Safety First

[imwoodhouse]

Hey all, wanted to share a little story that will hopefully remind everyone to put safety first and that an accident can happen anytime and anywhere. Father's day I was out in the garage putting tubes in the tires on the 582. I had just pulled a snap ring off a starter motor and stopped to put my safety glasses on to make sure the snap ring didn't come back and hit me in the face. Well, after I finished that task I moved on to putting the tubes in. I took my glasses off thinking there was no danger in something so simple as installing tubes in tires. Got the tires off the rims and got the first tube in the tire. Started working on the second and I was just about done and my wife asked to see if I was ready to go to take the kids swimming. I started to hurry and grabbed a screwdriver (I know a very poor choice of tools for installing a tube, but that is another story) to pry the tire on the rim. Instead of then putting the screwdriver down to pull and get the tire to seat I kept it in my hands. I was pulling back and forth trying to get the tire to seat and my hands slipped and I went flying backwards with the screwdriver in my left hand. As I was pulling towards myself my fists went flying to my face with the screwdriver in hand. The screwdriver grazed my left eye. I quickly went to make sure it was still there and not bleeding and such. Everything looked good, but I was seeing double. Chalking it up to just the trauma I finished the job and went inside. Told my wife what happened and we went about our day. I was progressively feeling worse and eventually felt so bad I got sick. At this time we went to the ER. The ER doc did not find anything 'emergency' but said I needed to see an optometrist. The next day I got in to see them and went through a variety of tests. They were concerned with breaking a bone or tearing muscles and so I was sent in for a MRI, CT Scan and x-rays. Found nothing 'wrong' but I was still seeing double. I had to wear a patch over my eye to function. Finally as the doctors could not find anything 'wrong' with me, they just prescribed me the most frustrating medicine and that is time. Good news is here it is 2 months later and I am typing this with both eyes open and only seeing one computer monitor. I am very luck and extremely blessed that I did not loose my eye. Be careful out there!

 

[jbaker]

glad you better but when you saw double did you see 2 cub cadets

 

[mhomrighausen]

Ian sent me a picture of what he looked like only I didn't save it to my pictures so when I broke my cell phone the text picture didn't transfer. He is very fortunate. Years ago, I was removing the steering wheel from a Craftsman that I was parting out. When the steering wheel finally came lose the aluminum piece holding it on hit just above my right eye. The piece cut deep by my eyebrow. Six stitches later at the ER and a black eye.... Ian's right... wear those safety glasses.

 

[mgwin]

I can relate to eye injuries.
I was driving a nail into plywood at eye level, and the nail flew over and hit me in the eye. The sharp point hit my eye where the colored part joins the white. I still have a mark in my eye today.

I had a battery to explode in my face when I was about 19 years old. It blew the ballcap off my head for about 30 feet. The acid went up my nose, in my ears, down my throat (had my mouth shut too), and in my eyes.
I am blessed that no fragments hit my eyes.
Had to put antibiotic salve in my eyes for several days. I have several scars on my face from that too.

Yes, wear your safety glasses!!

 

[rbeem]

I've had my share of eye injuries and am lucky and thankful that at 45 I still can see, actually 20/20.
Last year, I made a humiliating mistake.
After being the target of teenage tee-pee attacks during homecoming week, I decided to fight back.
As a former hellion and Infantry soldier, I am no stranger to teenage tactics or defensive perimeters.
These punks had met their match.

Of course a machine gun would handle the task, but I had to seek a non-lethal deterrent.
My choice for the task: the "Yard Enforcer Motion Activated Sprinkler". A brilliant nighttime ambush on these little punks would teach them a lesson!
So, with the plan set, I built a perfect ambush scenario with the Yard Enforcer aimed at the intended "Kill Zone" and a secondary sprinkler daisy chained at the escape route.
This is when the plan ran afoul.

While making final trajectory adjustments at dusk, the "Yard Enforcer" entered into nighttime "active" mode.
On the final adjustment, it triggered....and fired a burst from the water cannon directly into my left eye from around 12" away.
It is a powerful SOB, I'll say that, I was pretty sure at that point my eyeball was in the neighbors yard.
I ran to the bathroom mirror and pried my eyelid open to find a distorted and shifted cornea....not good.
"Honey"....can you come to the bathroom? Next thing we're at the ER and let me tell you, repeating this story to the ER staff, pretty much made their week...yuk...yuk...yuk...

Long story, but my eye recovered fine and I got a dose of humility and a reminder to WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Ian, Marty, Rick, yikes! I wear ridged contact lenses and safety glasses help prevent even small bits of dust from getting in my eyes so I tend to wear safety glasses most of the time I'm outside around home and almost every time I'm working on something. I wear ear muffs and/or ear plugs when around loud equipment and a respirator when painting or using an angle grinder or sander.

Rick, but did your "Yard Enforcer Motion Activated Sprinkler" work as intended against the targets?

 

[rbeem]

Kraig,

Happy to report. Targets were neutralized at 0130 hours on the second night.
I heard a commotion and the "Yard Enforcer" fired up.
Nothing but several abandoned TP rolls and muddy foot prints through the garden.
Side note:
The first true victim was a Jones county deputy sheriff. He was escorting his two boys (friends of my son) to throw a few rolls in my tree.
He rolled up onto my deck for cover laughing.
He was very impressed with the system....there is no excape once you are in the "soak zone".

If you have problems with any kind of warm blooded critter wandering on your property or garden....it's worth the $79.99

 

[kmcconaughey]

Rick,

 

[wshytle]

Living alone as I have most of my life I have to be careful. I use eye and ear protection for almost everything I do.

When I was engaged back in the 70s I was staying at my fiances (Beverly) parents house in a neighboring town. I worked with Beverly at a book store and did various tasks for the owner. Once he had me do some grinding and I got a piece of something in my eye. I didn't think much of it until I awoke around 3:00 the next morning and found my pillow soaked from tearing and my eye hurting something terrible. I got up and drove myself to the ER which I remember to be a blast. I had an abrasion on my eyeball and I could have kissed that doctor when they put some analgesic drops in my eye. They bandaged it up and I was on my way. Since the eye usually heals within 24 hours I was good to go the next day. Bev and all were shocked when I came to the breakfast table with that big ole bandage. Then I got fussed at by Beverly as usual for not getting her up.

I'll never forget that time and learned a very good lesson. You only have two and they automatically start going downhill at 40 years of age so it pays to protect.

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