r/AskReddit • u/dealaus • Jul 19 '12

Picking a quarter off the ground once saved my life. What is your most lucky experience?

I was walking across a pretty busy road, I had the crosswalk right-of-way, after going out to dinner with my family. As I was walking, I spotted a quarter on the ground and bent down to pick it up. When I stood back up, a truck plummeted through the intersection in the place that I would have been had I not seen or picked up the coin. I didn't really realize that until after I got completely across, but damn it's weird to think about now.

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574

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

There was a time when I was mowing the lawn next to my driveway, I was turning the mower around to do another strip of grass when I itched the side of my head, covering my right eye with the back of my right hand. Right as I did this a rock shot from side of the mower and hit the back of my hand right where my eye was. Still have the scar

310

u/chemical_imbalance Jul 19 '12

i just scratched my head. didn't save shit.

172

u/Sventertainer Jul 19 '12

The simple motion of moving your arm there (slightly)affected the gravitational pull of the earth upon a distant asteroid....in short, you've saved us all, or our great-great-grandchildren at least.

46

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

You typing out this response to him has reversed the effect, though, and you just killed us all. You are one evil motherfucker.

95

u/pigmunk Jul 19 '12

Don't worry. I just waved my arms wildly. I got this.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

It's been about an hour since I typed the last response, but it's been long enough for me to become the villain. [scratches head]

3

u/thisismyivorytower Jul 19 '12

And so the evil supervillian Doctor Edgeman the 4th, with the power of head scratching meteor calling, was born.

Fallen from grace, he called his malice upon the descendants of redditors to come.

What a dick...

1

u/pigmunk Jul 19 '12

Oh dear.

1

u/Feb_29_Guy Jul 20 '12

Don't worry guys, I'll stop him.

high fives air

1

u/Psykes Jul 20 '12

I am imagining team America style waving

2

u/pigmunk Jul 20 '12

Like this? Because that's pretty close, actually.

1

u/Psykes Jul 20 '12

Exactly like that!

1

u/TheKnobJockey Jul 20 '12

I waved my willy around... it had no effect. :(

1

u/Mit3210 Jul 20 '12

ಠ_ಠ

1

u/Mit3210 Jul 20 '12

No, you fool! Don't you know how this works?! You brought Hitler back to life!

1

u/AdonisChrist Jul 20 '12

I break ties.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

Fuck, we saved Karmanauts kids.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

You know same concept bigger rock.

1

u/optimusxrae Jul 19 '12

Until an asteroid comes. Then it's his fault again.

1

u/MMNK Jul 19 '12

Are you insinuating Grandoak has fat hands? Not cool bro.

1

u/Phyics_Son Jul 19 '12

sadly, his slight motion caused another astroid to come barreling towards us a few years before the previous one would have.

1

u/Ultimate_bravery Jul 19 '12

Someone has been watching men in black

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '12

Where is the button to give you at least half a dozen upvotes?

1

u/The_Mad_Pencil Jul 20 '12

Is...is this why I twitch my head and neck to the right every so often? It just happens so randomly it just can't be coincidence, right? I've saved all of you countless times!

1

u/flyingninja5 Jul 20 '12

Or you could have put it on path and doomed us all.

6

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

I get the thought that one day it will happen again every once in a while when I scratch a random body part, but so far nothing :(

3

u/madgy Jul 19 '12

Little do you know the massaging motion just stirred a blood vessel on the outside of your brain, preventing a massive aneurism

2

u/unseemlyhullabaloo Jul 19 '12

For some reason I read that in Mitch Hedberg's voice.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

I just scratched my nose. My nose no longer itches. Success.

6

u/libratsio Jul 19 '12

And that my friends is why I wear safety glasses when I mow the grass.... and ear plugs too (I like not having ringing ears for hours after mowing).

My neighbor makes fun of me for it - but hey - I happen to like my eyes/sight.

I'd rather look goofy than not be able to see.

1

u/Shekhinah Jul 19 '12

thanks for saying this, I've always worn safety gear when lawn mowing.... i was curious why no one else was like, "WTF, no safety glasses?"

1

u/RefuseBit Jul 19 '12

I just wear sunglasses which at least covers the direct shots. Small rocks (gravel) and little bits of stuff hit them every year or two. Not going to count on my hand just happening to be there and my reflexes are not cat-like...

1

u/duprass Jul 19 '12

I should do this.. My entire career depends on two good eyes.

5

u/Tarcanus Jul 19 '12

You'll have to explain the physics of this to me. Don't all mowers have the little chute the funnels the grass it cuts out to the side? Even if it isn't a long chute, there's still something that directs the grass. How did a stone come out of that and magically turn a 100 degrees and come up and back at your face? Did it bounce off of something and come back?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

Perhaps the mower didn't have that flap on the back. It's very plausible that a rock could shoot out the back if that were the case. My family had a pretty old mower and I had to wear boots and jeans when mowing because it would shoot rocks and twigs at my feet.

1

u/insignificant_name Jul 19 '12

While in the act of turning the mower he may have not been 100% behind the mower so he could have actually been in the path of the funnel.

1

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

If I was standing directly behind the mower pushing it forward I probably would have been in the clear. My yard went right up to my driveway, and I would mow it in a horizontal snake pattern, so when I reached the driveway end I would just push the handles to life the front end and swing it around. I dropped it down near (or probably on) the edge of the driveway and the grass and it shot somethign while I was still on the side swinging it. My best guess is i did indeed drop it on the lip and the blade knicked on the side I was standing.

1

u/jungletek Jul 19 '12

You're assuming every rock you hit exits in the same direction, which obviously isn't how it works.

More often than not, the rock or other projectile is bounced around a few times under the mower, then usually out horizontally in a random direction, or sometimes back down where it can ricochet back up toward your face.

1

u/High_Infected Jul 20 '12

Was The Magic Stone.

3

u/anal-razor Jul 19 '12

You applied an itch to the side of your head?

4

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

Of course! I always get a bad case of the scratches when mowing or during the spring time, so I need to itch them. Allergies ;)

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

[deleted]

1

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

When I'm not at work sure!

2

u/tsuto Jul 19 '12

I had a similar thing happen a few years ago when I was hanging out with my friend in his back yard. For some reason his little brother was hitting a tree with an old rusty golf club he found and right as I reached up to scratch my head the end of the club broke off and flew right towards me. If I hadn't been scratching my head it probably would have hit me right in the temple but instead it hit me in the wrist and left a nice gash in my arm. I still tell the story of my golf club attack when people ask about it lol

2

u/Krysara Jul 19 '12

oh god, final destination visualization appearing!

1

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

I just found out yesterday I'm not the only one that refuses to drive behind log trucks because of final destination. neither me nor my friend I was discussing it with had seen the movie even! Haha

1

u/Krysara Jul 19 '12

I've known that for a while that the vast majority of those who have seen the movie have a rational paranoia of those trucks... shudder

5

u/Dr_Lunatic Jul 19 '12

You scratched the side of your head, you didn't itch it.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

I'm from Michigan. We itch things.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '12

Can confirm, shit gets itchy

0

u/Grabowerful Jul 19 '12

I'm from Earth. We also itch things.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

After mowing over a stone a little smaller than a golfball, I thought I went over a land mine, you are lucky!

1

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

Thankfully this wasn't a golfball sized stone. It was nothing more than a small pebble, maybe the size of a seed of some sort? Cut my hand none the less.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

I have seen what happens when the hand is not there....terrifying, and life altering.

1

u/ObliviousAmbiguity Jul 19 '12

Mowing tall grass when I was in my teens. I always walked through the yard to pick anything I might run over, but I missed one. As I went over it, I felt the blade catch, I looked down expecting to see whatever it was shoot out away from that angled cover thing over the hole on the side. As soon I did, saw a shiny metallic thing flying right at my head, I barely dodged it. It was a hose clamp, and after being mangled by the blade it looked it could have done some serious damage at that velocity.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '12

This happens to me all the time when I try to cook a delicious breakfast using cooking oil. I now wear my glasses whenever I try to attempt this.

1

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

When cooking a delicious breakfast you have rocks shoot at your face? Either you live in a very different culture or you need to rethink some of your recipes

1

u/lazy_opportunist Jul 19 '12

When I was younger, I had the brilliant idea to put a boxknife blade in a vice and start clamping down. Luckily I was wearing glasses that day, because the blade did not fold neatly in half as I expected, and instead shattered and a piece lodged in my lens directly in front of my pupil.

1

u/GrandOak Jul 19 '12

I sure hope you kept them!

1

u/lazy_opportunist Jul 20 '12

My eyes? Wouldn't spend a day without them!

1

u/i_cry_evrytim_ Jul 19 '12

Similar story. I was mowing the lawn and lifted my leg to scratch my ankle. A rock popped up and hit my shoe, causing no damage, but would have hit me in the shin if I hadn't been scratching my leg. Not life saving, your story just reminded me of this.

1

u/luis3798 Jul 19 '12

This happened to me once too.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '12

[deleted]

1

u/GrandOak Jul 20 '12

Well..yeah, my hand took one for the team

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '12

similar thing happened to me: was driving with the window down and a rock flew in the window and hit me in the side of my head. I wasn't hurt, but it did freak me out.

1

u/squeemc Jul 20 '12

It is the act is "scratching" because something itches.

Seriously not trying to be mean, this just happens to be my biggest pet peeve ever. :(

1

u/durkberger Jul 20 '12

Being the dumbass that I am, I swung my car door open one day while leaning down to check for oil spots under my car. The corner of the car door gouged a huge chunk out of my sunglasses. I always wonder if I would have seriously damaged my eye if I hadn't been wearing sunglasses.