Since we're sharing war stories. Many moons ago, I was cleaning up in my father's shop in the basement after working on a renovation. Plugged in an extension cord to connect to the vacuum, plug in the other...ZAAP! Damn! What got me? Pick up the cor...ZAAP! Dammit! Turns out my father had previously damaged that extension cord, and mistakenly replaced the female plug end with another set of male prongs. An extension cord with male plugs on both ends. Doh! Thanks for the jolts, Dad.
Now I connect wires to "things" first, check the network, and then connect to power mains last, for electronics large and small.
The scariest was a totally random thing...maybe 20 years ago. I plugged in my "boom box" radio into the kitchen outlet next to the sink and FLOOM! Threw me onto the floor and melted the (metal) plugs down to nothing. A few layers of skin were vaporized from the outer layers of my fingers on my plugging hand and I had black residue along my arm from where the black plastic of the plug/wire were vaporized and precipitated (i guess?). It turned out to be a lightning strike that traveled down the copper piping and jumped to a poorly grounded nearby outlet. I'm still around because the boom box had a poor quality power cable that essentially served as a fuse.
Mains voltage (120VAC at ~10A) feels like a nerve gone bad, an irritating tingly buzz that cycles along the path of the current through the body. Lighting feels like BAM. Uh, what?
Now when I walk down a street at night, the lights above flicker to note my passing :)
That made some serious sparks. Much laughter ensued in the lab, once we made sure he was OK.
