Damn, these are some good stories. I've got a couple....
Here's one along the line of the Bricklayer's Song: when I was a kid,
we would all play in the field after the farmer mowed it for hay. We
would grab all kinds of wood chunks and make forts. These bits of
timber would inevitable have nails in them. Big old rusty gnarly
nails. Well, your humble poster decided to sit on a nail one fall
day. He immediately yelped out in pain and put both hands down to
push himself up and yep, two more nails piercing flesh. Moving his
feet to stand up, he planted one foot into a nail. The only thing
worse was going to the hospital and getting a tetanus shot. At least
the nurse was cute....
And just this past summer, I stranded myself 80 feet up. Have a
manlift and sometimes use it as a mobile tree cutting
platform. Topping off a maple one day, the damn deutz diesel died on
me right as I got into position. Hmmm.... Clouds don't look too
close. I'll just finish cutting and it'll fire right back up when
I'm done. When I went to restart it, it wouldn't start. Battery
seems to be turning a bit slow. Hmmm, call the wife in the house for
a jump. Call her and she doesn't answer the phone because the
battery in the cell dies after half a ring. <Grrrrr>. After about
an hour (took a little nap, read a couple catalogs, sore throat from
yelling for her, etc...), my wife realizes she doesn't hear anything
and comes out to see what's going on. She drives down the driveway
and after cussing me out, goes to get the portable battery jump
starter. Which doesn't work. Hmmm.... We then decide to have her
string out a couple extension cords and plug in the battery charger
(it's a Schumacher that can jump start a battery-less diesel by
itself). Still no go. Hmmm, those clouds are starting to get closer
and is that lightning I see way in the distance? I'm 80 feet up
standing on 5 tons of steel. CRAP! I then ell instructions down on
how to lower the boom - there are some relief valves that will lower
the box to the ground. She can get the first two open but not the
third. By this time, I'm feeling rain and starting to get a bit,
ummm, anxious. All of a sudden, Deb calls out that there's this
"circuit breaker thingie" that's red. I tell her to push it
in. The engine starts right up and I lower myself to the ground in
the beginning of the thunderstorm. The fuel pump circuit breaker had
tripped... :-O
Make sure the cell is charged before you go out. I have one of those
9V battery adapter thingies that I keep in a pocket now. Backup for
the backup....
At 2/24/2008 at 18:07, Shakespearean monkeys danced on old
dirtbeard's keyboard and said:
>Any ideas? What would you do if you found yourself immobilized while under a
>car in your shop? What precautions do you take while working alone in the
>shop?
Cheers!
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