Tell us about your "Are you kidding" or "favorite expletive" moment.

[vasnipe]

Several scares with the rig, worst being blowing inside dual. Both sides, thankfully on different trips. Last one had me on the side of I-81 North here in Virginia with MAYBE 3 to 4 feet from the travel lane. Called Good Sam Roadside (they did quite well) and they asked do you feel safe? Do I feel safe you ask?

I step out of the cab and hold the phone up as big rigs blow past at 80mph +.
There, does that sound like I ought to @$%^ing feel safe here???
Didn't need any further blue language to get my point across either.


Now, truth be told, I'm a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, engineering type. We're kind of known for the creativity of the language we can use to express our extreme displeasure. Sure, I can blister the paint off that doorframe, but using the usual four letter variety is well, kind of limiting...
Besides, it's more fun to get done and leave the bystanders wondering what just happened as they look at their singed eyebrows.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by vasnipe

Several scares with the rig, worst being blowing inside dual. Both sides, thankfully on different trips. Last one had me on the side of I-81 North here in Virginia with MAYBE 3 to 4 feet from the travel lane. Called Good Sam Roadside (they did quite well) and they asked do you feel safe? Do I feel safe you ask?

I step out of the cab and hold the phone up as big rigs blow past at 80mph +.
There, does that sound like I ought to @$%^ing feel safe here???
Didn't need any further blue language to get my point across either.


Now, truth be told, I'm a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, engineering type. We're kind of known for the creativity of the language we can use to express our extreme displeasure. Sure, I can blister the paint off that doorframe, but using the usual four letter variety is well, kind of limiting...
Besides, it's more fun to get done and leave the bystanders wondering what just happened as they look at their singed eyebrows.

Sometimes a well used expletive or two cuts out the need for long sentences or even paragraphs of discussion.

My Dad was Navy so I grew up knowing a "man of few, but well chosen words".

[Live4boating]

Camping Yikes moment would be tent camping in a campground when the boys were little. We were all of us in a tent sleeping. Around 1am. All of a sudden I hear sniffing, panting, huffing noises around the tent. Then the very large animal starts trying to get in the tent but the big huffing, puffing, shape of an animal ramming the outside of the tent falls on top of my oldest son who was sound asleep. He was young so of course he starts screaming, I yell something to my husband, like DO SOMETHING! OMG WHAT IS THAT?, my youngest then starts crying too....scared the pee right outta the very large dog that was trying to get into the tent. Yep, he peed all over the side of the tent. The dogs owner was in the next site over and I guess he got confused on where he was.

Not camping Yikes was when we lived in the woods on a mountain, trees all near the house. A tall tree with about a 3 or 4’ diameter died and my DH determined it was in danger of falling toward the house. I liked watching him go all lumberjack so I was watching him through an upstairs window. At this point in his life in his early 30s he’d cut down and chopped up lots of trees and since it wasn’t that big he didn’t get help. So he starts and notches the tree properly and gets his chain saw going. Well the top of the damn thing got caught on the other trees around it and didn’t fall. So now he’s got a tree cut completely through but still sitting on its trunk. Even I know that’s no good. So he cuts another chunk out which he has to bang out but the tree falls back down on the trunk completely upright again. He had to do that about 5 more times before it finally fell properly. Watching that tree just keep falling back down completely upright on its trunk was hysterical. I didn’t know until he told me later how dangerous that could have been.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Live4boating

So he cuts another chunk out which he has to bang out but the tree falls back down on the trunk completely upright again. He had to do that about 5 more times before it finally fell properly.

Was he cutting pieces out that were "fireplace size"?

Maybe he just planned on cutting firewood off the tree until it laid down on it's own?

[Iwannacamp]

Originally Posted by mdstudey

We must be twins. I thought we were the only ones.

Me too. I have been remodeling my kitchen for 8-10 years. I started by getting a whole bunch of cabinets at a 1/2 price sale. I bought the rest of them a few years ago at a 25% off sale and last year I bought my sink...god it's beautiful, faucets(yep I am having a pot filler too), my new COOL range hood, tile for back splash, some new lighting and the wiring materials to pull new outlets, under counter led lighting, etc. We spent the counter top money on something else.... so I have cabinets stacked everywhere till my ship comes in. I was doing the remod a "dollar at a time", but it is taking forever. My intention was to do it for cash if I live long enough. Need something for the 5er or grandkids? No problem. Kitchen? Later.

[Iwannacamp]

Originally Posted by Cowracer

Not camping, but digging post holes for our pavilion at our lake lot. I knew the underground electric line to our cabin was 'near' where I wanted one hole to go, but not exactly sure where. I even installed that cable back in the day, but I could not remember with 100% certainty where it ran.

So, trying to be smart, I found a picture of when I was putting in the electric line in a couple of years prior. In the picture, near the cable, was a small (10 or so foot high) tree that it still there. I break out some photo-manipulation software, and going by the height of the first major branch, I determine that the cable is like .83 times the height of the first branch away from the tree, due south.

OK... Get to the lot, break out the tape measure and find out the height of the branch. Some quick calculation, and measuring due south from the tree, I make a mark where the cable is. Knowing that, I can sight over to the corner of the cabin and determine the location of where the cable is where I want to sink the post. It's about 2 feet away. Close but do-able.

So I fire up the post hole digger and promptly and efficiently cut a chunk out of the cable. I couldn't have hit it more perfectly on top the cable if my life depended on it.



The engineer in me had to figure out where I went wrong. I had the math all worked out. It SHOULD have been fine. Until... way too late, I remembered one small detail.

Trees grow.

I was so mad after that, I couldn't even curse coherently. I just made single syllable noises for about a minute solid. Eventually, I regained my legendary capacity for profanity and let go with a string of fluent, if unoriginal cursing. Not my best day. lol

Tim

My boss/ex-MIL wanted some LARGE bushes removed so me and a buddy contracted to get them out. We thought the 40 HP Kubota with a boom pole would do it. NOPE. Ended up getting a 555 Ford back hoe over there and getting them out. She lives in an everthings underground area with many upgrades/add ons including a pool house and inground pool. Electric wires, gas lines, cable wires, yard lighting, sprinkler lines, and pool piping as well as sewer lines for the pump system on the pool house. It was amazing as we found several of these items

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Iwannacamp

My boss/ex-MIL wanted some LARGE bushes removed so me and a buddy contracted to get them out. We thought the 40 HP Kubota with a boom pole would do it. NOPE. Ended up getting a 555 Ford back hoe over there and getting them out. She lives in an everthings underground area with many upgrades/add ons including a pool house and inground pool. Electric wires, gas lines, cable wires, yard lighting, sprinkler lines, and pool piping as well as sewer lines for the pump system on the pool house. It was amazing as we found several of these items

Everything at my house is underground too. Water, Sewer, old legacy copper phone wires, fiber optic cable for my Fios connection as well as the old cable company's coax. I have a tree I want to get rid of that is growing right on top of where all come together next to the sidewalk.

First thought is to just hook my truck to it and pull (like my neighbor did with a big willow tree). I'm afraid to do this as I keep having visions of the root ball coming out of the ground attached to everything but the sewer line (just like what happened to the neighbor)

My plan now is to just cut it off at ground level, drill holes in the stump, and pour a good "stump killer" into the holes to keep sprouts from coming back.

This little patch of dirt, 10' by 10', has so many underground pipes and wires the locator service just marked it NO DIG the last time the "Phone" company came to install the fiber optic line. A young guy dug by hand for two days to make a ditch deep enough to bury the line.

[cbetmoose]

Few years back, installing a water line past Grissom AFB. No problems until a phone line was located on the west side of a large rock just outside the fence. We went to the east side to be safe, suddenly found ourselves covered by several MP'S with very large rifles as we had cut thru the fiber optic cable between the base and the Pentagon!! Many choice words exchanged on both sides of the conversation. Cost of the repair was born by the location company, $1000.00 per hour till it was fixed.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by cbetmoose

Few years back, installing a water line past Grissom AFB. No problems until a phone line was located on the west side of a large rock just outside the fence. We went to the east side to be safe, suddenly found ourselves covered by several MP'S with very large rifles as we had cut thru the fiber optic cable between the base and the Pentagon!! Many choice words exchanged on both sides of the conversation. Cost of the repair was born by the location company, $1000.00 per hour till it was fixed.

If a line that important could be cut accident, just think how easy it would be to do it on purpose.

Scary.

[Mrs.Shockley]

Originally Posted by Iwannacamp

Me too. I have been remodeling my kitchen for 8-10 years. I started by getting a whole bunch of cabinets at a 1/2 price sale. I bought the rest of them a few years ago at a 25% off sale and last year I bought my sink...god it's beautiful, faucets(yep I am having a pot filler too), my new COOL range hood, tile for back splash, some new lighting and the wiring materials to pull new outlets, under counter led lighting, etc. We spent the counter top money on something else.... so I have cabinets stacked everywhere till my ship comes in. I was doing the remod a "dollar at a time", but it is taking forever. My intention was to do it for cash if I live long enough. Need something for the 5er or grandkids? No problem. Kitchen? Later.

OMG don't get me started on the kitchen! We have cabinets in the basement because, to save money, we bought unfinished hickory cabinets planning on vanishing them myself. We wave a huge, lovely stove in the garage and a new dishwasher. All because we haven't been able to get started on the cabinets. I swear if we didn't have a cat I'd put then in and varnish them in place. I think we bought them 5 years ago.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Mrs.Shockley

OMG don't get me started on the kitchen! We have cabinets in the basement because, to save money, we bought unfinished hickory cabinets planning on vanishing them myself. We wave a huge, lovely stove in the garage and a new dishwasher. All because we haven't been able to get started on the cabinets. I swear if we didn't have a cat I'd put then in and varnish them in place. I think we bought them 5 years ago.

You sound exactly like my Son-In-Law.

He's filled his shop with cabinets, refrigerator, washer/dryer, and a whole host of other "goodies" he's bought over the years because they were a GOOD DEAL.

Some of the appliances he's purchased have had the warranties expire and they haven't even been plugged in. My Daughter just rolls her eyes when the subject comes up.

[Mrs.Shockley]

Originally Posted by Iwannacamp

Me too. I have been remodeling my kitchen for 8-10 years. I started by getting a whole bunch of cabinets at a 1/2 price sale. I bought the rest of them a few years ago at a 25% off sale and last year I bought my sink...god it's beautiful, faucets(yep I am having a pot filler too), my new COOL range hood, tile for back splash, some new lighting and the wiring materials to pull new outlets, under counter led lighting, etc. We spent the counter top money on something else.... so I have cabinets stacked everywhere till my ship comes in. I was doing the remod a "dollar at a time", but it is taking forever. My intention was to do it for cash if I live long enough. Need something for the 5er or grandkids? No problem. Kitchen? Later.

Originally Posted by TitanMike

You sound exactly like my Son-In-Law.

He's filled his shop with cabinets, refrigerator, washer/dryer, and a whole host of other "goodies" he's bought over the years because they were a GOOD DEAL.

Some of the appliances he's purchased have had the warranties expire and they haven't even been plugged in. My Daughter just rolls her eyes when the subject comes up.

LOL! We went to the store to price dishwashers because ours died. I saw this beautiful gas range. I hate my stove. I have a 27" drop in stove in nearly 50 year old custom cabinets. The salesman says, "Its on sale!" We explain that its impossible to cut down our cabinets to fit the range. He says, "They're on sale!" We walked out with cabinets, stove, and dishwasher - ALL out of warranty at this point - and I'm still washing dishes by hand while they sit in our garage and basement.

[LizzyRN]

Originally Posted by mdstudey

We must be twins. I thought we were the only ones.

TRIPLETS!

[jeffrenaud]

First time I backed up the brand new 29....(had a 24). Hit the house, crushing the eavestrough. (That wasnt it)

Second time backing it in...was watching the house so carefully, hit the teenager's basketball net and drove it into the eavestrough. (that wasnt it)

Last time I backed it in, had teenager behind me on the phone (new proven procedure)...as i get within a foot, his battery dies...i dont hear him say to stop and i hit the eavestrough just perfectly....driving a fuerelle right through the back of my trailer and into my shower.

Yeah...that was it

[Buddy Borders]

So many to choose from! This Spring, the Mrs and I were heading off to our train club for a weekend of camping and playing trains. When we got there, of course the area where we camp is filled with random cars and trailers. I pick a spot where I'll put our A-Frame trailer but that involves turning the rig around, not always a pleasant task



So I get the trailer almost jack-knifed into a pocket so I can turn it around and ask the Mrs to check my clearances in the rear. When she gets back there, she says I need to see something. After begging off and muttering about how much room I have, she becomes insistent. Fine. What is so important? It seems our spare tire and mounting bracket didn't want to go with us this weekend and made other plans on the way. And to emphasize their displeasure, they took some fiberglass panel along with them. Heavy sigh!


So I finally get things turned around and the camper parked only to realize I put the door facing the heavy brush at the side of the lot. Sigh!


After a couple of beers, I found out it was covered under insurance and the door facing the trees and brush did give us a little more privacy.

[OutOfTheTent]

The first six or seven years that we camped in our now beloved Adirondacks campground, you could not reserve a site, only a time span. After a few years of driving six hours to get whatever was left in the evening (we are not early risers), we realized we could go up the day before, arriving around 8 or 9 pm, and camp for a night with our two young daughters in a small tent, then go around in the morning to see who was leaving, and ask to leave a cooler on the site we wanted. That worked great, until the night we came in and didn't see the list of open sites. Our younger daughter then pointed to a large wooden sign and asked "What does no vaCANcy mean?" We lucked out, and found an empty site, where there was a no-show. The following year, they changed the system and we could reserve sites.

[txarsoncop]

Buddy was meeting us for a week of back country dry camping. We had our tiny rig setup and settled in for a bit when he finally showed up with his ginormous Class A. They start putting the slides out when I hear a bunch of yelling, cursing the whole bit. Get over to his rig and he's yelling at the wife for "not paying attention while sliding out the BR. Take a look and there's a 20 gauge shotgun barrel sticking out of the 'slide gap' and wedged HARD.

Seems his son's shotgun had been leaning against the wall and slide inside the RV. After LOTS of wiggling, pushing, pulling and lifting of the outside edge of the slide we FINALLY freed the gun which, surprisingly, didn't look permanently damaged. Next problem is the slide won't move. It won't finish sliding out or retract. We empty everything and search/check everywhere. At this point it might help to explain that our only experience is with our non-slide TT and he's never gotten any troubleshooting tips from his dad (the owner) on the Class A.

Luckily, through my previous reading here, I was aware that a unit with slides SHOULD have a wrench/tool to manually move slides. Now we search for the tool which I finally find in a compartment in the BR slide. We cranked it all the way back in and then tried the switch which worked.

Wish I still had the pic. Of course we sent the pic to his dad before he even had a chance to say anything.

Good times!

[Steve Phelps]

In my first house I wanted to put a hose bib in the front yard. I could see where the water line should run, between the meter and house outside faucet. I couldn't have hit the center of the water line like that if I had aimed for it. Shouldn't be too hard to fix except it was 5:30 on a Friday and the hardware store was now closed. Amazing what you can temporarily fix with radiator hose and clamps.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Steve Phelps

In my first house I wanted to put a hose bib in the front yard. I could see where the water line should run, between the meter and house outside faucet. I couldn't have hit the center of the water line like that if I had aimed for it. Shouldn't be too hard to fix except it was 5:30 on a Friday and the hardware store was now closed. Amazing what you can temporarily fix with radiator hose and clamps.

Beer can, duct tape and hose clamps work too. I know.

[Justin75]

My wife, daughter and I were returning from a great trip in the Shenandoah Mts. I decided I wanted to stop at a car wash to spray off the camper. I pulled up to the wash bay, stopped and eyeballed the height and convinced myself there was plenty of room (I'm pretty good at talking myself into bad choices) as I pulled forward it felt like I was slow rolling a speed bump......a lil resistance. I pressed the gas a tad, then realized "if #$@&!! the A/C unit"!! I successfully dislodged the unit from the roof. I was angry, sad, and embarrassed all at once. That was the longest 10 min ride home.
Luckily, I have a good friend who owns his own RV repair business, needless to say, I became a customer..........again.