Lessons learned

Anxious to get every minute of ride time before the weather breaks, I admit I didn't do any "pre-flight" checks, just jumped on Bike and left. Had my feet up on the crash bar pegs and imagine my surprise when I moved back to the foot boards, only to realize the one on the right wasn't there. Finally hit something with my foot that felt very strange, looked down and realized the footboard was hanging by a thread and my foot had caught the front edge which was pointed up at the time. Found a spot to pull off the road and discovered that the bolt going through the footboard and securing it to the adapter had backed almost all the way out. And of course I didn't have any tools with me. So I took it the rest of the way off, stowed it in the saddle bag, and headed back home. I was only seven miles out so it didn't take long to get back, find the allen wrenches and a tube of locktite and put it back in.
Lesson learned - always do the pre-flights and for crying out loud carry a few basic tools.
Also managed to stall out trying to pull out into traffic, caught me by surprise enough that I lost my balance and Bike and I almost caught a curb and tumbled out into the street in front of the oncoming car. Somehow I managed to save it with a big head bob and some crazy leg moves like a cartoon character running in place. Full face helmets are great, the people in the car can't see you blush. That was the third and the worst time I'd stalled Bike; all in the two days since he got back from the mechanic.
Lesson learned - be a little more patient and study on how differently Bike runs after all the carburetor work. Never stalled once all summer even though it had been 30 years since I rode, now it seems to be a problem. Have to relearn my throttle/clutch maneuver.
And that was all in one day....
How about you guys? Any good "lesson learned" stories?