dumbest thing I've done

[Lise]

This may qualify:

Yesterday was my last long bike ride before my triathlon next Sunday. I decided I'd strip down the bike, take only what would be with me on the race. I needed to take one key to get in the back door of my building, but the rest of my keyring I hid in my storage locker. I never lock the thing, but there's a padlock on there to keep the door shut.

The tires are filled with air, I have my beverages all set, I tuck away the keys and...lock the padlock. WHY?!? I never do that! I don't even know the combo, it's been so long!

I ended up filing through the screen on the front of the storage locker with a metal file I found in the basement. Reached in and got my keys. Went up to my apartment. Sure enough, the combo's nowhere to be found. Take the hammer and screwdriver down to the basement, and pry the entire hinge + lock out of the wood door of the locker. It pays to live in an old building.

Went for a 30 mile ride.

Came home, went to Home Depot, bought wood putty and a new hinge, fixed up the door (it looks like...it was broken into!). Sheesh. Now it has a little lock with a KEY. If I accidentally lock this thing, I could probably pry it off with an allen wrench!

The funny thing is, if anybody wanted to steal anything from the storage locker, they're welcome to it. I'd rather they not take my Christmas ornaments, etc, but it's nothing that needs to be locked up. The BIKES, on the other hand, are securely locked in another part of the basement!

[Bicyclette]

Lise - Yours reminded me of my dumbest story - not bike related..

when we lived in Germany our front door locked as soon as you closed it ( no key necessary) - of course you DID need a key to open it - you also could not unlock the door if the keys were in the inside keyhole ( which I also did so I would know where my keys were ) - well.. my husband is in England, it's Saturday morning bright and early - it had been snowing so I thought that I would be a good citizen and shovel our walks - I get dressed, grab the snow shovel, go outside and start to pull the front door closed - only meaning to close it enough to keep the cold air out - all the time I'm pulling the door shut I'm saying to myself - don't lock the door, don't lock the door.... and so what do I do? pull the door all the way shut and lock the door - with my keys sitting in the keyhole on the inside - so... I schlep my way up the street to the army depot, present my sob story and they let me go as far as the security office ( 'cuz I have no ID with me ) - I tell them my story again and the guard calls my landlord - the landlord comes to the house and tries to unlock the front door - um, no... my keys are in there - luckily he has a key to the basement door - he opens the basement door, I thank him profusely , apologizing to him for my stupidity which, by the way, he is having a good laugh at and he goes on his merry way.... all's well that ends well... right??? not quite... remember I said my husband was in England?? well.. whenever he was gone I would lock the door that leads down to the basement (see where this is going??) - so I run up the basement steps, grab the doorknob and.... the door is locked!!!! So now.... I'm stuck in my basement!! I refuse to have my landlord come by AGAIN ( feeling REALLY stupid now) and so I look around in my basement for some tools - I find a screwdriver - go back upstairs and proceed to remove the basement door (which was this huge, solid monstrosity of a door) from the hinges so I can get back in the house!! At this point - I'm finally in the house with the basement door sitting in the hallway paranoid that my landlord is gonna come back to make sure I got in all right and see the gaping doorway with no door in it ( which he did not, thank goodness)

Unfortunately that was not the first time I did that - nor was it the last - but it was the most memorable

[DebW]

This is probably not the dumbest thing I've done, but I've gotten the most teasing about it. Took some friends on their first winter backpack about 6 years ago. I brought cheese to eat for lunch and butter to put in the dinner pot. Since I wanted to keep them both in the fridge at home until I left, they got packed last and went into different outside pockets of my pack. During the hike I went to eat some cheese and opened the wrong pocket. Since the butter and cheese were the same color and I'd cut them into similar sized chunks and their consistency is very similar to 20F, I didn't notice that I'd picked the butter until I'd taken a very big bite of it. I chewed it and swallowed as my friend took a picture of my face. Since then I'm not allowed to bring the cheese because I can't be trusted to know the difference between cheese and butter.

[Lise]

Bicyclette--that was my decision: Take the door off the hinges? No, it was still locked with a padlock. OK. Pry the whole thing out of the wood. Sheesh!

Deb--I notice your tag line is "Grease is Good"...is that referring, perhaps, to ... butter?!?

[DebW]

Deb--I notice your tag line is "Grease is Good"...is that referring, perhaps, to ... butter?!?

I was hoping that no one would notice that.

But no, my tag line is in green, like bicycle grease (Philwood grease anyway, which actually is not my favorite grease). If it was referring to butter it would have been yellow. Though if butter were green I wouldn't confuse it with cheese unless the cheese was moldy. But then I'd confuse bike grease, butter, and cheese. And then there's Pedro's grease, which is white like mozarella cheese... Oh HELP!