posted
I am not talking about what you have regretted most in your life. This thread is about stupidity. We all do it and now it is time to admit it. I’ll start.
Last Saturday while cutting the lawn, a patch 20’ x 20’, I did probably the stupidest thing I have ever done. My oldest boy was running the lawn mower and it was my job to trim the edges with my gas powered weed eater. My wife had come out followed by my other two children to help with the weeding. They were standing around me while I futilely tried to start the weed eater. As I pulled and pulled on the draw string, my wife got closer and closer, adding wisdom as to why the stupid thing would not start. Finally, when I was about to send the infernal piece of metal flying into the street, it sputtered to life. Not wanting it to die I open the throttle, bring the machine to it maximum rpms. My grip on the machine was wrong and I needed to turn it around to bring it into use. With my wife standing to my right I brought, unthinkingly, the head around toward my own body. The guard caught on the ground between my feet leaving my right foot exposed to the rapidly turning plastic green whips of pain. Here is where the stupidity rises to the level of being classed as the stupidest thing I have done. I was mowing the lawn bare-foot. So there I was standing with the throttle wide open thinking this hurts. By the time I was able to get my foot out of the way of the flying plastic thread I had broken the skin on the top of my foot.
My wife being the wonderful person she is offered to finish the lawn for me. I, being the typical male, said that it did not hurt and I could finish. I did finish. Now each day at work my socks stick to my lashings, and when I take the off each evening it rips the existing scabs, renewing the pain of Saturday.
posted
The stupidest thing I have ever done I just did yesterday.
Wandering around New York with three other friends for a whole day even though you know you feel like cr** is not a good idea. I came home and was pretty much delirious with a really high fever for the rest of the night. I still feel like cr**. Apparently, I have tonsilitis. Or something.
Another stupid thing: Not studying for my physics final
Posts: 594 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Okay, mowing the lawn barefoot is pretty dumb, however, I'd have to say that after the first day of having your cuts stick to your socks, repeating the same thing the next day and then doing it again the next day might be even dumber. Have you considered getting some surgical gauze and antibiotic cream?
The list of incredibly stupid things I've done is so long and so many of them rank right up there at the top that it would be impossible to decide on which is the most stupid.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
When I was a teenager, my father and I were working on rebuilding the carbuerator in my little car. I was very proud of myself for having done most of the work. As I was finishing up the last few bolts, my father half jokingly said, "Be careful not to twist the heads off the bolts." I responded the usual teenage response - "I know, Dad!" only to twist the head right off the last bolt about 10 seconds later. We laughed about it for a little while, before looking for the tap so we could get it out.
Another: One day, while I was at ASU, I became really annoyed with the shoes I was wearing (they were rubbing my feet raw in spots), so I decided to take them off and wander around campus barefoot. I had done this before and didn't think much of it. At the end of my classes, I started walking the 1/2 mile to my car. It was a warm August day. By the time I got to the parking structure, I realized that the bottoms of my feet hurt. I looked down and realized I had second degree burns covering the bottoms of my feet. Because of the thickness of the calluses on my feet (I go barefoot all the time), I hadn't realized I was burning them until it was too late. The three flights of stairs to the level I had parked on and then driving (my manual transmission) car to work (3 miles away) was excruciating. I ended up having to skip classes for the next two days because it hurt too badly to walk. I just went to work, wearing only socks on my feet, and rolled myself around on my rolling chair (amid much teasing from my coworkers, of course).
posted
Ok, so, I fell out of some playground equiment when I was a kid and broke my left arm. Then it snowed and I wanted to go sledding, but my arm was still in a cast. I went anyway and, being an idiot, hit a tree, breaking my right arm.
The school nurse decided that my parents must be abusing me. I had to go to a counsler and convince him that no, my parents don't hit me and I am, in fact, an idiot.
posted
Kayla, let me give a insight into my reasoning. I am lazy. Taking the the time to put gauze on and keeping it clean is to mauch work. And there would be the chance of it not leaving scars, and this is not acceptible on so many levels. I need the reminder next time I decide to mow the lawn bare foot. The pain will be forgotten but the scars will remind me.
Posts: 1244 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Oh, come on now!! Don't get all pissy because you didn't get a bazillion responses on your announcement. It's a bit extreme to call people selfish and elitist because they didn't give you warm fuzzy hugs for your birthday!
Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
At work and she has a 120 page environmental site report due tomorrow. We will be celebrating next week. She had the same thing happen on her birthday. It is starting to bother her. Also at work, not a card, not a ballon, not a cake, which is done for other people who have birthdays here.
posted
Okay, and to offer slightly less miffed and slightly more constructive criticism, I went and looked at the last two "announcement" threads. I believe both got responses not because they were in the "in crowd" but because they both started with long, informative posts. Mooselet's was very cute and entertaining, while Slash's gave us a lot to respond to. As with any thread, a simple one-line statement isn't going to garner much response. This, of course, does not mean that people don't read and appreciate it. It's not a contest.
So, maybe if you'd included a little more in your post, there would have been more to respond to.
Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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quote: I guess if you aren't part of the in crowd here you don't count.
m^2,
There is not "in crowd" here in the 'rack as far as I can tell. The first day I was here I was listened to just as much as the millenium posters. That's just silly. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
I've occasionally been in a situation like the one you describe with your wife, where other people get balloons and flowers and stuff for random silly things and I never do.
With me, I think I send out the message that things like that aren't important to me. I don't do things like that for other people (a big one), I'm not generally a silly kind of person, and when it comes to frilly girly things, I'm pretty obviously not into frilly girly things. So why would anyone go to the trouble?
When I've presented myself as interested in such little traditions and made a big deal out of giving little gifts to other people, my birthday has been remembered and celebrated.
Overall, I think I prefer not getting balloons from my coworkers on my birthday to having to get balloons and cake and giggle and smile and talk about pets and kids and doctor's appointments and flower arrangements for other people the rest of the year. But then, I wouldn't mind the change. Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
I would have replied earlier, but I don't think I have ever done anything even midly close to stupid. Sorry.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Sorry Hobbes, I decide what needed to be said needed to be said on M^2's thread. So I deletd the post here.
Posts: 1244 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Hey, not a problem, just gives me another chance to look stupid.
If I keep making the same stupid mistake over and over can it additivley become the stupidest thing I've ever done, or does this have to be one incident?
And you don't have to worry about other peoples clean breath, since all you can smell is tic-tac.
Stupidist thing I've done: Hmmm. well, to 50 anyway. Clothes dryer door was open. I reached in, clothes were still damp. I closed door and set it to dry for another 15 minutes. Then I heard a distant cat calling. Went upstairs, to front door to let cat in. No cat. Went to back door to let cat in. No cat. I could hear cat in distance. Went back down stairs and opened dryer door. Cat stumbled out of dryer.
The look that cat gave me was the scaryest I ever encountered (until my wife caught me watching Baywatch).
posted
Hobbes, you know, the thing I was going to list was "giving advice to men." They either ignore it, or in some masochistic, passive/agressive move, do the opposite.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
m2, I have no idea what that means. I was merely pointing out that I don't think it's been 2 1/2 months since you've done something stupid. You are, after all, a man. You can't help but do something stupid at least once a day and something incredibly stupid at least once a week. Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I broke my arm on my honeymoon because I was being careless. Of all the times to break an arm, your honeymoon is not the time to do it.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
And typical of a female, kayla is right there to point out everytime you do something stupid.
Z - If I was not scared of what the answer might be I would ask what careless act led to you breaking your arm.
Posts: 1244 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I'm not sure if this is the absolute stupidest thing I've ever done, but I used to have this habit of opening the cabinets in the kitchen while putting away the dishes and then forgetting they were open. One of the times I ran into one of them, I hit myself between the eyes so hard that I actually fell down.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Actually, believe it or not, my life is rife with stupidity.
I was in Chicago once for a conference, staying downtown at the Palmer House, when my friend and I decided we wanted to go out and hear some live blues. Well, I was a few months shy of being 21, so we couldn't get into anywhere to hear music. It was now 11:00 or midnight or so, and we thought we'd stroll around downtown Chicago. A couple of white girls, all alone. We turned a block and wandered down a street and suddenly there was no more public artwork or fountains or streetlamps or smiley hotel porters. There were a lot of bums and low riders and scary industrial sounds and gunshots. I don't know how we managed to find our way back to the hotel alive, but we decided to be a little more prudent once we realized that maybe this place was a little different than Bozeman.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Kayla, the thread is the stupidest thing, not just stupid things. I did the stupidest thing 2-1/2 months ago. I continue to do stupid things on a regular basis, but they do not classify as stupidest.
posted
saxon, I have done that as well. I've haven't been knocked over yet, though.
The broken arm happened while skiing. I got careless and wasn't paying attention and hit one of those drifts kicked up by snowboarders. I suppose I was even stupider thinking it wasn't broken and that it was a bad sprain (it happened right below the wrist).
I went back to our condo and put ice on it thinking my wife was upstairs taking a nap. After a half hour, I went to wake her up, but she wasn't there. Her purse and jacket was there and the door had been unlocked when I came in. Now I'm thinking I've really screwed up my wrist and to top it off, my wife has been kidnapped. Luckily the shock I was in prevented me from freaking out to much.
I found her at the base of the mountain waiting for me to finish skiing. She took one look at my pale white face and took me straight to the clinic. If you ever need a broken limb set, I recommend going to a clinic at a ski resort. They know their stuff. Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Well you should've said so. To just throw out there that you did something stupid 2 1/2 months ago. . . well, we all knew that there had to be a more recent example.
Dan Raven, surely the look for the idiocy of the show and not the bikinis, right?
HDD, of course! Where would y'all be without telling you all the stupid things you were doing? You'd still be doing them and we'd still be living in caves! Someone has to point you in the right direction.
Zgator, I'm so glad you had a good answer for that. My imagination was running wild! Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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It's a bit extreme to call people selfish and elitist because they didn't give you warm fuzzy hugs for your birthday!
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but because they both started with long, informative posts. Mooselet's was very cute and entertaining, while Slash's gave us a lot to respond to. As with any thread, a simple one-line statement isn't going to garner much response. This, of course, does not mean that people don't read and appreciate it. It's not a contest.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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Congrats! ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Luckily the shock I was in prevented me from freaking out to much.
