[email protected] writes:
>Okay, maybe not but this nail gun guy is getting a lot of airplay. I have
>seen numerous medical professionals on TV with the x-ray in the
>background
>describing how 'easy' this can happen etc. I listen to several talk shows
>nightly, all of which have dedicated segments to this guy. I can't wait
>to
>see what Saturday Night Live does with it.
>
>Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?
>
>-Brian
>
Not an injury but could have been. The boss of 20+ years I referred to
was a general contractor, specializing in underground utilities and
earthmoving, translated: lots of iron (heavy equipment). On the job one
day, he stopped Greg (super and boss' son-in-law), had him climb down off
the Michigan 210 scraper, then he parked in front of the scraper, about
five feet in front. Do you have the picture imbedded in your mind?
Boss was good at ranting and raving and storming off. He did his ranting,
then turned around to climb in his truck and leave. He changed his mind
and went elsewhere, on foot. Greg, already on the equipment, started the
scraper. Now those of you who have ever been on one of those know that
visibility from the top does not include close to the front. We are on a
construction site, after all, nothing around but dirt *and* the boss' Ford
Ranger which he had headed for to leave the job site. Scraper moving,
slowly at first luckily, loud crunch and bump. Scraper stopped, "What the
h*ll?" Boss turned around to see the front quarter and front of his truck
smashed, hood was toast. Greg said, as boss started screaming at him,
"What kind of person parks a truck in front of a scraper anyway?" 'Nuff
said.
Salt in the wound. A few days later, I stopped at the key shop to have
keys made. While waiting, I thumbed through the collection of cards at
the register, you know, the ones with various sayings on them. I laughed
and bought one, took it back to the office and left it on the boss' desk.
It said, no joke, "Have you driven over a Ford lately?"
I might add, this is the same Ranger truck that a few years before,
another employee ran into it with a backhoe, and drove across a 30-acre
job site to do it. It was the second time for the same emloyee. That
truck had enough body work done to it over the years that ten trucks could
have been built. That same employee walked into a raised backhoe bucket
one day; makes one wonder.
Glenna
Not an equipment story but close.
I was about 14 at the time. We lived here in Tucson but I spent a lot
of time on a ranch owned by family friends about 60 miles away. As is
often the case in rural America when a vehicle died it went up on
blocks to await repair "someday."
I was getting interested in cars and there was a 30's vintage Ford
pickup truck up on blocks with a twisted rear axle. I asked our
rancher friend about it and he said that if I could get it running, I
could have it.
In a pre-fifties Fords the axles had integral differential gears on
the inner ends, thus they were captured in the differential housing
and the whole assembly had to come apart to change an axle. I removed
all of the bolts and tried to separate the pieces. Nothing doing. So
I turned the assembly to a vertical position and banged the end of an
axle on the something handy on the ground. I had one hand wrapped
around the axle above the differential and another below. After a few
increasingly sharp blows, the ring gear came loose and shot down the
axle and trapped the meat of the palm of my hand at the base of my
index finger between the gear and the axle. Trust me, there is very
little clearance between these two pieces at that point. (Fifty years
later I still have the scar)
Somehow I get disengaged and run to the house with my bloodied and
greasy hand. We packed up and my parents drove me the sixty miles to
our family doctor.
The doc was kind of a gruff guy and as he was cleaning and sewing up
the injury he asks, "How the hell did you manage this?"
Me: "Aw, I was fooling around with a pickup's rear end."
Doc: "That'll get you in trouble every time."