Engineer mistook my copper tape for cloud busting and now I am cringing....any foot in mouth moments to make me feel better?

[Theghostofchristmasarse]

Just had the most bizarre exchange that I might not stop thinking about for quite some time!

Have an engineer visiting, working on our heating system. He's in the garden and spots a plastic pot on my garden table with baby hosta in it which I'm protecting (or trying to) from snails (slimy little bastards, in a war with them currently to stop them destroying all my plants, that's a whole other thread!), the pot is wrapped with copper tape.
He says 'oh you're into all that are you?'..I responded with "yeah, trying to stop the little buggers, hands off, you're not touching my hostas, bought those in Chelsea and they were really expensive so trying to save them"...

He puts the pot back down like us a bomb, said sorry...took me a minute to understand he though I was talking to him (As he backed away slowly looking a bit scared and carefully adjusted the pot to exactly where it was before..)

He said oh, no, cloud busting.

I then realised we were at crossed wires so say oh no, snails! Trying to stop them eating my plants!

I'm now overthinking that he thinks I'm some loon into dispelling negative energy or something (I had to Google it! Mental!) and that I didn't want him touching my plants 😂

I do have ADHD and I feel like I have these moments very often and then I will literally overthink them for months, sometimes years later. I often will say things without thinking or think that other people's brains work as fast as mine, I also misheard things very often and only process them properly a few minutes later which just adds to the confusion.

If anyone else had any foot in mouth moments they'd like to share to make me feel better that'll help! (Although I'm not sure this was entirely my fault!)

I have no idea what you're talking about.

It wasn't your fault at all, but would make a good sit com script.

Lots of people read between the lines of what people say, rather than waiting to be told more, or asking a clarifying question. You can't be expected to mitigate against that.

I’ve been googling Cloudbusting but I don’t think you’re talking about Kate Bush.

I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about. Is cloud busting well known, whatever it is? I think most people would wonder what he was on about.

*actual footage of engineer

????

I didn't quite understand your thread title but having read your full post am now giggling. I'm sometimes rubbish at communicating despite thinking I'm being perfectly clear. Or make a joke and people think I'm being serious.

I’d have thought you were the normal one tbh. Never heard of cloud busting and Google doesn’t seem to have either. Whereas snail tape is common place.

It’s really not difficult to follow! I don’t know what cloudbusting is, but the op has given a pretty concise explanation of what the heating engineer must have meant. Op, he’s probably more embarrassed than you. Cloud busting must be quite niche, whereas fending off slugs in a garden definitely is not!

My worst foot in mouth, which I still cringe about, occurred years ago when I was talking with another Mum about a certain type of parent (the ones who could afford all the expensive ski/rugby trips) at the (state) school our dc were attending, some of whom were very wealthy. I said blithely ‘Oh, you know the type - Mr. and Mrs. Double-Barrelled, haha!’ only to remember the instant I said it, that her surname was indeed a double-barrelled one. Serve me right for stereotyping, I suppose!

I don't know what cloud busting is and didn't get an answer from google either.

What is cloud busting?

Why do you care what a random man thinks of you?

is cloud busting some kind of euphemism ?

Me neither.

I had to Google copper tape and cloud busting and it's something to do with energy....not to boil your kettle with though!

Image of what Google says attached.

Maybe I am the normal one!

@maudelovesharold I'd want the ground to swallow me up! I once was talking to a school mum when I was pregnant and said I'd hopefully be having a home birth and was visiting a particular surgery for my midwife appointments, (actually maybe I am the type who looks like they're into crystals and energy...) and she said "oh I might see you then"...before I even listened to the rest of the sentence I congratulated her on her pregnancy...as she said "because I'm a midwife.."..

My brain. Sometimes I just hear and react and talk without thinking but I promise I'm not just rude or horrible!

He is the weird one, not you! Copper tape for snails is perfectly normal.

Though I find copper mesh works better. Bigger barrier for them to crawl over.

I had no idea what that was! Sounds interesting, might try that! How funny that he jumped to that before thinking of snails though! As that’s what I assumed you meant!

You were entirely normal! Copper tape around a plant pot means protecting the contents from slugs and snails for literally everyone- apart from your engineer, it would seem!

@Darragon because I do. Overthinking and rumination are unfortunately part of being AuDHD that I really try to work on not doing but it's very difficult.

Also because this...
Source: YouTube

@Tigerbalmshark thank you! I'll try that...my garden is littered with eggshells, solidierfrass, coffee grounds and copper tape and still my hostas look like swiss cheese! I've even tried training the resident crows to eat them and encourage thrushes and frogs etc...its a full on war! I've been known to go out at midnight in the rain and collect them to feed to the thrushes in the morning...

Actually maybe I am the weird one...

I think it was the sentence ‘hands off, you’re not touching my hostas’ which caused him to back away. It makes you sound rather aggressive and you may have been speaking to the snails, but in the same breath as speaking to him, is confusing. I’ve vaguely heard of cloud busting (outside of Kate Bush!) but wouldn’t know what a Hosta was.

I tried all those too, none of them worked!

wrap the mesh around the top of your plant pots like the top right picture below. I tried making a sort of upright barrier in the soil like in the other photos but it was really fiddly and the snails got under it.

@Shinyhappyapple oh absolutely, I totally accept I sounded weird and aggressive! Which is why the overthinking 🤦

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2011/jul/06/weatherwatch-cloudbuster

Maybe he's more science/alternative science than horticulture?

I have no idea why you would be embarrassed by this? Enough so to garner opinions on it??