I was finishing the wiring for the exterior floodlights on the house yesterday evening and discovered I needed one more switch. I'd already moved the motorcycle out of the garage to free up some workspace so I climbed on it and ran to the store to get the switch. Got caught by a fast moving storm on the way back and arrived home completely drenched. Fired up the charcoal grill and wired the remaining switch while I waited on the grill to heat up. I turned on the breaker to test the lights before screwing the switch into the box and decided that while I had the lights on I should put the burgers on the grill. Came back to screw the switch to the box and forgot to flip the breaker. As one of my knuckles brushed one of the contacts on the side of the switch I realized that electric shock therapy does work. A jolt that lasted only a fraction of a second reminded me to pay attention and quit being an idiot.
It also brought back memories of me and my brother Darrel Ward as kids having contests where we stood barefoot on wet grass and dropped metal bars onto Dad's electric fence. The goal was to see who could/would hold on the longest. More than once we managed to trip the safety on the fence controller. Seems like Mom finally saw us and let Dad know why his controller kept shutting down.
Seems like maybe you and your brother built up some tolerance to the ill effects of electricity.
Glad this post ended up in the humor category.
From one happy idiot to another, here's to ya my friend.
Had a similar experience with a dishwasher that had popped a drain hose.
I was laying on my back in 1/8" of soapy rinse water trying to reach around behind the pump to reinstall the hose. Trouble was that the motor is really close to the pump...and the wiring was semi-exposed...and the breaker hadn't been flipped off....
And I found out if you lay in water and grab a handful of 120AC you kind of crackle and sizzle just like a piece of bacon in a skillet. It was highly uncomfortable the entire time.
You're really lucky to still be with us. The risk from electric shock is mostly gauged by the amount of current that flows through the heart. Taking it from an arm to the back would be a high risk path.
The last big shock I got was when I was taking an ornamental fixture out of an old building that was to be demolished. Made sure the wall switch was off, took out a couple fixtures and capped the wires, and was chipping plaster with a chisel to free the plastered-over mounting of the last one when I hit the hot wire. I was sweaty and leaning against a steam radiator at the time so got a pretty stiff jolt. The wire wasn't in Romex or conduit, just imbedded in the plaster. It was still hot because the switch was in the neutral line instead of the hot like it should have been.
I know I'm lucky!
I had both hands wrapped around the motor. Most of the current came down my left arm and sizzled my shoulder to the floor, although I could feel "the grab" in both arms. It did throw the breaker.
My (at the time) 12 year old son called an ambulance when I found out I couldn't stand up and stay up. The EMT said I was lucky the breaker tripped.
I'm not too bad a surveyor, but a lousy electrician. :pinch:
Thought y'all should read this in case you're thinking of installing an electric fence!
We have the standard 6ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence. Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works. One day I'm mowing the back yard with my cheapo Wal-Mart 6 hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way. It seems as though I hadn't remembered to unplug it after all................So now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 gig volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover. Time stood still. The first thing I notice is my testimonials trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine. It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of doodie lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses. Science says you cannot crap, piss, and blow snot at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied three different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just s h i t in your pants three times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a top fuel rail dragster nearing the end of the quarter mile. At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences...but Dad always had those piece of crap chargers made by International or whoever that were like nine volts on a good day and just kinda tickled. This one I could not let go of. The eight foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Yazoo clay. At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas. "Dang!", I think, as I remember I just filled the tank! Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big Bandolero race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, snot, and with my testimonials on my chest I think "Oh God, please let it quit." But no, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner's right foot. So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 100% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day...he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created. I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire.............I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned. There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot were the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire. Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:
1. Three of my teeth seem to have melted.
2. I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not
the left, just the right).
3. Poop, pee, and snot when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you
might think.
4. My left eye will not open.
5. My right eye will not close.
6. The lawnmower runs like a scalded dog now. Seriously! I think our little
mishap cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better
than new after that.
7. My testiculars are still a smaller diameter than average yet they are almost a foot long.
8. I can turn on the TV in the gameroom by farting while thinking of the
number 4 (still don't understand this???).
Remember, be careful with electricity!!! From your friendly electrical utility representative.
