Firehouse dumbassery: (This is a 30 year old story) Our 1963 pumper wouldn’t start owing to dead batteries. It was decided to tow it with the 1957 pumper and pop-start the truck. The miscalculation was that the '57 had hydraulic brakes, and the '63 had early air brakes-you needed air to stop the truck. :smack: Once the '63 caught and started running, the guy driving the '57 stopped. The '63 stopped, too-after running into the back of the '57 and punching out the right hand windshield with the ladder from the '57.
Not that many years ago, I had a new truck that had to go back to the manufacturer for minor tweaks. One of the retired fellows agreed to drive it up to the plant and chew the fat with another elder while it was being worked on. Enroute to the repair facility, he hit a bump and wasn’t watching the mirrors. The 4-way valve came out of it’s mount, and now he was dropping 5" hose at 55MPH. When the bed was almost empty, a coupling wrapped the top bar causing the 800+ feet of hose and valve to be dragged at 55MPH. Damage to the truck, replacement of the hose and valve was > $5K.
Some friends of mine own a ranch with a gravel quarry that the highway department uses when they are repairing/repaving roads in the area. The highway department also leaves things there sometimes, like “road turtles” they’ve pulled up during a repaving job. All that said, this quarry is an ideal location for plinking and such with rifles and pistols.
On the particular day in question, I had been plinking with my S&W .40, and decided that one of the discarded road turtles would be an ideal target. What didn’t dawn on me was that these reflectors are VERY VERY HARD. I mean, they are designed to withstand fully-loaded 18-wheel tractor-trailers and such. I pointed the pistol at the target, squeezed the trigger and…
…fweeeethwipthwipthwipthwipthwip…I heard the thoroughly-deformed bullet go whizzing by my right ear. Needless to say, I decided road turtle reflectors were not the target of choice for plinking.
Oh, and the condition of the road turtle? Not even a smudge, my friends. I think I want a TRUCK made out of those things…
I was about 10. It was the middle of the winter - freezing cold. I was waiting for a bus. I was bored. Somehow, my thought processes (I remind you I was about 10) led me to apply my tongue to the framing of the metal shack that was at the bus stop.
[Martha Stewart] Truly, a very dumb thing. [/Martha Stewart]
About 12 years old, middle of the night, I was ‘fixing’ an electric clock. I shorted something which caused the wall socket over my bed to spray sparks and start my bed on fire. The circuit breaker finally popped and I put out the fire.
Then I cleverly reset the breaker, which repeated the fireworks. The odd humming/sparking sound brought my father in time to see the latest works of his little genius.
He then told me of when he shot a hole in his dad’s car radiator, which made us even.
