[bluefeet]

1990, stationed at Pope AFB, NC - 23yrs old.

I purchased my families first washer & dryer, while living off-base in an apartment complex. The small apartment had an even smaller odd-shaped laundry room at one end of the apartment. Squeezing the two units into the room was challenging enough. How I was ever going to plug in the dryer after attaching the 220 cord to the back of the machine was another question.

[A less than brilliant idea entered my pee-brain]

I'll plug it in first! So I'm squatting in the corner having just plugged the one end into the power supply, holding the other end of the 220, about to slip the little copper rabbit-ear thingies to the back of the dryer. As I move the rigid cord toward my new dryer/electrocutioner, it thankfully slips out of my hand.

"KA-BOOM!!" (The memory is a little shaky. I'm not sure if the "ka-boom" was the 220 or me hitting the wall)

I see a large flash as I fly backward the short foot or two, leaving a nice dent in the drywall.
It is now pitch dark.
My eyes hurt.
The wife and baby are both crying/screaming.

While I'm pretty sure I survived, I was convinced I was blind - letting anyone within ear-shot know of my condition (failing to reason that I am in a dark, window-less corner of the apartment, after sunset).

So after a few panicked moments, I stumble out of the laundry room, realizing what had happened. The results? I knocked out power to all 8 units in the building. Burned a little hole in the linoleum as the 220 sought grounding. My face was a little "sun" burnt from the flash. I was seeing red for a few hours. And had the pleasant exchange, trying to explain to the on-call super what I had done.

[img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Can you beat that stupidity?