How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
It all started with a simple idea: hang some shelves. Easy, right? A couple of brackets, a few screws—what could go wrong? I grabbed my drill, feeling like a certified DIY master, and got to work.
Fast forward an hour: I’m downstairs, basking in my success, when I notice something strange. A drip… drip… drip sound. I look around. Did I leave a faucet on? Is the house crying? I follow the sound to the basement, and there it is—WATER, streaming down the wall like my house decided to install an impromptu waterfall feature.
Confused, I stare at it, brain buffering like an old dial-up connection. Then, the horrifying realization hits me. I bolt upstairs, eyes locked on my beautifully mounted shelf. The screw! The screw that I had so proudly driven into the wall. The screw that had, apparently, also decided to moonlight as a plumber’s worst nightmare!
Turns out, I had unknowingly played a high-stakes game of “Pin the Tail on the Pipe”—and won!
Cue the panicked scramble to shut off the water, a frantic Google search on “how to un-flood your basement,” and a very amused plumber who patched things up while trying—and failing—not to laugh in my face.
The moral of the story? I now have a newfound respect for walls, hidden pipes, and professional plumbers. Now, before I so much as consider drilling into a wall, I do a full-blown research project, complete with diagrams, detective work, and an internal monologue asking, “Is this really worth the risk of another indoor geyser?” Spoiler alert: it rarely is!
Crock’s Thoughts 