sometimes, you're just lucky

[Ugly Dougly]

Jesus must be watching over you.

[ygmir]

So, I'm doing a backhoe job for some folks today, and, they told me there was a water line, near where I'd be digging, so they'd have "their guy" help me find it............

so, he says " I know where it is, dig here. It's about 3' deep, so, stop at 2 feet.

"ok"

at 18" a geyser of water erupts.........nice.

he looks up "oops"
so,
we shut off the water, and prepare to expose the line (thankfully it's plastic, so, easy to fix)

he says "dig back a ways, so we can get at it.

"ok".

I tell him I can't see down in the hole, so, he'll have to tell me when to pull and such.

second scoop, I pull 5' of pipe out.

I look at him, like "WTF"?

he says, "oops" I thought it was deeper (again?).

so, we dig back further, to find where the pipe broke underground.

we find that, and, he says "dig in between the broken ends, so we have more room to work"

well that makes sense, so, I start.
I ask: "is there anything else in the ditch?
(he's supposedly familiar with all the utilities).

"nope" he says,
so, I dig down about an other foot, for working room.

as I hop down to help dig out the pipe ends, I notice pieces of gray plastic pipe in the ditch (normal for electrical conduit) (which should not be in the same ditch or as close)

Me:

"what that stuff"?

Him:
"on, nothing. I saw a grey pipe as you were digging, but, it's "nothing"

Me:
"lets check, just in case"

him: "no need, I know what's in here"

Me: "humor me"

him: " knock your self out" and throws me a shovel.

I dig about 4" and find a shredded electrical conduit, shattered and all.........and, it happens to have 3 "00" size (about 3/8" dia) conductors.

Me:
"WTF is this" !! pointing at the now exposed, but thankfully still with their insulation intact, wires.

him: "I got no clue, do you think they're electrical wires"?

me: "yeah, you fuck wit, and if they go to the box their pointing at, it's a 400 amp 220V service"

him: "oh"..............

well, luckily, we didn't short the wires, or expose them in the wet soil (since they were indeed live). It would have been terribly hard on one, or both of us...........

[TinkerMom]

Holly crap-ola, Yiggy!!!

I would have brought that stinger around the back end and planted him
right then and there. "Oops" my ass!!

Damn, lucky on you!

[ygmir]

so.........

evidently the PO of my electric/hydraulic pallet jack, didn't replace the "keeper" right..........

and, I'm working on it, to replace a seal. so I disassemble the lift chains and such, and run the cylinder to top, so I don't have to pull against fluid pressure to remove the ram.
Normal, is to run against the stop (keeper) then back off, remove keeper, and take the ram out.
(all assembled, it never comes up against the keeper, the mechanics and stuff of the lift mechanism stop it first.)

so, up, click (stop), BANG!!
I duck first, look ram is gone, uh oh, quick glance at the ground.....nope.
look up.....yup, it shot the 70 lb, 3' long ram about 30' straight up! (glad I was not in the shop building for this), and, gravity being what it is, it's coming back down, fast and hard!!
luckily my cat like reflexes took over, and I side stepped, so it missed me by about 4'.
but dang, not looking up fast, or being inside where it could have bounced (assuming it didn't go through) off the roof, that thing falling would hurt!

I did find the improperly installed keeper, or pieces thereof, so know why it failed.

[illy dilly]

Damn, Yggy!

The shit you "almost" get your self into. You really are lucky!



You're Insurance agent doesn't read eplaya right?

[Ugly Dougly]

....It would have been terribly hard on one, or both of us...........

Ygmir! Please stay on topic!

Glad you're okay, but that shit is too close dude.
I won't let the Norns know about this.

[ygmir]

ok, back to tree felling/lumberjacking.

I was clearing my land at the Hof of dangerous winter fallen snags, and dead trees (there seems to be a disease or pest killing fir trees in the area), because having the Party next weekend, folks might be walking around, and I'd not want something falling on them.
I fell about 20 trees (all dead, standing or broken leaning), ranging for 10 to 150' tall.
so I come upon a pair of dead trees, who had leaned together, but were ready to fall, and leaning against another. All maybe 1.5-2' or so diameter, big, but not huge ( though plenty heavy)
I cut the two leaners almost free (so they'd not fall until I was ready), and got next to a large, live black oak (in case I had to hide) and began to cut the third leg...........well they all stated going just as planned, and one twisted (I think it hit a limb on a high, neighboring tree). As it twisted, it sent the whole group, 90deg. from planned trajectory, and right at me.
yikes!!
They're too tall to outrun, so I dove behind my "emergency oak shield" and stood as straight as I could (I'm about as wide as that oak).
the group of trees hit the oak, separated and fell down each side, literally brushing me on both sides and they fell............and a big limb (widowmaker) from above, landed about 8' behind me..........

well, all was well and I sat down to think about what went wrong......dang, usually these don't bother me, but this one did scare me some. I'm not sure I could have done anything better or different, considering the circumstance, and just chalk it up to bad luck (tree twisting) and good luck ( my cat like reflexes and motion, getting me behind the oak tree in time). either of those trees would have driven me in the ground like a fence post.


so:
am I the only one who does this stuff, or, am I the only one to post it?..............

[delle]

am I the only one who does this stuff, or, am I the only one to post it?..............

Given Ken's nodding and "hmmmmmm"ing and knowing smiles as I read this aloud to him, I'm thinking you may just be the only one to post 'em.

[Simon of the Playa]

no yggy, youre not. I'm a magnet for trouble too...



if i posted about all the times i didn't get killed i'd have to learn to type with more than two fingers.



glad to see you're still sprightly, nothing like a shot of adrenaline to get your day going...


(seriously though, try not impale or crush or slice or plummet or anything until after the Burn, and i'll try to do the same....there's just too much to do before then)

[jkisha]

Yikes! Glad you're all right!

[catinthefunnyhat]

Yggy! Glad you're okay.... again... I find myself typing this too often!

[Straightveg]

A few musings from work (No major injuries in the year I've been here, YAY!)
I've lost track of how many near misses I've had in the parking lot just trying to navigate customer cars into the shop. Its like an evil hybrid of tetris and a maze.
There's a blind corner between the door to the shop and the back lot, so established etiquette is to honk before you go around the corner so you don't collide with anyone coming from the opposite direction. Unfortunately not everyone does this. I have a near miss there on about a monthly basis.

We had an NV work van come in for an oil change and tire rotation, not a huge deal but a pain because they're so heavy we have to use a dedicated lift for them. My coworker is chatting away on his phone to one of his friends as he sets the lift and raises the truck in the bay next to mine. I'm focusing on the tire I'm plugging, oblivious until I hear someone say "That looks like its going to fall." I look up to see the van fully lifted and leaning backwards precariously. My coworker tried to lower the lift, but the safety lock on one side of the lift engaged. Normally you lift the vehicle a few inches off the locks then disengage them to lower the vehicle, but he wasn't paying attention and ran the roof of the van into the auto-stop bar along the top of the lift. It took 15 minutes, a large ladder and a pry bar to force the bar down while lifting the van (resulting in a dent in the roof) to lift it far enough off the latches to get it back down to the ground. The reason the van was unstable in the first place? My coworker placed the lift pads on the pinch weld rather than the frame (yes there was some bending as it was teetering in the air resulting in damage) Lesson learned: There is a very good reason company policy forbids talking on the phone, listening to music, etc while working on vehicles.

Yesterday I was pulling a truck out to park after I finished work on it and was parking it next to a van. I realized I was coming in at a sharper angle than I wanted to but figured I'd go just a bit further then pull back out and straighten up. Parked it and headed back to the shop with no issues, or so I thought. One of the guys from the detail department came back to tell me he could have sworn I was going to hit the van with the fender of the truck, but I just barely kissed it with the tire. I managed to transfer tire shine to the van without doing any actual damage.

Stories I've heard from coworkers:
A guy at another shop was pulling an engine/trans assembly when he gets the message his wife called. He steps out from under the back of the lift and starts to walk toward the phone to the tune of "What does that dumb bitch want now!?" ten steps later, CRASH! the truck fell where he'd been standing not five seconds before.

Some guy brought his kid into the shop and let the kid's mom keep an eye on him while he went off to so something for a minute. Somehow the kid got to the tire balancing machine and got his arm caught a wheel while it was spinning and snapped his arm. I think that guy lost his job over that.

A tech somewhere reached in through the driver's window and steering wheel to turn a car on(not start). The car had been left in gear, he accidentally started it, and it jerked in such a way that it broke his arm in the steering wheel.

One of my coworkers was standing in front of a car in a friend's bay at another shop as his friend started it. It was in gear and lurched forward. Luckily my coworker has reflexes like yggy and hopped onto the hood of the car and his friend's toolbox, thus avoiding injury. No idea if there was any damage to the car.

[Elliot]

...am I the only one who does this stuff, or, am I the only one to post it?..............

A few days ago, a local race car driver was killed near here while mounting a tire for his race car prior to the evening’s races. I use the same kind of wheels and tires on many of my pedal vehicles.

Four years ago, I was inflating one of these tires and found that one bead refused to seat with the usual maximum pressure of 30 or 40 PSI. So I hooked on a “clip-on” air chuck and let the pressure build further, five or ten PSI at the time. I placed the wheel between the house and the garage and stood around the corner of the garage. After each increase in pressure I shut off the supply, bled off some pressure, then walked up to inspect the wheel and take a pressure reading. If I remember right, the last reading was around 70 PSI. I resumed increasing the pressure, fully expecting that I might loose a window in the house or something. An acceptable risk – I needed that wheel for the weekend’s event.

The bang was deafening. Big dust cloud and a crater in the ground. Wheel and tire separated and both went over the house. The tire landed on my front porch, missing two adults and a baby by a foot or three, wrecking a hand rail. The rim landed in the neighbor’s yard. The rim looked like a pretzel. Apparently the bead seated, a matter of moving maybe ½ inch, and gained such velocity in that half inch that the impact against the edge of the rim buckled the rim.

And I did this stone sober. Sometimes my brain just slips out of gear, it seems.

I’m shifting to all-bead-lock rims as I acquire them. No pressure needed to seat beads – just bolt them together and inflate to operating pressure. But I don’t know how to keep my brain from slipping out of gear occasionally.

[gyre]

I was somewhere else.

[wh..sh]

am I the only one who does this stuff, or, am I the only one to post it?..............

Clearly, some people are more accident-prone than others and personality traits seems to play a big part in it.
You will make an excellent case study to psychologists.

[FIGJAM]

am I the only one who does this stuff, or, am I the only one to post it?..............

Clearly, some people are more accident-prone than others and personality traits seems to play a big part in it.
You will make an excellent case study to psychologists.

No,No,No!!!


The more you do, the more there is a chance of an accident.


Ygmir just NEVER stops "doin stuff", so his odds are higher!

[Elliot]

A little of both, I reckon.

[theCryptofishist]

am I the only one who does this stuff, or, am I the only one to post it?..............

Clearly, some people are more accident-prone than others and personality traits seems to play a big part in it.
You will make an excellent case study to psychologists.

No,No,No!!!


The more you do, the more there is a chance of an accident.


Ygmir just NEVER stops "doin stuff", so his odds are higher!

If he took a nap every now and then...

[Elorrum]

hard hats cost about 8 bucks. It seems your latest exploits have been with items falling from above missing you. Granted a hat's not going to save you from a big old tree, but maybe a glancing blow from a tree limb, or falling hammer. I'd feel better. lie to us about your hard hat.

I always end up on a high ladder with something heavier than I can manage, yelling, "help!" before I drop it. So far, no injuries.

[Ugly Dougly]

I want to know that all you risk takers are carrying some kind of insurance.

[Box Burner]

hard hats cost about 8 bucks. It seems your latest exploits have been with items falling from above missing you. Granted a hat's not going to save you from a big old tree, but maybe a glancing blow from a tree limb, or falling hammer. I'd feel better. lie to us about your hard hat.

I always end up on a high ladder with something heavier than I can manage, yelling, "help!" before I drop it. So far, no injuries.

Everybody has done this. But perhaps we should think ahead. And... if we are not going to get help before we get up there with that way too heavy item, Don't call someone to run under it when it falls!

[theCryptofishist]

Everybody has done this. But perhaps we should think ahead. And... if we are not going to get help before we get up there with that way too heavy item, Don't call someone to run under it when it falls!

You can count on me.

[Elorrum]

hard hats cost about 8 bucks. It seems your latest exploits have been with items falling from above missing you. Granted a hat's not going to save you from a big old tree, but maybe a glancing blow from a tree limb, or falling hammer. I'd feel better. lie to us about your hard hat.

I always end up on a high ladder with something heavier than I can manage, yelling, "help!" before I drop it. So far, no injuries.

Everybody has done this. But perhaps we should think ahead. And... if we are not going to get help before we get up there with that way too heavy item, Don't call someone to run under it when it falls!

Double your danger, double your fun. Ask a friend to get involved. eh? you are right. As I get more experienced, I take it slower, and think about it before I start, and don't imagine I can do as much I'd like to with regards to heavy lifting. I take a longer view of things, and realize that a lot of work injury comes from poor repetition over time. The newer "heavers" are the most likely to get hurt.

but this is about near misses.

[BBadger]

I was cutting some microscope coverslides to glue onto microscope slides to the correct thickness (it's for DIY digital IR cameras). I use tape, sewing machine oil, and a glass cutter to cut the pieces to size. Anyway, I'm trying to cut that damn cover slip and it just score the way I want to. My face is about 6-8 inches from the cover glass and in a bout of frustration (and stupidity) I just whack the coverslip with my glass cutter.

The coverslip shatters, and little glass shards go flying at my face. I involuntarily blink/shut my eyes, and none-too-soon because I'm later picking pieces of glass from my eyelashes.

From that point on I never cut that glass without goggles, and I don't whack the glass no matter how frustrated I get.

[ygmir]

so, tell me:
is this what your brand new load range E tire should look like when you pull off the freeway?

[Elliot]

I had one do that last year after only a couple thousand miles, but it had been sitting in my shed for ten years after the first 1,000, so I did not take it back. (LT225/75R16, 10pr, lrE, on a little Dodge Dakota.) But what can happen to any tire at any time is a puncture, and if you drive for a while on a low tire it can overheat and disintegrate like that. You could have picked up a nail on the way out your driveway. I imagine the remains could be analyzed, but I doubt you could get that level of investigation done unless a serious injury had resulted. So let's be glad that did not happen. When mine went, the pickup jumped half a lane over before I caught up with it.

[Triken]

so, tell me:
is this what your brand new load range E tire should look like when you pull off the freeway?

Yikes!
Glad you're OK, and Bummer about the tire!

I had one do that last year after only a couple thousand miles, but it had been sitting in my shed for ten years after the first 1,000, so I did not take it back. (LT225/75R16, 10pr, lrE, on a little Dodge Dakota.) But what can happen to any tire at any time is a puncture, and if you drive for a while on a low tire it can overheat and disintegrate like that. You could have picked up a nail on the way out your driveway. I imagine the remains could be analyzed, but I doubt you could get that level of investigation done unless a serious injury had resulted. So let's be glad that did not happen. When mine went, the pickup jumped half a lane over before I caught up with it.

And, Yikes!
Glad you're OK too, that must have been a very rude awakening!

[ygmir]

Yeah, it went from "weird vibration" (I was paying close attention, since I had just balanced and installed them), to "squishy uh oh, get off the road" in less than a minute. I didn't note hitting anything in the road, and with a fast failure like that (75psi and 70mph), seems it'd take a pretty dang big hole.
well, the company is selling me a replacement at half price, and sent a shipping label. I'll ship the shreds back, and if they determine it's not a road hazard, they'll refund that.

It looks almost like it was cut with a knife were it came apart......Big ole truck held the road fine, though.

[Captain Goddammit]

I've had some semi-truck tires explode dramatically like that and I'm pretty sure they were just underinflated, but that does seem unlikely in your case.
Hopefully the people making the Burning Man trip, especially pulling trailers or driving rigs that don't get driven much are paying attention, we're always telling folks it's not the tread wear that gets you, it's the sidewalls - so don't set out for Black Rock all confident just because your tires have good tread. If they are old and/or cracked they can blow like that one did. I've had trailer tires blow like that en-route to BM. And yours were new!

[Elliot]

I've had some semi-truck tires explode...

Well, yeah.... In 27 years of trucking I've had a couple of pretty good bangs. One blew out (blew in) the oil seal on the axle, apparently just from the sudden massive blast of air.

Yeah, what the good captain said about fresh tires! But anything man-made can have a flaw. So carry spares.