• @Teppichbrand@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    18
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    Went looking for mushrooms in the woods with some friends. A few meters off a trail we found a rusty metal pipe sticking out of the ground. Looked like someone threw some chemical waste out. We tried to open it, to pull it out, we put a stick in (I get sweaty palms writing this down right now) and smelled the strange liquid. It didn’t work so we went home. One friend send the location to the local waste authority. They called a day later, it was a phosphorus bomb dropped by the British during WW2, it was still active and had to be defused. Fuck me! This was not deep in the woods, people walked by in plain sight for decades.

  • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    444 days ago

    The biggest?

    That time we dodged a Scud ballistic missile. I don’t mean we saw one get intercepted or had one land nearby and just watched. We actively dodged it.

    So there we were in Iraq in 2003. We’re outside Al Najaf and the battle for the city is raging. There are artillery rounds going both ways, planes dropping ordnance, and thousands of civilians leaving the city on foot. Mostly we ignored them because we had a job to do. But one guy turns around suddenly and starts walking back into the city. Several of us noticed him and started asking the others around us, “is he?.. Is he pacing? Did he turn around just to the side of our position?”

    The consensus quickly formed that, yup, he was walking in a way to count his steps and get a distance measurement. Our leaders called up the chain and a plan quickly formed. If it was nothing then there wouldn’t be an interruption to the battle anyways. The second the sun was down we moved out to a new position in complete light discipline. Nobody was allowed any light but what they could get through a night vision device. Not even the IR flashlights and markers.

    In our new position everything was normal until around 0300 when a huge explosion went off right in our previous fighting position. They had indeed launched a SCUD based on one man pacing a distance measurement, and they were accurate. If we hadn’t moved that night then I wouldn’t be here.

    So we dodged a Scud Missile.

    • @Shard@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      74 days ago

      Holy shit dude.

      I’m a fan of your war stories. The amount of shit you’ve survived must put you on par with chuck norris or something.

      • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        84 days ago

        It was definitely a year that contained a decade, but I’m far from being the one to see the most stuff. And I certainly wasn’t a lone wolf. Well except for that one time… Lol I jest, we never did anything alone.

          • @ulterno@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            34 days ago

            Are we talking about the same Chuck Norris?

            No, we are not.

            I am talking about an internet meme
            You are talking about a real person, who is probably old by now.

            • Yeah, we’re talking about the same chuck norris.

              Unfortunately we memed a douchebag back in the day, but the good news is you can stop.

  • @Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    134 days ago

    Haven’t told anyone this and it’s peanuts compared to other stories, but I was driving home the other night and had to stop quickly at a red light. I didn’t “have” to but it was that perfect timing of “do I squeeze through and the guy turning left shakes his fist, or do I stop (noone behind or in front of me) and just chill.”

    So I stopped, and holy shit an 8’ square tube of steel I’d had strapped to the rack of my truck launched itself into the intersection, clattering to the ground 30’ away.

    Nobody noticed. Not the lady in the lane to my right, not anyone driving cross traffic (they all started driving by it like it wasn’t there) and not even the guys coming towards me turning left, who did drive over it.

    I could have killed someone. If there had been a car in front of me I could have been the villian in a real life horror movie… Like that video of the guy who’s mother gets killed in the passenger seat beside him when a brick comes through the windshield.

    I don’t believe in God. But fuck me, if I never win a lottery ticket or raffle or even a coin toss again I’ll still consider myself damn fucking lucky.

    Stupid. And there wasn’t a reason for it… I checked those straps before I left that day. Something about the rain and I don’t know what caused it to come loose. But I didn’t have to be carrying that thing around. I was just lazy and storing it there until I could use it.

    I’m sorry to everyone. And I’m so lucky noone was hurt.

    • @Hubi@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      64 days ago

      How did you do it? Must be crazy to look back at it with all the things that happened in mind.

      • @Maxxie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        64 days ago

        A lot of moving around, not knowing what city or country I will be at next week.

        Was a wild ride for sure, glad I was fortunate and persistent enough to find a place I can tentatively call home again ❣️

  • Scrubbles
    link
    fedilink
    English
    75
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    High school girlfriend was a bit intense and told me she wanted me to marry her and that she wanted children. I was 16 at the time. I was terrified by that, because you know, 16, and she got mad at my nervousness. She dumped me a week later and wouldn’t you know it, married less than a year out of high school with now 3 kids.

    I went on to get my degree, move far far away, get a much better job and a much better partner. I think back to who I would have been if teenage me had let myself be pressured into that. Small town, working at the gas station or pizza joint, supporting 3 kids…

    • @Wahots@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      94 days ago

      God, I feel this. One of my uni girlriends was similar. I was attracted to bad women or women with problems, lol. Then I fell in love with a really nice guy who was like, the polar opposite of everyone I had dated prior. Fast forward years later, and we’re married and finally starting to think about having kids. Feels closer to the right time :)

  • @SeikoAlpinist@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    114 days ago

    Large outlet center on interstate 40 in North Carolina between two metropolitan areas needed a Spanish translator. I applied and interviewed, having spent significant time working IT jobs in South America. They asked if I spoke Mexican. I said no, I am working proficient in Spanish. They said sorry, they were looking for someone who spoke Mexican.

  • @superkret@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    655 days ago

    Shortly after getting my driver’s license, I stupidly merged onto a road with a 40 mph speed limit without looking left.
    A car was coming right towards my driver’s side door. The driver of the other car made their brakes squeal (this was before ABS). Right before they would have hit me and probably killed me (this was before airbags), they released their brakes, swerved around me, and kept going.
    It was some really impressive driving, and it likely saved my life.

  • @Proposal6114@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    204 days ago

    12 ga, not sure if slug or shot.

    Gun was held to my head for 20-30 mins during some gang stupidity involving a family member not wanting to leave a party I was supposed to pick them up from. I left, came back and the place was crawling with police and EMS. The same gun, held by the same guy was used to shoot another person in the face.

    I ended up having to give statements, got subpoenaed, and myself, family, and friends being threatened by same gang for a number of years.

  • Adderbox76
    link
    fedilink
    English
    84 days ago

    Not having children with my (now) ex-wife. Thankfully found out her true nature before that happened. I don’t know what I’d do if I had to co-parent with her and deal with her on a regular basis. So I’m thankful I could just split our shit 50/50 and then forget I ever knew her.

  • @Aceticon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    535 days ago

    As an EU immigrant, left the UK after the Leave vote but before Brexit and Covid.

    It’s not a bullet but more like a whole lot of bullets.

    Mind you, most of it was entirely predictable back then.

    • @FrustratedArtist@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      125 days ago

      I moved to UK after school to get a university degree. Graduated in 2014, and despite having multiple interviews, had to move back home due to not being able to land a job. Eventually got employed elsewhere, and boy did it turn out pretty well compared to what would have happened if I stayed.

    • @Wahots@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      24 days ago

      Can you elaborate on some of the bullets dodged? Not from that part of the world and I’ve only heard of the economic ramifications. I’d be curious to hear about it in greater detail, if you have the time!

      • @Aceticon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        74 days ago

        The country moved to the far-right, the Industry I was working in - Finance - lost 40,000 jobs, Britain got general Economic stagnation worse than the EU, the value of the British Pound fell significantly against the Euro after the vote (fortunatelly I moved all my savings out of Pound-denominated assets evern before the Leave vote, so I personally was alright) all of the sudden as an EU immigrant you became a second class citizen with lots of extra hassle for living there (inside the EU, EU immigrants have the same rights as the locals, so when Britain left, they lost that), significant decay and problems with their National Health Service, really bad mishandling of COVID (especially in the beginning) and so on.

        In some ways the place turned into a mini Trump’s-America, only with the extra nastiness of already being very classist country with very low social mobility from the start and a heavy “know your place” mindset - which is extra hard for immigrants because Britons see themselves as superior to all foreigners but Americans, so “Immigrant” is the lowest “social class” for them - and without the upsides that American has (mainly space and scale, natural resources and at least in some places good weather).

        Mind you, most of those things are trends predating Brexit which were heavilly accelerated by it.

  • @pixelscript@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    114 days ago

    Realistically, I’d say my worst in recent memory was nearly getting smoked by a red light runner at some stroad intersection. Only thing that saved me was my own incompetence; I believe I was dicking around on my phone waiting for my turn at the light, and that hesitation delayed me just enough to not get wrecked.

    The one I’m more likely to tell people in a casual conversation is nearly accepting a job as a professional Salesforce consultant.

  • GHiLA
    link
    fedilink
    114 days ago

    I’ve left two companies before they went under.

    Avail Vapor, was the most memorable.

    A company that bet everything on vaping being this bougie, upscale thing similar to hookahs and built 100 stores across America(I helped).

    Then it all came crashing down once people were just cool with just going to little tobacco shops like they always did, and Avail had 100 stores full of outdated hardware no one wanted.

    Yep, down it went.