Things that you encounter that temporarily frighten you

HMTKSteve

Today I was getting ready to pop a PCI network card into a computer when I noticed the notch on the slot was on the wrong side. I momentarily had a mini-heart attack thinking that the manufacturer had screwed up my computer and mounted the PCI slot in the wrong direction.

Then I remembered that there are two different orientations for PCI slots and the orientation of the notch indicates the voltage of the slot. I thought I might have to make a trip to the store to buy another NIC but I lucked out and had a universal one on my shelf (double notched).

What things have you encountered that you thought were just plain wrong/broken until you stepped back for a minute and realized that you were mistaken?

Loganator456

A couple of times I have had some confusions with different saved files from games, but it really didn't frighten me, I just sort of worried that all those hours would be lost.

Neito

Any time any error screen ever shows up on any ATM I'm using.

Diagoras

I once cried when I my mother said my aunt had died. She actually meant to say lied. That was one hell of a Freudian slip.

Delam3

Almost any time I close my car door without checking if my keys are in my hands. A nice quick scare to start my day.

Erwin

The whale on Pinocchio.

Victor Frost

When people sneak up on me. I have since become accustomed to using my window as a rearview mirror so this happens less often. Also, the semi-random back hand over the shoulder punch helps too.

Dkong

Almost any time I close my car door without checking if my keys are in my hands. A nice quick scare to start my day.

Yep, this happens to me a lot, especially because within my first 8 months of driving, I locked my keys in the car 3 times.