Good Therapy.
Good Therapy.
I just realized I should have posted this thread in Safety.
I have been enjoying all reading all of your stories and I thank you for the humility with which these tales have been offered up. I have laughed at some almost to the point of tears, due to the way you have told your stories. The humor always sets in after the fact, due in part because I think it helps get your head around how many of these stories could have been the fine print note to a promising career. "He was a rising star in his trade untill one day he screwed the pooch. Next contestant please." I have always tried to promote saftey and make the apprentices I work with understand where the dangers are, and yet not debilitate them with fear. And too remind them to keep their head in the game, what I like to refer to as situational awareness. The sad part is, I just know that some of them won't get it untill it happens to them. There are so many ways to get your knickers knocked off in this buisness. Or should I say get your knickers soiled. An earlier response to this post said something like, "man you guys are sure brave to be admitting all this stuff." I don't think its so much that it is bravery, but rather that many of you saw an opportunity not only to have some fun, but to tell these cautionary tales in the hope that someone will be able to learn from the mistakes of others. One can only hope.
A few more of my close calls:
Me and an apprentice were in a mobile home park and had to relocate/replace a 200 amp pedestal service about 10 feet back and right to make room for the new larger home they were bringing in. Simple task and I had done many of these. Remove old service, unload the bobcat, dig power co. splice pit and a ten foot trench (I don't trust excavating subs to dig around live power lines, so I do it myself). Lay in three inch conduit for power co., set pedestal, ground it, and down the road we go. As I drove up to the lot I noticed that the pedestal was leaning over, almost to horizontal and the meter was still in the socket. I'd seen that before and knew it was going to require caution. They apparently had to do some digging to get the old home out and clip away the feeder to the home which caused the service to fall over. It's raining out so I'm by the truck donning my rain gear. Now I had always told apprentices that when we get to a job to just start moving, to start making progress. Get the tools out, get the materials ready, something man, just do something. And if you don't know what to do, ask. While I'm still suiting up I look over and see my apprentice with both of his bare hands grasping the the service pedestal trying to right it. HEY, STOP, DON'T TOUCH THAT. I was surprised by how loud I yelled. I'm sure the whole block heard me. It got his attention though because he stopped. And he had no idea why I was so mad. And to this day he most likely doesn't. He was just that kind of guy. He had no situational awareness.
When I got to take a close look at the service I noticed a nice 2" hole burnned through the side of the service. I carefully removed the cover and noticed one of the power. co. lugs had been ripped from its mount and had come into contact with the side of the can. I get out the hot gloves and hot blanket and proceed to diffuse the bomb, all the while trying to explain why today was almost his last day.
When I was an apprentice me and the journeyman were connecting two job trailers in a warehouse. And while I was stripping out the feeders to terminate them in the main breaker in one of the trailers I had had a funny thing happen. I was bending the conductor and just about to stick it in the lug when my thumb and first two fingers of my right hand contracted and squeezed tight on the end of the wire, and my teeth felt funny too. This was a new experience for me and it didn't take a degree in rocket science to know what was happening. When I finnally broke free, which seemed like an eternity, one of the workers in the trailer asked, "what's wrong, are you ok?" I assumed he determined there was something amiss due to the cloud of profanity hanging in the air above my head. Well, I had no time to answer him cause by this time I'm storming out of the trailer, and I wanted blood. I chewed my journeyman up one side and down the other, and left another cloud of profanity lingering there as well. I don't think he was expecting that. His response was, "Sorry, I thought you were done." Situational awareness. Needless to say, it was a quiet ride home. You could have heard a pin drop. Since then I have learned about lock out, tag out. My right fore arm was sore fore a week after due to the muscle contraction. It's a feeling you will never forget. If you get a chance to remember it.
And I still drop tools on my noggin left on top of step ladders too. But my nose is still straigt. :grin:
