossed 'em out on their a$$.

Superman · 01-21-2005, 10:52 AM

Ever drive a car with no lug nuts?

Drago · Drago's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Superman
Ever drive a car with no lug nuts?

No, but I have started a freshly rebuilt motor before adding oil.

sjp_30188 · 01-21-2005, 11:19 AM

I pulled the head off an alfa without draining the antifreeze, and didnt vacumn it out for a week (20 years old, in the army, late for formation and wanting to get the head off quick, in the parking lot).
Rust in the cylinders ruined it

Superman · 01-21-2005, 11:27 AM

And then there are the classics. Placing your hand across the top of the distributor on a running engine. 30,000 volts makes me all tingly inside.

And placing my face over a carburetor that is clearly running lean, just to see if I could see anything. Yes, my eyebrows did grow back.

And these are just the ones I'm willing to admit to. I'm pretty sure you guys cannot top my most bonehead decisions.

vash · vash's Garage

how about driving off with the gas nozzle still in your jeep?

or tearing up all the fireworks out of a huge combo box up and dumping the powder into a glass jar. then wrapping it up with a crazy amount of duct-tape. dont forget the fuse, and then running like mad from the cops.

Burnin' oil · 01-21-2005, 11:37 AM

Vash,

Where are you going skiing?

turbocarrera · 01-21-2005, 11:42 AM

I was a power lineman in a former life and we were changing a farmers service pole one day. I always liked to hang as much crap on the new pole as possible to minimize the outage time. Anyway, we had a brand new crane operator and I told him to lift the new pole up close to the old one and I would hike up there and start swapping stuff over. Well, I should not have put the new guy-wire on the new pole cause the operator put the new pole so close to the 15kV line that the new guy-wire was whacking it. I was doing some stuff on the ground when I hear the truck running rough, and some hydraulic lines for our tools were laying on the ground and they start smoking. Anyway, we smoked almost every single bearing in that truck. Nobody got hurt but my boss was not impressed.

I can laugh about it now.. bahahah!

Superman · 01-21-2005, 11:47 AM

Drove away with the nozzle still in the car? Yep. Before there were emergency disconnects. That sure made a mess.

vash · vash's Garage

burn, looks like heavenly. hopefully the casino doesnt claim my lift ticket money. haha.

Rufblackbird · 01-21-2005, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Superman
Ever drive a car with no lug nuts?

Actually, I drove my '89 Jetta GLi 16v for a round trip to school with loose lug bolts. I was two miles from home when I just couldn't stand the wobbling anymore so I pulled over. Found one missing lug bolt and three loose ones. When mom came to the rescue (had to borrow one of her lug bolts off her Jetta) I tighted one and it snapped. Got home with only two lug bolts holding the wheel on.

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

I was about 6 or 7 and we were taking turns jumping off the beach life guard tower on East beach. There was a big pile of sand at the side and I thought it would be cool to do a cannon ball into it.

It was definitely not cool.

Drago · Drago's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
I was about 6 or 7 and we were taking turns jumping off the beach life guard tower on East beach. There was a big pile of sand at the side and I thought it would be cool to do a cannon ball into it. It was definitely not cool.

I would have paid to see that!!!

elwood-914 · 01-21-2005, 05:50 PM

How stupid? As kids we used to take a hammer to .22 cal long rifle cartriges. Older brother said if you put it "this way" it won't hit ya........rotten bastard.

Z-man · Z-man's Garage

Hmmm....

Remember slot cars? And those old extension cords you needed to bring electricity to the table where your track was laid out? After we were done playing, I couldn't unplug the plug from the extension chord with my hands, so I figured I'll just use my mouth to yank the plug off. 120v does more than tingle your face!

-Z-man.