It's never where you left it
We live on a busy road and our driveway's very steep. One snowy evening when I came home from work, the driveway was just too slick to climb with my pickup. No matter how many runs I took at it, I could only make it halfway up the driveway to the garage before I lost traction.
Frustrated, I decided to just lock my pickup where it was and call it a night. After a blissfully ignorant night's sleep, I grabbed my morning joe, walked outside and mentally prepared to get back to the old grind. But my truck was gone! I looked around in a panic before spotting it - the truck had slid down the driveway, across the sidewalk and was blocking half the street. Miraculously, no one had broadsided it during the night. - Bill Parrish
Safe, but sorry
I decided to buy a floor safe to protect my wife’s jewelry. The locksmith wanted $200 to install it in my concrete floor—which was more than the safe cost! To do the job
myself, I rented the biggest jackhammer known to mankind and bought some concrete mix for the patchwork. I fired up the jackhammer and it broke through the basement slab just fine. Then it hammered through the main water line, sending water shooting up like a geyser.
The project took some extra time and an emergency visit from my plumber, but you know what? That $200 locksmith would have caused the same disaster! — Patrick Findley
Broken toy box
Can you hear me now?
Fourth time's the charm
Commode flambeau
The ever-flowing water heater
When the plumber replaced one of the heating elements in my electric water heater, I watched carefully, knowing that the other element would eventually need replacing too. Sure enough, a year later the other element went. I checked it with an ohmmeter, confirmed my diagnosis and headed to the plumbing supply store. When I returned home, I killed the power supply at the box and at the wall switch. Feeling proud and confident, I dragged the garden hose into the house, connected it to the heater and ran it into the floor drain to empty the heater—just like the plumber had done. Then I sat and waited for the water to stop flowing. After about an hour of a good, steady flow, it occurred to me to SHUT OFF THE WATER SUPPLY! Fifteen minutes later and hundreds of gallons of water poorer, I replaced the element. — Dianna Tucker
Unplanned shower
Plumber? What plumber?
Great balls of fire
Turn down the heat
Insulation conflagration
Hot pants!
Hotter pants!
Flames of water
Those helpful neighbors
Tangled up in snow
Quick on the thaw!
The copper stud
Domestic situation
Avalanche!!
Last winter we had such a huge snowfall that I became concerned about the weight of the snow on our fiberglass-paneled lean-to carport roof. To relieve the stress, I decided to thread my garage broom head to a telescoping painter’s extension handle to pull off some of the snow. Just as I started pulling, the whole mass slid off at once, burying me in about 3 ft. of snow. The task was completed—just a little faster than I expected! — Brian Westerhoff
Blazing wheelbarrows
Totally hosed
Belly gaffes
Southern snow removal
Is it just me, or is it hot in here?
Not so handy man
Duct-tape failure
Exploding toilet trick
Tidal wave
While folding laundry one rainy Saturday, I noticed water seeping from the bottom of a basement window. Figuring the window was unable to shut properly because the seal was dirty, I got a small rag and started to open the window to wipe it out.
What I didn’t realize was that the entire window well was full of water. When I turned the latch, the whole laundry room was hit with a tidal wave that completely soaked me and everything in it.
I went upstairs to change and told my wife the laundry was still a little damp. — Terry Jobke