[rescue] Wee... what's old is new again...:-) Me machinehasn ew life.

[William Enestvedt]

Phil Stracchino wrote:
>
> The first set of pins come out in five days.  So far, with pins in and
> the increased care that enforces, I seem to be walking pretty well.
>
   A digression follows, of particular interest to parents and to those with
steel pins in them. (Forgive some small lapses in my memory; Uncle Tim tells
the story much better than I do, but understandably less often.)
   My uncle Tim is an electrician. He lives in frosty northern Minnesota, and
works on the (sooooo huge) equipment used in a taconite [iron-bearing mineral]
mine. About ten years ago, he and two co-workers got called out to fix a
busted crane. It had apparently been fully extended, about 80' or 100' up, and
they needed to work on something waaaaay up at the top. Well, it tipped over,
and they all fell. The other two guys died, and Uncle Tim was pretty much
smooshed: he told us, "It's the only time I've been able to read the sole of
my boot -- while I was wearing it."
   Naturally, the crane fell right on the truck and smashed the radio, so he
waited for a good long time until someone found him. He was in a wheel chair
for *months*, and it looked like they cleaned out a Toys-R-Us to get all the
Erector Sets they put into his knees, ankles, and arms.
   A few months after he got out of the hospital, I went up to stay for a few
days. At the time, they lived in a little two-story house, so he could only
wheel around between the kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, and living room,
while the kids' bedrooms were upstairs. Their youngest daughter, Bridget, was
just a few years old at the time, and quite a handful.
   One day while I was there, Bridget was supposed to be napping in her room.
We could hear her messing around, so my uncle called his usual warning up the
stairs: "Bridget, you go to sleep or I'm coming up there."
   It was quite, and then a little voice said matter-of-factly, "Daddy, you
can't come up the stairs." The look on his face when he knew she'd finally
realized that he had no bargaining power was _priceless_. :7)
   Anyway, back to the regularly-scheduled Rescue traffic.
-wde
P.S. The guys at the mine are all heart: they got a gimme cap from the crane
company, and then tore off the patch -- which featured a stylized crane -- and
sewed it back on on its side. They brought this to him in the hospital just
days after the accident: niiice. :7) Then they went out to the site where
Uncle Tim was building his new house and framed it, closed it up, roofed it,
and did about 80% of the work he would have done himself (but not the wiring!)
while he was flat on his back. Good people.
--
Will Enestvedt
UNIX System Administrator
Johnson & Wales University -- Providence, RI