Hearing from friends in North Dakota we realize how good we have it. The weather we have enjoyed for months has been full of clear sky days and warmth. The estate is taking shape. Winky again made Kadizzle transplant desert forest plants into the yard. If it does not work we will have a lot of dead plants to remove. Most of the plants are in the Garden of Delight. Another strange project is our path through the woods. Construction has made the street to the west unusable so we only have access through the forest. Since Kadizzle is an ebike rider the path must accommodate the ebike. Rocks grow here faster than weeds. The rock battling skills were tested again yesterday. The right hand and it's arthritis acts up from prying rocks out of the ground. It feels like the right hand is twice the size of the left one.
Kadizzle had to go onto the construction site to ask the construction people to put up a barrier that would keep silt out of our yard. The guys working on the new part of the street are very grumpy if someone invades their sacred area. When Kadizzle went to talk to them he got the chew from two of the gang for being on the site. The old grump running the large tracked backhoe is also one of the owners. Grump gave Kadizzle a little lecture about walking near the backhoe. Actually it is good that these guys are very safety conscious. Kadizzle was a little affronted by the lecture since his entire career was spent doing safety work. Of course Grump did not know this, however Kadizzle got him up to date. The issue was walking near a machine that rotates. Kadizzle has worked around a lot of large machinery. One golden rule around large machinery is to make eye contact with the operator, and have the operator acknowledge he has seen you.
This brings back a recollection of a mining accident. It was not at the mine Kadizzle worked at, but the report was circulated. A very large bulldozer was backing up to the peak of a slope. A worker drove up toward the dozer from behind. The dozer operator drove over the pickup and the man was killed. Kadizzle investigated at least three or four incidents where pickup truck were run over by large equipment. Fortunately only one incident involved injury. It is amazing to see what a large haul truck will do to a pickup when it runs over one.
Well this brings up a story and a memory. Once upon a time there was a surveyor at our mine. The guy drove very recklessly. Kadizzle had chastised him about his driving. One morning the surveyor called Kadizzle on the radio and said he had a problem with his pickup truck. Kadizzle got to his location and found out a haul truck had chopped off the front of the truck right at the dashboard. Apparently the driver came around a turn too fast and slid under the 13ft dual wheels of the trailer on the haul truck. The truck went right over the front of the pickup. Arriving at the scene Kadizzle thought there was a minor problem like the truck would not start. Kadizzle was baffled by the fact the surveyor discribed the incident as a problem. No doubt he did not want to announce over the radio what a stupid thing he had just done. Kadizzle was angry about the incident since the surveyor had been warned. Kadizzle wanted the man fired. The surveyor was given two weeks without pay.
Now comes a very interesting part of the story. Thirty years later Kadizzle happened to meet the surveyors wife. Kadizzle recalled the incident to her. At this point she told Kadizzle a very interesting thing about the incident. Her husband was not actually driving the truck. His assistant was. The helper was set to retire. If the helper were fired before his retirement it would have a severe impact on his retirement income. The surveyor actually took the fall for his friend. Kadizzle has been amazed what information he has found out twenty and thirty years after the fact.
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