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Poor Mark,
What a (great) tale of woe! So everyone let go at the same time? Why does that kind of coordination happen only when you DON’T want it to? (Answer: Mr. Murphy – and Mrs. Murphy is the other thing everybody always has to do at the same time. Funny, that.)
Just to keep things balanced here: I got home from playing mommy to 6 overgrown threeyearolds (read University Faculty Members), 1 who is sueing another one & the dept & University – I already have my escape route planned when one or the other goes postal (NOT JOKING), and picking up kid at daycare that is taking half – read it and weep – half my salary. I was hoping to study just a bit for that class I am taking to slowly work on my grad degree. Looked at the still-unpatched part of the wood floor and the unpatched plaster of the half-restored bungalow, trying to figure out what to feed small-and-sticky. Darling hubby (the broke grad student who I am supporting) came home and said, guess what, I just bought a laptop!
There are days I would trade with you, no questions asked! On the other hand, think of the glorious summer mornings with the breeze and the birds and fresh hot coffee and the smell of wood just waiting to become – something. You just found out the instpector got married to a nymphomaniac desert chef, the owner inherited a pile and gave you an upfront bonus, and the lumberyard found this whole warehouse they had just “forgotton” so everything is halfprice with free delivery…
And with those cheerful thoughts, I will return to my Monday…
Replies
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George,
Get the Paslode gas gun and retrofit a cocking handle on the nose piece (which must be depressed to fire).
Cock and fire. No compressor needed. Much handier in the office.
*Be careful with muzzle control on the Paslode; they tend to rise up and left more so than a pneumatic. Mine is fitted with a bipod - I prefer to fire from prone position.alad
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BAck to the topic, anyone else remember the photo - an x-ray actually - in a FHB some years ago with the 16 penny nail sticking into the guy's head - all the way? Talk about a bad day. Could that be worse than the guy about 15 years ago who was cutting a piece of wood that was resting on his thigh with a circular saw, kickback, and "it" was completely cut off (YIKES! ouch ouch ouch!). Thanks to the micro-surgeons at Yale-New Haven Hospital, not only was it reattached but was reported to be "functioning".
So Mark, perhaps some thanks is in order considering that your day could have been worse.
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George and fellows,
Good idea, except he has better firepower than I could get (I can't QUITE get the hammer back on the 45 mag, although I really like the Luger 9mm). I just threaten to use the Hoffa Solution (I can always find a cement pour in progress). Then no cleanup...
Besides, who else am I going to find that I can blackmail into supporting my extravagant habit of collecting old buildings :-)
I will keep the Pasload's targeting idiocyncracies in mind, you never know when you're going to have to deal with that good ol' boy inspector. Although I tend to prefer a standing supported firing position myself, like behind a big solid object.
All in fun,
Lisa
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Yesterday, after cutting into an exterior wall and cutting a hole in the floor, I finished running new supply lines to the laundry,( thought I had developed a pinhole leak in the lines, they run through an unaccessable crawl space)reconnected the washer and discovered a small puddle of water developing under said demon appliance. It seems the pinhole leak is in the hot water section of the washer. I told my wonderful wife about it, she laughed for 15 minutes. When we got up this morning she was still laughing. The Senco 325 fires down and to the right. It is cold water wash for a while I guess.
*All these pneumatic guns are for wimps. Give me a high velocity powder actuated one anytime. Seriously, I was shooting high velocity pins into what I belived to be a concrete block wall one time. It tuned out that the wall was hollow terra cotta tile blocks, and the pins were going through, across the street and into a building. No one was hurt. No wonder those suckers are no longer legal.
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Lisa,
How can you use "All in fun" in a posting that refers to a Building inspector?
By the way, my Senco 325 fires dead on.
*What the hell were they, .357 rounds? I always liked the story of the guy - and this is true, I heard it on TV, so you know it HAS to be true - who was working alone on a Sunday. He had just climbed down the ladder to grab a handful of screws, when everything went blurry for a moment . . . or a moment so he thought.He came to apparently three hours later, with a splitting headache, and a very heavy feeling on the top of his head. For some reason, his hard hat wouldn't come off. Whatever hit him, must have bent it up some, and, since it was aluminum, it made sense that way.Very unstable, he made his way to the job shack to look in the 12" x 12" mirror on the wall there. When he looked in the mirror, he apparently passed out again, due to what he saw. Several minutes later, finding himself once again on the floor, he ran the happenings of the past few hours hours through his mind, and realized what had happened. While bending over grabbing a handful of screws from the box, he had inadvertantly stretched the cord of his electric drill too far, and it had fallen on his head. Not only did it hit him, but the 3/8" jobber length drill bit had punctured his hard had, and stuck 3/4 of the way into his skull!His second fall had caused the wound to start bleeding again, and he knew that if he didn't take action soon, he would bleed out. Mustering all his strength, he stood up, looked in the mirror, plugged in the drill, put it in reverse, and removed the bit from his skull and hard hat. Later, when the ER doc asked him why he did that, the man said he would never have been able to drive himself to the hospital with the drill stuck in his head - there wouldn't have been enough head room in his Chevy Citation!Amazingly, aside from a slight bit of blood poisoning from some shard of aluminum hard had, he suffered no brain damage or long term after affects!
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I remember that bloke. The doctors had to do a full frontal lobotomy on him and were a bit apprehensive about telling him that he was only left with 10% of his brain. Well they gathered around his bed as he came too and told him what they had done and he said ( in a broad australian accent)," no worrys, she'll be right mate!!!"
*These lines stolen from the song "MURPHY AND THE BRICKS" by Noel Murphy.Dear Sir I write this note to you, to tell you of me plight,for at the time of writing, I'm not a pretty sight.Me body is all black and blue, me face a deathly grey and I write this note to say why Murphys not at work today.While working on the fourteenth floor some bricks I had to clear, but to toss them down from such a height was not a good idea.The foreman wasn't very pleased, he was an awkward sod,He said I'd have to cart them down the ladders in me hod.Now shifting all those bricks by hand it was so very slow,So I hoisted up a barrell and and secured a rope below.But in me haste to do the job I was too blind to see, that a barrell full of building bricks was heavier than me.And so when I untied the rope,the barrell fell like lead,and clinging tightly to the rope I started up instead.I shot up like a rocket,'till to my dismay I found,that halfway up I met the bloody barrell coming down.Now the barrell broke me shoulder,as to the ground it sped and when and when I reached the top I banged the pulley with me head.I clung on tightly numb with shock from this almighty blow and the barrell spilt out half the bricks some fourteen floors below.Now when these bricks had fallen from the barrell to the floor, I then outweighed the barrell and so started down once more, still clinging tightly to the rope, me body racked with pain and halfway down I met the bloody barrell once again.Now the force of this collision, halfway down the office block, caused multiple abrasions and a nasty state of shock,still clinging tightly to the rope I fell toward the ground and I landed on the broken bricks the barrell had scattered 'round.I lay there groaning on the ground I thought I'd past the worst, but the barrell hit the pulley wheel and then the bottom burst.A shower of bricks rained down on me, I didn't have a hope, as I lay there bleeding on the ground I let go the bloody rope.The barrell then grew heavier, it it started down once more and it landed right across me as I lay there on the floor. It broke three ribs and my left arm and I can only say, I hope you understand why Murphys not at work today.
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Mark,
Blessings be upon your house, sirrah! I have been looking for the words to that song for years. Only we used to sing it as Paddy instead of Murphy. Perhaps because Murphy NEVER takes a day off... this brings back many fond memories of dark smokey rooms with the Guiness and patcheen flowing like water and singing and dirty limericks long into the night. I don't suppose that you have the words to "the Old Dun Cow"? Another one I have been looking for.
Speaking of uninteded side effects, I saw a great example on television several years ago. Seems someone had painstakingly restored an old paddle-wheeled river boat. The question was how to get it back in the water. They laid some spare railroad track down the long slope to the water and just to be perfectly environmentally sensitive, decided to use banannas to lubricate the track. They figured it would take several hours to push the boat down and into the water. Well, one little nudge later, the boat is speeding down the track at something like 20+ mph! Some poor doof made a flying leap at the stern and clambered aboard, just in time. The boat surged into the water and would have floated away on a major river (Mississippi? Missouri?) totally unmanned. At least our projects don't (generally) wander away on us.
Have a good safe day folks,
Reminiscently, Lisa
*Actually, the line (my dad's favorite) was: "Nailed 'em both!" But who's keepin track?
*Just heard back from city hall. Permits are ready.The usual obscene fees for public works, but also a couple grand "security deposit" on two trees located on the boulevard ?????Who dreams this stuff up? Must be that same *%$-hole who's responsible for the rash of "NO LEFT TURN" signs that have been popping up lately.Somebody desperately needs a pie in the face.b Ranting and driving in slow, lazy circles (to the right),b Steven
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......she's smiling so you know she's had a real good day. That means your credit card took a beating and while she's been doing that you've been sweating it out all day in on a site thats 40 degrees C in the shade. You spent all afternoon preparing a wall ready to stand. It's an external wall 12' high x40' long with a couple of heavy hardwood lintels in it. It also happens to be on a steep site with a 40' drop over the edge.Five of you grunt the damn thing into position and... all walk away to grab a brace!! Gravity is working well today and there isn't much to salvage after a 40' drop.
Your 18 year old son is smiling at you as he downs a cold one. Good idea I'll have one of those. Go to the fridge,"If your looking for a beer dad this is the last one," he says.
How was my day!!!
*Hey MarkI didn't read the other 5? versions of this post but assume you did a little editing. . . hit the delete button if you notice multiple versions being posted, ya don't wanna cause yet another breaktime breakdown now do ya? Great story, better you than me LOL, string out the details a little and send it to FHb, they print that sort of story inside the back cover.40 degrees C, eh? It was -25C here last night but got up to a balmy -5C in the afternoon sun. . . whoo boy!!!Freezin' my butt in Ontario-Patrick
*Sorry that happened to you, but, well...better you than me. (Aren't we sometimes like savage dogs?)Great story, you should think about taking up writing for a living; superbly told.My wife works at city hall, I'm self-employed. We have finally learned there are sometimes we cannot talk about our days. Our occupations are so different, you know.
*The only thing missing was the harmonica accompaniment! So here it is.....wa wa wa wa....wa wa wa wa....jct
*Poor Mark,What a (great) tale of woe! So everyone let go at the same time? Why does that kind of coordination happen only when you DON'T want it to? (Answer: Mr. Murphy - and Mrs. Murphy is the other thing everybody always has to do at the same time. Funny, that.)Just to keep things balanced here: I got home from playing mommy to 6 overgrown threeyearolds (read University Faculty Members), 1 who is sueing another one & the dept & University - I already have my escape route planned when one or the other goes postal (NOT JOKING), and picking up kid at daycare that is taking half - read it and weep - half my salary. I was hoping to study just a bit for that class I am taking to slowly work on my grad degree. Looked at the still-unpatched part of the wood floor and the unpatched plaster of the half-restored bungalow, trying to figure out what to feed small-and-sticky. Darling hubby (the broke grad student who I am supporting) came home and said, guess what, I just bought a laptop!There are days I would trade with you, no questions asked! On the other hand, think of the glorious summer mornings with the breeze and the birds and fresh hot coffee and the smell of wood just waiting to become - something. You just found out the instpector got married to a nymphomaniac desert chef, the owner inherited a pile and gave you an upfront bonus, and the lumberyard found this whole warehouse they had just "forgotton" so everything is halfprice with free delivery...And with those cheerful thoughts, I will return to my Monday...
*Lisa: Ahhh, Academia!My suggestion is go buy a Pneumatic Frame Nailer. And a compressor. See: Lethal Weapon (2?) where Danny Glover said: "Nailed that sucker." Useful at home or work. Still half-price compared to the Laptop, no Y2K problem, and a great arbiter in interpersonal situations. (a GC stopped bitchin'/ got in his truck and left after I sent a 12D Galvy 60+ feet into the woods).I love the smell of pneumatic tool oil in the morning!