I just related a story in the Rubbersisde...
Me, trying to hunt down a mechanical problem, and coming to a drastically wrong diagnosis...
Point is,.. most of us, old timers, weren't born naturals... we learned by making a lot of mistakes...
Here's my favourite....
What's yours?....
Quote:

Shoot!... I paid $65 to get the car towed to him... wasn't about to pay only $20 for him to fix it...  
Too humiliating...

Hoping for some funny stories here,...
...or, at least a couple... to make me feel not so dumb...
...

bought a new 12 volt domestic water pump for my pop up camper thinkin it was a bad pressure switch.
ended up bein a bad fitting at the faucet..will see if i did a better job winterizing this year
gave the perfectly good "old" pump to a friend who uses it at his hunting cabin

under $100 mistake(s)

Most recently I was trying to fit a too-big-but-free refrigerator in our kitchen.  My wife measured before accepting it, said it would fit in the hole.. it didn't. I didn't realize that until I'd spent 4 hours huffing it into the house.  So I decided to redo the ceramic tile and plane down the cabinets with a hand planer. I did all that, making a gawdawful mess of dust in the kitchen and just about destroying the planer when the drop cloth got spooled up in it (cuz I was trying to contain the dust, ha ha). Finally got that sorted out and the cabinet bay wide enough to accept the 'fridge, so I thought.  I go to push it in there and the STINKING FRIDGE HAS A WHEAT BELLY, GOD DAMMIT!!!!  Yes, this apparently rectangular, LG fridge bulges out in the middle.  So out it comes and again with the dust storm... which now includes me grinding my fresh tile job with a sander.  Trying a 3rd time to push the fridge in there, I realized that I underestimated the extend of its deformity and it still did not go all the way in.  So it sits a few extra inches out from the wall, and that is where it will sit.  I meant to do it that way.. uh yeah.. for good ventilation.  

Boule’tard wrote on 03/03/12 at 07:38:15:




Trying a 3rd time to push the fridge in there, I realized that I underestimated the extend of its deformity and it still did not go all the way in.


HO--LEE CRappola! I woulda got just as snake bit, glad it was someone else,, I hope you can laff about it.

Part two:
Years ago I was downstairs in the music room listening to the stereo. The cat (a different one) came tearing out of the furnace room screaming. She had a 2 1/2 inch diameter patch of fur AND SKIN missing on her right side. You could see the musculature of her side. Quick trip to the vet and was told either surgery to close the wound,($450) or bandaging twice a day with artificial skin, polysporin and gauze, until the wound grew closed on it's own. I chose the latter. Poor choice - the cost of artificial skin, polysporin and gauze, for the 7 months it took to heal, was more than the surgery would have cost.
To this day I can only guess how she got burned. I searched everything that might get hot and found no fur or skin. The only two things she might have possibly come in contact with that could have burned her were the bottom of the gas hot water heater, or the power tubes of my amplifier, which get quite hot.
I never found out for sure what happened to her.

Part three:
I had a set of new tires put on the Land cruiser at Canadian Tire. Everthing was fine for a year, until I had the tires rotated front to back. Then the 4WD wouldn't work- it wouldn't engage. I thought the front differential had packed it in (an $1800repair), so I quit using 4WD. Had the tires rotated again a year later and low and behold- the 4WD worked again. In the mean time the front axle started leaking oil because the seals had dried out from lack of use of 4WD. I finally took it in to the dealer (for front brakes, actually) and was informed that one of the tires was a size smaller than the other three. When it was on the front the difference in diameter would cause the 4WD not to engage.
Bottom line: rear diff rebuilt, as it was constantly rotating like I was going around a corner and it wore out the pinions. Oil seals replaced on the front, along with some bearings. And new calipers, pads and rotors on the front. Total cost: $2800. I went to Canadian Tire and was told by the service manager that because I had driven with the odd sized tire for 2 1/2 years I was SOL- no warranty. I went over his head and eventually got two tires replaced under the pro rated warranty. Then the belts separated on the older two tires and the service manager told me to take my problems somewhere else- he no longer wanted my business. I took them to another Canadian Tire and the service manager there replaced all four tires for $78, again under the pro rated warranty.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 03/03/12 at 08:26:10:

Difference between cats and dogs:
Dogs think that you are the center of their universe...
Cats think that they are the center of your universe.
Once a person figures this out they will get along fine with both.

Friend of mine died, so when his wife asked me to look at his guns to determine their value. I said ok. A nice little .32 auto Guiccione? Cardone had a spot of rust, so I offered to take it home and check out the insides for rust. One button and it literally comes apart in your hands. Couldn't see how it fell apart so took a little try and fail to get it back together. Then I couldn't pull the trigger. Iknow, I know. Some of you already got it. After the fith time of putting it together it was fairly easy, but it's hard to panic a 58 yr old like I might have been years ago. I just laid it down on the rag I had cleaned it with RIGHT NEXT TO THE MAGAZINE and decided to think awhile. DOH! Stuck the mag in, pulled the trigger about 10 times and e-mailed a good friend in Alabama who would get a chuckle from it. For our gun impaired reader, it's called a magazine safety.