In the vein of the experiments thread, tell us some stories about things that you (or someone else, I ain’t picky) didn’t quite think through beforehand.
For example, a group of guys were doing some yardwork for an elderly couple. Part of the task was burninng a large pile of fresh tree and bush trimmings. Where there’s fire, there’s me, so I and one of my buddies volunteered for burn detail. It’s a bit difficult to get green leaves and limbs to start burning. We looked for some dry kindling to get things started, but no love (that would have been burning love, right?). My buddy remembered seeing a gas can in the storage shed about 100 yards away, so I sent him to check that and, if there was gaoline in the can, to bring back “about a half a cup”. Shortly, I saw him across the yard with cup in hand. Looks like a successful mission. He began walking, then started jogging, and finally sprinted toward me. He had obtained a half cup of gas, alright, but the only cup he could find was styrofoam. The gasoline ate right through the bottom of the cup. By the time he got to me, there was a bottomless cup, no gas, and a sticky, stinky mess in his hand. I congratulated him heartily on making homemade napalm :rolleyes:
I was about 17 years old and was laying on my bed reading a book when I noticed a fly flying around my room. It was incredibly annoying and every time it landed I took the opportunity to try to swat it. It landed on various parts of my room, including the walls, my desk, my arm, my headboard, my leg, the door… and each time I tried to swat it, I missed.
I was getting quite worked up. This damn fly was getting to me. I started following it around the room trying to swat it… to no avail. It landed on my dresser, my foot, the window sill, the ceiling… and each time I kept missing the little bastard.
Finally it landed on me and by this time I had finally had it. I was going to get that little sucker this time. I carefully moved my hand toward it and with the lightening speed of an Olympian god I swatted… AND I GOT IT.
This is where I had that, “Didn’t think it through” moment. What I failed to realize was that it had landed on my crotch. I got it, but I payed dearly for that one.
This reminds of one of my favorite true life stories. A man in Newburgh NY had a rat in his apartment. He used an aerosol can and lighter to make a flame thrower to set the rat on fire. It worked. The flaming rat ran into a hole in the wall of the old house and resulting in the whole structure burning to the ground. I assume the rat didn’t survive though, so it was a partial success.
ETA: I’ve never really been sure if I believe it actually happened that way, or he made up the story about the rat as a better excuse than just playing with fire.
As Doc intimated, it’s how you can make a kind of homemade fire-jelly: take some gasoline, add styrofoam. When it dissolves, add more styrofoam. Keep doing this and you will end up with a nasty jelly that you can smear all over shit and then light on fire. It burns really hot, too.