Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut in Life After 60

I’ve had my moments. Too numerous to remember them all when I would do something that defies all logic. Brain fog, senior moments or a severe case of failure to engage brain. Whatever it was I would just shake my head and ask myself, “What were you thinking?”
Working with electricity is not one of my favorite things. While I have had some training in the area sometimes I would just forget the safety classes I sat through. All circuits are live until proved otherwise. Smart money is on throwing the breaker, lock it out, tag it, and double check with a meter that no power is coming into the circuit.
And then there is the exception. Power strips. The type that has an LED light on the power switch. And the cords plugged into them are wrapped with black electrical tape. Not sure what the purpose was for that except to make removing the power strips a slight pain. So to get through the tape I grab a pair of scissors and start to cut around the cord. FLASH! SPARK! BRIGHT LIGHT! Okay, note to self, the LED light may be faulty. Second note to self, never use scissors to cut away the electrical tape.
One thing that puzzles me. Why do we run electrical wire through metal conduit and put the outlets in a metal box? When my mind is working at near full capacity I seem to remember metal is a conductor of electricity. Armed with that knowledge when having to remove a receptacle from a metal box I would always loosen the screws just enough to pull the receptacle out and place electrical tape around the screws. There is no better wake up call than to start to remove the receptacle, it slips to one side, BANG! FLASH! SPARK! Rule of thumb, never trust that the power is cut off unless you check it yourself. Now if you will excuse me I need to go see if I can paint a set of eyebrows on.