Summer of 2010, I had no set job. Being a school bus driver grants me this. During such times, I work odd jobs [usually for familial units]. This adventure began more unique than average. Normal days entail fixing doors, and –you know- smaller tasks. We were to be working on a block of a massive pulley used on oil fields to pull 4 miles of pipe out of the ground. In short, I was ecstatic. This pulley easily weighed over 3.5 tons and was bright yellow. It was truly epic. It was so huge that it had to be put together on the trailer it came on, pieced together meticulously by tractors and bulldozers.
After finishing the smaller tasks on Uncle Burt’s farm [fix a hydrant, chase ducks, etc], Burt, Karl [dad], and I decide to tackle the block. Assembly was already mostly done. It only needed the arms and one side. We got one arm on with little issue. When we were working on the other arm, Karl was prepping the tail end while I did the other. I heard a crunch followed by an Ack! I turn to see him halfway to the ground, arms flailing in circles, and his right leg stuck in the trailer. He yelled ‘catch me’ and I grabbed his arm and held him up until Burton ran around to catch his back. Felt like minutes when in actuality it took place in under 3 seconds. His ankle was swelling up again [it was still recovering from being broken weeks ago] and he had a scratch up his leg. He wound up having a sore knee, back, and ankle.
What had happened was a rotten board collapsed under his weight. Leg went into hole. Butt went on trailer edge. Being thrown off guard caused him to slide off the side causing his leg to catch on support beam under the broken floor. Fortunately, nothing broke excluding the plank on the trailer.
We do some smaller tasks after that then go to lunch. Upon return, Karl and I paint while Burt makes some adjustments to the arm. We finagled the arm into position while being extra careful of the hole that nearly claimed Karl. Time passes, problems come and go. We approach the final finessing required to finish putting in the arm. I give the arm a solid kick and set my foot down. When I set down my foot, I didn’t realize that it landed on the other half of the rotten board that Karl fell through only a few hours ago. One second later, my right leg was through the board with ankle hooked on the same support beam. Unlike Karl, I didn't support myself midair until rescue arrived. I flopped over the side like a dead fish. One can only assume that during the process of falling, Karl was more concerned that he was falling while I was concerned in not smashing my head into the dirt that was approaching.
Fortunately - since my goal was ‘protect the skull’ - I was able to get a hand down fast enough to prop me up until Burt got over to me. As soon as Burt grabbed me, I proceed to climb him like a monkey. By the time I reached his shoulders, he had me sitting on the trailer. They pulled my leg out. They thought it was broken. It makes sense from an outside perspective. Gratefully, I could walk so no broken bones. Ankle, calf and butt all had knots on them. I could hobble. Burt brought his nurse of a wife to make sure I was whole. I was only sore and bruised.
And that's why trailers make me nervous....
~misfoijd
No comments:
Post a Comment