It's embarrassing how many dumb mistakes I thought of while reading this. Here are a couple.
I was putting the bench seat back in my freshly painted pickup (by myself). Unfortunately I didn't lift it high enough and rammed the steel seat frame against the side of the cab, gouging down to bare metal. Probably cursed a little.
I had just rebuilt the transmission in the same pickup and got it installed (another series of dumb mistakes that I am not ready to share). The rear of the pickup was still on jacks so I hopped in and started it up to run through the gears. Hmm, it wants to stall, especially in 4th. Eventually noticed that the e-brake was on. The same night (after wearing down the rear brakes), I noticed the gear oil still sitting on the workbench...
