Electric rats
Our first house was a turn of the century terrace that had a large cellar under the lounge. You had to walk down the steps, which were walled on both sides, and take a right turn before the room opened out, so you couldn't actually see any stairs when you were down there. As it was reasonably dry we used it mainly for storing bikes, lawnmowers etc in.
One day i went to go down it and the bulb blew. I got a spare and taking a torch went to change it. Reaching the light I put the torch in my mouth to leave both hands free to swap the bulbs. All going well so far, I felt like a proper DIY'er.
Then i coughed and dropped the torch, which smashed into tiny pieces on the stone floor. Don't buy £1 tesco torches, they are shit.
Ah well, I know I am in total darkness, but there were no mad axemen here 1 second ago, I should be ok, just swap it in the dark. It was either that or walk all the way back across a cellar in the total darkness to get another torch.
So i reached up to try and find the fitting, and was repeatedly bitten, really quickly, on the finger by what I thought was a rat or something. It is fair to say that my boxers were not going to come clean even with a boil wash.
Turns out that with an entire ceiling to aim at, in total darkness, I managed to stick my finger straight into the fitting itself. After a few minutes I calmed down, swapped the bulb and stumbled back in the darkness as the light wasn't actually switched on.
It was only later when the thought that I could have collapsed down there and nobody would have known where i was, and that one of my family could have literally stumbled across me by torchlight, that i really got the willies.
Bought a shed not long after.
(turtles head is touching cloth poked a dwarf on the forehead at, Tue 28 Jul 2009, 20:59, Reply)