View Full Version : It seemed like a good idea at the time...
iris lilies
8-18-15, 12:18pm
Here's a thread to post mistakes that we consciously made because hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Learn from us!
Here's mine for the day, and I apologize that it will be too specific to be useful for those here but maybe a lurker will find value in it: A few years ago I was testing orange iris. I wanted to identify the best oranges and to compare their color, viability, and bloom time. So I thought it would be a good idea to plant them all in a row, next to each other. I carefully labelled each one. Yeah, that lasted all of one garden season and the next year when the shitty children across the street devastated by marking system, all of the tags were pulled out of the ground and scattered everywhere. Now I don't know which orange is which. I may have been able to identify them it I had scattered the orange iris all around the yard because the tags would have been in the general vicinity.
your turn...
Bought a car (any/every car).
Bought a house (two specific ones).
Got married (specific person).
But it's all worked itself out and learning experiences are good.
Ultralight
8-18-15, 12:32pm
iris:
"It seemed like a good idea at time time..." is how I would describe so many things in my lifetime. haha
But...
I would say moving in with two housemates I did not know seemed like a good idea at the time. Then it became a stressful pain in the but as their cat peed all over everything, they stiffed me on the gas bill, they moved the litter box into the kitchen (under the kitchen table), one of them got two venomous tarantulas, they never cleaned or mowed the lawn, they left dirty socks all over the living room floor, they would not take their laundry out of the washer or dryer, and then they acted totally bewildered when I was like: "I am not happy and I am moving out!" after less than two months!
catherine
8-18-15, 12:53pm
Where do I begin?
Joining a buying club (and then never using it)
Buying a house before selling the first (in 2008)
Accepting hand-me downs from a neighbor for my oldest son (who then got made fun of the next day at school by the boy whose clothes they originally were--earning me Bad Mother of the Year Award)
Bringing 7 people and a dog to Florida for Christmas because DS couldn't get off work to come up North (expensive, uncomfortable, dog hated it, 2 people quarantined due to illness, DH crashed Sunfish offshore…an overall DISASTER)
Buying a conversion van (Bad idea on its own, but REALLY bad idea to buy it as our ONLY car)
Those are just the few that come to the top of my mind.
ApatheticNoMore
8-18-15, 12:57pm
not moving nearer to work just because i hated the job. well I still hate the job, but i just get to hate the commute as well.
Ultralight
8-18-15, 1:00pm
Where do I begin?
Joining a buying club (and then never using it)
Buying a house before selling the first (in 2008)
Accepting hand-me downs from a neighbor for my oldest son (who then got made fun of the next day at school by the boy whose clothes they originally were--earning me Bad Mother of the Year Award)
Bringing 7 people and a dog to Florida for Christmas because DS couldn't get off work to come up North (expensive, uncomfortable, dog hated it, 2 people quarantined due to illness, DH crashed Sunfish offshore…an overall DISASTER)
Buying a conversion van (Bad idea on its own, but REALLY bad idea to buy it as our ONLY car)
Those are just the few that come to the top of my mind.
While your lyrics are different, you're still singing my song! lol
Got married (specific person).
Yup, that one's on my list... Add
- buying a house in 2005 just before the bottom fell out of the market;
- trying to teach my mom how to use a computer (a Mac, at that);
- (uhh, I'm sure there's more. Lemme think.)
iris lilies
8-18-15, 1:32pm
Yup, that one's on my list... Add
- buying a house in 2005 just before the bottom fell out of the market;
- trying to teach my mom how to use a computer (a Mac, at that);
- (uhh, I'm sure there's more. Lemme think.)
Amy Schumer has a hilarious piece about helping her mother use a computer. It makes me scream laugh because the mom makes the same errors I make and uses the same excuses: Just because I knew it yesterday doesn't mean I know it today, ya know? haha.
About 25 years ago, I sold my shares in a company called Microsoft to buy shares in various firms I can't even remember. I thought the real money would be in improved hardware.
I bought a condo and not a house in a depressed area where I didn't know the market. Compared to where I was coming from , the prices looked awesome, but for the area they were highly inflated. I should have backed out when my first choice for a bank had a lower valuation than the selling price (these were new) and I went with the bank handling the construction loan. Now even 25+ years later, the resale prices for these are still lower than what we paid. We wound up selling for less than 60% of what we put in. Ouch.
About 25 years ago, I sold my shares in a company called Microsoft to buy shares in various firms I can't even remember. I thought the real money would be in improved hardware.
Yikes! I feel for ya on that one.
Putting my travel mug in the dishwasher today instead of washing it by hand. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now I need a new travel mug. :( There was a reason it said "Hand Wash Only" on the bottom of it. Doh!
When they die, I think I'll have that on my headstone. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." I'm having a period where it seems to me if I could get through a single day without implementing one "good idea" that turns into a mess, it would be a small miracle.
Nine weeks ago, my husband, let's call him John Smith, asked me to open a Charles Schwab checking account for its overseas ATM privileges. It sounded, if not like a good idea, at least like an innocuous idea, the online process took about ten minutes. It turned out I could only open a single account and had to fill out a form to add him on.
In the past two plus months I have filled out and mailed this fifteen page form three times, made no less than twelve phone calls about it, and finally made a trip to the branch office to do it in person. Yesterday I received a letter. "We have successfully added John P Smitee JT Ten to your account." :thankyou:
About 25 years ago, I sold my shares in a company called Microsoft to buy shares in various firms I can't even remember. I thought the real money would be in improved hardware.
Me too. I sold some tech and bought Sears because they sold Craftsman hand tools.
Yikes! I feel for ya on that one.
And that's not even the stupidest thing I've ever done. It's just the stupidest thing I'll admit to.
Me too. I sold some tech and bought Sears because they sold Craftsman hand tools.
At least if I'd invested in some hand tools, I'd have something to show for it today. And I'd have something to hit myself with.
Dumb...I didn't get on the phone and book a hotel when our plane was delayed six hours. Ended up driving around Denver at 2am looking for a place to stay and thought we were going to have to sleep in the car.
ApatheticNoMore
8-18-15, 10:35pm
go to a free training work offered anyone who was interested (was voluntary). Well it turns out it lasts for several days we pay for hotel and meals and are responsible for transportation .... What a deal, huh?
buy a mandoline slicer.
It definitely sounds like there is more to this than there appears to be. I do hope there were no serious injuries!
When I laid out my garden this spring, I placed the birdbath and then hung the bird feeder nearby. The birds danced from the feeder to get a drink, pooped and left droppings/seeds in the birdbath requiring frequent cleaning. They then perched on my furniture/picnic table and soiled that each day as well. DD2 came home for a visit and I was complaining about my plan and its results. She moved the feeder about 10 feet away. The birds now eat and then go to the chainlink fence near the feeder. The birdbath water stays cleaner and the furniture doesn't get soiled anywhere near as much. Some bad things can be corrected, some not.
buying a mama van when I did youth ministry and didn't even have children of my own yet (the church just took advantage of it)
the latest car purchase (DH is not a good car shopper, should of waited till I could get out to look)
latest truck purchase (DH again, ended up with a loan)
taking out a 2nd on our house
getting a commercial loan (didn't realize it ballooned in 3 years hence the 2nd on the house)
SteveinMN
8-19-15, 12:03pm
Got one more:
- parking several blocks away from the vet to kind of disguise the visit from the dog (preventive visit) and get a walk in at the same time -- only to have it start raining by the time we left. Only a 30-40% chance, but a slow soaker. Of course, the dog shook off as soon as she got in the car. I couldn't wait to get home and change. *sigh*
So many....Just about everyone was done for ALL the right reasons though!
OMG Steve I thought I was the only one who parked in different places to hide the Vet from the dog! Too funny I told my buddies at the bike store I was doing this one day as the vet was down the street, but it would only happen once as the dog would now not return to the bike store either.
i am trying to separate out the things i just lost track of and didn't do as compared to the conscious decisions i really thought were a good idea,hmm
i think mostly delaying doing my taxes because there was 'plenty of time' and then having life fall apart and having all sorts of issues related to that. my new thing, do tasks as soon as i get them! i can't tell you how many times i delay something so i can do it more perfect and instead end up with a big mess when i could have done it fine the first time
oh yeah, and getting a deal on 2 lbs of salmon that i didn't cook all that night, and then it went bad by the 'use by' date, the smell!!
Bringing 7 people and a dog to Florida for Christmas because DS couldn't get off work to come up North (expensive, uncomfortable, dog hated it, 2 people quarantined due to illness, DH crashed Sunfish offshore…an overall DISASTER)
Buying a conversion van (Bad idea on its own, but REALLY bad idea to buy it as our ONLY car)
[/LIST]
Those are just the few that come to the top of my mind.
Catherine did you post about the quarantine thing here? that sounds somewhat familiar
Quit a job in Finland when I shouldn't have. Quit a job in France when I shouldn't have. Left Ireland when I should have stuck it out and tried to deal with Immigration. Married my now-ex-husband. Bought a house in an employment wasteland. Studied subjects at university (twice) with little-to-no market value employment-wise. Walked out of a job in a huff (twice) when I shouldn't have. (This is embarrassing, and yes, I can see the pattern!)
So many, MANY mistakes, mainly around jobs and money. The list is endless, it seems. And yet, I'm doing OK now, so if someone like me can stuff it up as much as I did and still turn it around a little, then everyone else should take heart! :)
Catherine did you post about the quarantine thing here? that sounds somewhat familiar
I probably did mention it in another post somewhere along the line...
early morning
8-21-15, 10:05pm
i can't tell you how many times i delay something so i can do it more perfect and instead end up with a big mess when i could have done it fine the first time
THIS, for sure. and more, of course....
Bought a standing barn to dismantle and move.We exhausted our savings getting it apart (had to rent a crane and operator), got the parts all moved to our site, then DH's company laid everyone in his department off and we battened down the hatches. By the time we had money to put it together, it had deteriorated too badly to rebuild. We put up a pole building, which we should have done in the first place. But I LOVE old barns *sigh*
iris lilies
8-21-15, 11:30pm
Early morning's post reminded me of several goofs we made with this house:
the very first thing we ever bought for our house, a gut rehab, was an old garage door. Because it was a good deal ya,know. Haha we didn't build a garage for 15 years and by then we certainly didn't want an old musty door.
we bought a lot of used and salvaged items to put in our house. Back in those days I was a French Door freak so we put in several sets of French doors from the salvage place. Two sets are on the same wall and they differ in height. I guess that's pretty stupid. And oh yeah, we've got Victorian 6 panel doors elsewhere that do not match.
this one was less idiosyncratic: we followed the trend of the time and turned a bedroom into a luxury bathroom. That's how these old houses were being rehabbed at the time, one big bathroom was I,portent.
now the trend is lots of small bathrooms.
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