I almost bought the farm last week. Here’s what happened:

I was mowing the lawn with my new riding lawnmower. Our backyard is a steep hill with a pond at the bottom of it. I was at the top of the hill, just starting down, when the drive belt on the mower gave way. Without the drive belt, the transmission was just disconnected from the wheels, which were now freewheeling. The end result is that I started rapidly accelerating down the hill. I hit the breaks, but I was moving too fast for it to do much good. Fortunately, I kept my wits about me and managed to make a hard right turn, ending up in the neighbor’s yard. I was happy I didn’t end up in the pond, but now I had a heavy lawn mower without a broken drive belt at the bottom of a steep hill. Fun!