Thursday, August 7th, 2008

[JonPorobil]

Today, someone pulled a gun on one of the guys on my team. No one was hurt, but everyone got to go home early. They decided (of course, after the fact) that the turf they had chosen for us was unsafe because of the high crime rate in the area. Huh.

What's the most dangerous thing that's ever happened to you while working?

[Märk]

qotd: I got a nasty paper cut once.

[Spud]

QOTD: Probably a major earthquake. I was not hurt. Kinda fun, actually.

On the other hand, what you might think is the least dangerous thing could be the one that gets you.

The aptly nicknamed Crash was walking through her office on Thursday with a tea cup in her hand. Two guys were talking in the hallway, and as she passed, one of them randomly stuck out her foot and tripped her. The cup of hot tea flew out of her hand, away from her, and she was not burned. However, she then did a face plant right onto the tea cup, breaking one of her front teeth into three separated peices, driving one of them up into her gums, chipping three other teeth, and giving her a fat lip and a nasty bruise on the cheek. We're going to have to let her sing Zombie Son at our show on Saturday.

SPUD

p.s. The tea cup is O.K.

[Märk]

Oooh, sounds like a lawsuit!

[EmbersOfAutumn]

QotD: While being trained on Elevator Safety (I operated a freight elevator in a NY 10-story factory), we were about off to lunch. One of my co-workers hit the automatic 'door close' button, and everyone walk talking so loud, I couldn't hear the warning beeping that the door was about to close. I was jogging at a medium trot and was totally clotheslined by the huge metal door. Obvious, the impact sensors opened the doors completely again, but i still have a little scar across my forehead from hitting the top of the metal bar that lined the bottom of the door. They had me go to the business's first aid department just to make sure I was ok. (They gave me some of those temporary 'butterfly' stitches... the kind that you just peel off after a few days)

I was going to a concert I had been looking forward to for about a month that night--fortunately, I still got to go.

[Hoblit]

DRC: I got up early and did my dishes before work. Pumped about tonight's Ghost Town Gridlock show. Last night I made a mock, tongue and cheek, 'commercial' for our show tonight

QotD: While I've been jacked twice... once at gun point, nothing like that has ever happened to me AT work. The most dangerous thing thats happened to me AT work was just an accident. I wasn't paying attention (well, I WAS paying attention to a hot waitress) while I was (pre) cleaning a deep fryer while it was still on (to save time and get out earlier) when I put my whole hand into the hot oil wrist deep. (I felt the level grate at the bottom with my knuckles)

I quickly ran off the line and ran it under cold water. AMAZINGLY my hand was relatively unscathed. While my entire hand was burnt and red for a day or two, it wasn't all that bad. I got the hot oil off fast enough to not do any real damage. The worst parts were in between my fingers where there was some later peeling.

[JonPorobil]

I thought that running cold water over an oil burn was one of the worst things you could do to it. Guess you got lucky, Hobs.

[drë]

DRC: I got up early and did my dishes before work. Pumped about tonight's Ghost Town Gridlock show. [url=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncYFYRY09Ko"]Last night I made a mock, tongue and cheek, 'commercial' for our show tonight[/url]

Tongue and cheek, but well done.
You can probably get some radio voice over side work if you wanted to..

[Hoblit]

DRC: I got up early and did my dishes before work. Pumped about tonight's Ghost Town Gridlock show. [url=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncYFYRY09Ko"]Last night I made a mock, tongue and cheek, 'commercial' for our show tonight[/url]

Tongue and cheek, but well done.
You can probably get some radio voice over side work if you wanted to..

Ha THANKS... and I do very casual and steril voice overs for our client's Auto Attendants. (that IVR junk you get when you call businesses)

I thought that running cold water over an oil burn was one of the worst things you could do to it. Guess you got lucky, Hobs.

Well, here's hoping you don't ever end up in position where you have to figure out what to do when you get burned by oil in a restaurant environment. (why is there an extra 'N' in enviroNment anyways?)

You wouldn't want to put in ICE WATER but you DO want to run it under cool running water for a good while. Just FYI.

[ujnhunter]

isn't it tongue-in-cheek?

DRC: Saw NIN today... (the 7th, not today, today) Cool show, wish the Set list was better... being an old fan... I'm not all that into a lot of the newer songs... but I can't blame them... that's the point of touring... play songs off the new albums... plus who wants to sing songs that you've been singing for 20 years? glad they played some songs from Broken ep and the Fragile... but I enjoyed their With Teeth tour set list much more. Maybe I am just getting old...

QotD: nothing comes to mind... except that one time in the bathroom...

[Paco Del Stinko]

Great promo, Hoblit. And the standing on the side of the hill picture is way cool. Studs!

QOTD - Violence was relatively common on the locked ward of the psych hospital I used to work at. Getting bit, punched, and spat upon wasn't a daily thing, but felt like it at times. Why did I leave, again?

Spud's tooth story scares me more though, actually!

[Aardwolves]

Spud's tooth story scares me more though, actually!

When I used to work in a downtown record store, I got threatened all the time: I'm-a-gonna-stab-yous, stalkers, products/displays thrown at my head...

...and that tooth story is still pretty scary. D:

[Steve Durand]

QOTD: A long time back when I used to work in retail, I confronted someone who was shoplifting liquor by sticking bottles in his socks under his bellbottom jeans. He promptly punched me in the face, knocked me down, and walked out the door to hop in the car where 3 of his friends were waiting.

[Spud]

Wow. If your read that the wrong way, like I did the first three times I tried to parse it, it sounds like you confronting him by putting bottles in his socks. I had to start over several times before I figured out that they were already in there when you confronted him.

[Billy's Little Trip]

That's funny, Spud. I got Steve's story right away, but your story had me reading it a few times when you said,...

Two guys were talking in the hallway, and as she passed, one of them randomly stuck out her foot and tripped her.

...Like, stuck out crash's foot and tripped her with her own foot? Because you said two guys were in the hall. Or like, one of the guys in the hall is a cross dresser? Very confusing.
By the way, I feel terrible for Crash. That's one vivid image I got of a painful accident.

[Caravan Ray]

What's the most dangerous thing that's ever happened to you while working?

I got bit by a snake in south-west Queensland while doing groundwater monitoring at a copper mine.

I have already told the story in this thread

I got bit by a snake in south-west Queensland.

I didn't see the snake - I just woke up with a bruised and swollen ankle, and matching fang marks in my leg and trousers. It wasn't really a near-death experience I suppose, because the snake obviously didn't envenomate me - I just like telling people I was bit by a snake.

The coolest thing is that I was bit in the area of Queensland (east of Boulia) that is the right in the middle of the only known habitat area for Oxyuranus microlepidotus (aka the Fierce Snake or Inland Taipan) which is known as the snake with the deadliest venom on earth. I think it helps the story somewhat if I casually suggest that it was one of those that bit me - though it's highly unlikely that is was. The main candidates would be a Death Adder (though quite a small one due to the fang spacing) or an Eastern Brown Snake (which is actually a far more dangerous snake than the Fierce snake anyway).

In actual fact - the chances of being randomly killed by a snake are virtually zero - so, as I said, it wasn't really a near death experience.

Unlike this bloke who has a much better snake story to tell.

I later did a course to learn how to catch venomous snakes. Awesome fun. Catching and bagging an Eastern Brown was one of the most exciting things I have ever done. They are so fast and look so mean

[Caravan Ray]

What's the most dangerous thing that's ever happened to you while working?

No - I re-thought my answer to that question.

Probably the most dangerous thing that's ever happened to me while working was when I went to a village council meeting in a village on the tiny Pacific atoll of Nonouti. I travelled to the village in a canoe hired from a local fellow. On the way home - we ran out of fuel for the outboard motor in the middle of the lagoon. It was almost dark and the tide was about to turn. There were about 4 of us in the canoe - we had to jump in and start pushing the canoe to shore. We got there after a couple of hours - but that was quite terrifying. If we didn't get to shore - the tide would have taken us over the reef and out of the lagoon. Then we would have been in the Pacific Ocean. Almost smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - one of the remotest points on the planet. It would have been highly unlikely that we would ever have been seen again if that had happened. I was not at all happy with our canoe driver, to say the least.

[Spud]

That's funny, Spud. I got Steve's story right away, but your story had me reading it a few times when you said,...

Two guys were talking in the hallway, and as she passed, one of them randomly stuck out her foot and tripped her.

...Like, stuck out crash's foot and tripped her with her own foot? Because you said two guys were in the hall. Or like, one of the guys in the hall is a cross dresser? Very confusing.
By the way, I feel terrible for Crash. That's one vivid image I got of a painful accident.

You are correct, Sir. My story contains an error. HIS foot.

SPUD

[Billy's Little Trip]

QOTD: The only thing I can think of off the top of my head. In my early days of my pool biz, I did all the work myself. One of the things in my business is to drain pools, acid wash the plaster, then repair/replace return line fittings, check out the light niches, check main drain cover screws to make sure they're secure, etc. While doing the acid wash, I have a sump pump running in the bottom of the bowl (deepest point) the entire time I'm working with a water hose running continuously. The pump is electric with a three prong plug, hot-common-ground. On this one particular day, I found out just how important the ground prong is. Somehow the ground prong broke off, as many extension cords I've dealt with in my life to this point. As many know, everything still works fine without the ground prong because it's only on there for "add safety" after all. Pffft, safety shmafety I say, or as I used to say until this near fateful day.
One thing that needs to be done while acid washing a pool, is that the sump pump has to be continually moved to a new position, because acid softens the plaster surface and the vibration of the pump will leave a mark. So constant fresh water flushing and pump moving is important.
When I acid wash a pool, I do it on bare feet and I'm always wearing shorts. Acid ruins shoes, but doesn't have much effect on skin, especially because you can just rinse it with water from the hose if you get it on you. But clothing will be instantly ruined even if you rinse it. I have a rope tied to the pump for lowering it in and out of the pool, I also use the rope to move the pump around. I quite often just grab the pump handle and move it, which isn't normally a problem if the pump is "properly grounded".
So I'm standing in about a foot of water, grab the pump, and as soon I lift the pump out of the water, the voltage started flowing through me and stopping at my feet like a human grounding rod. My hand clenched the handle of the pump very tightly and I couldn't let go, but the weight of the "heavy" metal pump allowed it to slip out of my hand. The moment the pump fell from my hand was my second chance for life, but the pump fell on my toe as if to give me a lasting reminder of what a dumb fuck I was to pick up and electric pump with no ground while standing in a pool of water. HELLO!

....and scene.