things you wish you hadn't done

Chunks of wood generally don't have internal combustion engines propelling them forward. At age 62, I'm not even going to begin to bore you with stories of all the dumb stuff I've done in my life...I may not even have enough time left to relate them all. %-P I bet you won't forget this particular event...and that's what self-taught is all about. You're a bit smarter now than you were before this happened, and nobody was hurt. OK deal all around, I'd say, if it was gonna happen. Rick

You're not alone. Mistakes are part of the game. Just yesterday I drove off with my cell phone on the trunk of my car. I found it a few hours later when I remembered and went looking for it. It had been run over at least 100X.

It's just the "cost of doing business" with life.

Never should have married that blonde…or the redhead...

We all do stuff like that. The truck window is a good one though.
I once moved my motorcycle in the garage and forgot the battery tender was hooked up. Plug-in for the tender pulled out of the socket and busted on the floor. Still cheaper than a truck window.

I cross-threaded the spark plug hole on my 1 yr old snowblower.
I bought a tool that you insert, expand and then back out to re-thread the hole.
I broke the tool and siezed it in the cylinder head.
I got the tool out, reassembled it to make sure there were no missing pieces, somehow got lucky wit the spark plug, and proceeded to (almost) ruin the engine. Guess I didn't get ALL the pieces.
One day later we got 2' of snow. I have a 400' driveway.

-Edit-

Thinking back at this, its not even close to being the worst/dumbest thing I've ever done. This was just a normal weekend.
Now I'm depressed.

Lost a truck window as payback for a nasty break up. Have carried full glass ever since.

I learn from other people's mistakes . . .

I have seen at least two back windows in pick-ups taken out by winches, racks, etc. . . . so I'm always very cognizant of how I load my ATV.

I have seen my buddy take out his back window while throwing wood haphazardly into the bed . . . so I tend to place vs. toss the wood in the bed.

That said . . . sometimes I don't learn very well from my own mistakes. A few years ago I was backing my wife's car out of the garage . . . and forgot to put the garage door up . . . had to replace a few panes of glass and fix some of the garage door woodwork . . . and then had to do the same thing about three weeks later when I did the same thing . . . second time was the charm though . . . now I always look as a matter of habit.

Ok... I just knocked on some wood so I should be good to say this now.

So far I've been really lucky with the back window in my truck. I typically abuse it, tossing wood in etc (it's a beater/working truck that I plan to keep until it dies). I've had pieces literally BOUNCE off the back window before and no breakage. I do plan to build a rack that sits in the stake pockets and protects the lower half of the window.

If I posted all of the things I wish I hadn't done, I'd have more posts than Dennis. :lol:

Unhooked the loader on the old Massey once, but forgot to undo the hydraulics, and backed out. Snapped of both of the hydraulic connections. Felt like a moron, and it's even worse when you have no one to blame but yourself.

CountryBoy19 said:

Ok... I just knocked on some wood so I should be good to say this now.

So far I've been really lucky with the back window in my truck. I typically abuse it, tossing wood in etc (it's a beater/working truck that I plan to keep until it dies). I've had pieces literally BOUNCE off the back window before and no breakage. I do plan to build a rack that sits in the stake pockets and protects the lower half of the window.

Click to expand...

That back glass can be pretty forgiving. I was at Menards with my BIL once. The spare tire was in the bed of the truck, and he was picking up a skid of block. He tossed the tire on top of the toolbox to get it out of the way. The forklift driver loaded the skid, but the tire was holding the skid back (was between the back glass and the skid)...so the driver tries to force it in. The window looked like it was bending, but didn't break...I couldn't believe it because it looked BAD.

I am only 30, have a rv since I am 24. Was a full timer worker for 5 years. I,ve double towed a 28 fifty wheel plus a 10 ft carfo trailer all over north america, Nova Scotia, Vancover Island, Mexico, northern quebec, Colorado, ect.... And last may After a long trip in a short period of time, i figures out i needed a bigger rig. My schedule was tight, so took 1 crazy day to shop & buy newer bigger truck & rv.... Deal the truck am and went to pick up the toy hauler pm. Was tired, in a hurry ( had to kick off a job fews days after and promise to wife a 1000 km detour to see her family,...... Anyway, you know while hooking up the new rig i was telling the saleman that i used to be a full timer, many miles with a rv for a kids.... Bla bla bla..... And while exiting the dealer lot, i was playong on my brake controller pullng forward (and was getting stress and worrie about beign cut in a montreal pm traffic jam with a new to me duall and 38 ft rv, and didnt realise i cut a corner to sharp, slowly hitting a parked rv.... Still pulling forward playing on my dang brake controller/..... By the time i realize that the weird noise wasnt coming from that near by road construction, i had 3 windows broken on my rig, 400$ of damaged on the park units and approx 15 people from the rv dealer running outside to see wtf was happening! I was so proud of myself..... Feeling like a king....... Luckyly the dealer had 2 windows in stock and 1 of there tech acceptee to help me installing them that evening in the dealer lot, cash paid overtime. Yeah, what a nice end of day it was...... You know, usually after spending 60k$ on new toy; you should feel like celebrating, but that kind of really ruined it..... Then got late to the rv park (that was end of april, off season) on a close gate with a clOse sign, but got lucky enough to find a old lady that open me the gate with her magnetic pass and show me where to park.......

CountryBoy19 said:

I do plan to build a rack that sits in the stake pockets and protects the lower half of the window.

Click to expand...

Don't let construction on said rack begin the day after the window breaks out.
Human nature.

Well, at least it's not a stupid mistake. A stupid mistake would be if this were the second time this happened to you!

"Funny is when you fall into a deep hole. Tragedy is when I get a sliver in my finger".

It's all relative….

Got drunk in a strip club once after work on a payday - not good

firefighterjake said:

I learn from other people's mistakes . . .

I have seen at least two back windows in pick-ups taken out by winches, racks, etc. . . . so I'm always very cognizant of how I load my ATV.

I have seen my buddy take out his back window while throwing wood haphazardly into the bed . . . so I tend to place vs. toss the wood in the bed.

That said . . . sometimes I don't learn very well from my own mistakes. A few years ago I was backing my wife's car out of the garage . . . and forgot to put the garage door up . . . had to replace a few panes of glass and fix some of the garage door woodwork . . . and then had to do the same thing about three weeks later when I did the same thing . . . second time was the charm though . . . now I always look as a matter of habit.

Click to expand...

Were those "back windows taken out by winches" or back windows taken out by wenches? The spelling makes a big difference!

Put a lint trap on the end of my washer machine hose because it had clogged up. Well it filled up with lint faster than I realized, blew off and really clogged the drain and flooded everywhere. Now I have to get it out of the pipe and dry the rug... again.

Yeah, I wish I hadn't done that.

treehackers said:

Got drunk in a strip club once after work on a payday - not good

Click to expand...

That's bad, very bad.

I did that with my credit card. I was 23, though. At least that's how I justify it to myself.

Or with my first car, when i wanted to check the radiator fluid and i could not get the radiator cap off, it was stuck. So I used the pliers to make it unstuck

WTF,... there's a spring loaded locking mechanism to prevent the pressure from ejecting the cap on my face.... Twisted, destroyed cap. Luckily is was a cool radiator and there were no witnesses to this epic blunder.

I was 19, though, and my dad never taught me about cars.