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[quote author=DC link=msg=98789 date=1477026134]
I hadn't really done any yard work since the finger injury.  It's doing very well.  I think I must be part salamander, as the tissue is regenerating at an alarming rate.  The nail bed survived and the nail is growing back.  Still, the top of the finger is open without enough nail to protect the bed and I keep hitting it against things.     :o     Overall, I'm pleased that it should recover 90-95% of what it was before.  I went to my family doc as I thought it was infected and he noted the nerve damage.  He said the good thing is that the nerves are attempting to regenerate and that I should know over the next 6 months if feeling/sensation will return to the tip.  Interesting to note. . . ..  When you have nerve damage, the central nervous system attempts to do a repair, by basically regrowing the nerve paths.  He said new nerves will attempt to grow and they will start at the spine, travel to the arm, grow down the arm, then wrist, then hand, then start down the finger.  If there is enough blood flow and nutrients to sustain them, they will try to replicate the paths the original nerves had.

Anyway, Monday night I thought I would start trying to do some basic yard work.  I needed to weed one of my mulch beds in the back yard.   With thick pigskin leather gloves, I hacked away and pulled weeds until it was dark.  Then, after work Tuesday, it was time to start mulching.  I think a lot of you know me well enough by now to know that any project I start will take forever.  Part of it is available time, attention to minute details, mixed with a certain amount of ignorance or incompetence.  Pick one. . . just one, please.

So I had an enormous load of mulch delivered in the spring. . . maybe 30 yards.  I can't remember.  I dutifully spread much of it out in the front mulch beds in the next couple of months that followed.  After that, summer arrives and my attention turns to other things.  So the remaining mulch sat on the driveway.  I have a number of mulch beds in the back yard and I was addressing them prior to the finger injury.  Fast forward to this week, it was time to resume that activity.  Taking up where we left off earlier with the weeding, Tuesday comes around and I'm ready to mulch.  So I start filling some large plant containers with mulch and carted them down the hill behind the driveway down to the mulch bed.  A few trips down and back, I started thinking . . . “Hey!  I have a TLB (Tractor-frontLoader-Backhoe).  Why am I not using that?”  Apparently, finger injuries have a way of dulling the brain.   :o

So I fired up the tractor and let it warm up.  It's really just a subcompact tractor with a 3cyl diesel engine.  Okay, it's small, but it can do a lot of work.  While it's warming up, I carted down a couple more loads of mulch.   . . . . Okay, now it was time to stop poosy-footing (not-related to the Russian girl punk band) around.  I drove the loader up to the mulch pile and scooped up a nice large load. . . probably the equivalent of two loads that I could do by hand.  I drove down the steep hill, depositing one load after another on the mulch bed, and I was making great progress.

As we get further and further into the Fall, the days are getting shorter and shorter.  At this point, I am losing any remaining daylight.  Not to fear, my tractor has headlights.  Great! I can keep working! . . . . . It's pitch black at this point.  Although I point the headlights at the mulch bed, when the bucket is somewhat raised, I really can't see the remaining pile.  At this point, I took out a snow shovel to try to consolidate the remaining pile to make scooping easier and more efficient.  Returning to the tractor, I raised the loader bucket quite a bit. . . enough that the headlights would light up the remaining mulch pile.  I continued to consolidate it by shoveling the mulch into one larger pile.  At the same time, I was topping off the load I already had in the bucket, by throwing a few more shovelfuls in.

At this point, my attention returns to consolidating the pile.  Some people are obsessed with little things that really, in the grand scheme of things, don’t really matter.  Is it all that important to shovel the remaining mulch into the some perfect, symmetrical pile, only to be scooped up and hauled away?  Still, some people can’t help themselves.  . . . . 
Finally, I consolidated the pile into the perfect pyramid-like shape. . . . . .now worthy of scooping and hauling away.  Satisfied and very pleased with myself, [i]I abruptly turned back toward the tractor[/i].  . . .

There’s something to be said about the correlation between situational awareness and spacial orientation to your surroundings.  There’s a theorem out there about the laws of the time-space continuum where two solid objects cannot occupy the same space.  Dr. Who knows all about this and he gets all preachy if people try to violate, disregard, or otherwise go against this in any way.   Sorry Doc.  Unfortunately, I never attended time-space continuum law school.

The impact was completely unexpected.  It was like 20,000 volts going through my body.  It almost felt like I was shot in the head.  More precisely, it felt more like I smashed my head into the front corner edge of the loader bucket. . . In fact, that’s what I did.. . . . . When I raised the bucket so the headlights would light up the much pile, it put the bucket at about head height.. . . Well, exactly at head height.

As the night air was somewhat cool, it made it more apparent that I had sprung a leak.  I felt the warm  blood running down my head and onto my face. . . I really hate it when you’re working on a project and something goes wrong.  Either the tool you need the most breaks, or that screw or nut falls way down somewhere where you can never recover it, and now you’re making a trip to the store for a replacement, and the project is on hold. . . . . .Well, not to be deterred, I made one more run with a load of mulch, then retired for the night.  I did this last run out of spite, just to frustrate the project gremlins.

I’m a somewhat musical person.  I’ve played guitar for many years.  So I know PC (also a guitarist) and other musicians here can appreciate this.   Even though the loader bucket had a complete load in it, at the time of impact, I did hear a bell like sound.  If I had to estimate, my head hitting the loader bucket rang out a distinctive sustaining C# note.  I found this to be unusual, as I would expect the mulch in the bucket to act as a mute pedal on a piano.  But no, it rang clear as a bell.

Much as oil and water seek their own levels, there’s nothing like a few beers to make everything all better.  The bleeding had stabilized after a few eruptions, and I figured,  “Well, I might as well celebrate since it was still warm out”, not that it was any kind of rational justification to consume mass quantities of inebriating fluids.

I did not feel I needed to seek medical attention for this.  I just cracked my head against something quite a bit harder (disputable by some) and it bled for a while.  No biggy.  Plus, I did not want to deal with the inherent risks of colonoscopy vs.  sex change operation.
[/quote]

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Topic summary

Posted by DC

- October 26, 2016, 10:04:33 AM

Posted by greenbarn

- October 25, 2016, 22:27:07 PM

LOL

Posted by DC

- October 25, 2016, 11:41:23 AM

Quote from: pcarrell on October 25, 2016, 11:33:23 AM
SON! That is one hard head you have there!!!!

One little tiny cut, and you did all that damage to the bucket of that tractor? Holy Cow!

Mom always did say I had a hard head.

Posted by pcarrell

- October 25, 2016, 11:33:23 AM

SON! That is one hard head you have there!!!!

One little tiny cut, and you did all that damage to the bucket of that tractor? Holy Cow!

Posted by DC

- October 24, 2016, 23:33:54 PM

The sad thing is that the tractor isn't even paid off yet and it has this damage now. It should be paid off in May though.

Posted by CDNRatMan

- October 24, 2016, 21:34:47 PM

You are right Mr. GreenBarn we never did get to see the damage done to the poor bucket.....bet it will never be the same after getting beaten up like it must have.......

Posted by greenbarn

- October 24, 2016, 21:30:20 PM

Well, Mr. DC, looks like you'd better start being more careful before you lose an appendage!! I have developed a habit to always lower the tractor bucket to the ground before getting off the tractor - unless there is some reason I can't. Helps with banged shins, tractor rolling, and yes, banged heads!

Glad is wasn't worse- could have easily knocked you down and the secondary impact could be bad as well. I have a bad feeling, however, you might need to use a grinder on the edge of that bucket, though, to get it back in shape.

Posted by DC

- October 23, 2016, 16:30:15 PM

Quote from: Hoggy on October 22, 2016, 21:58:34 PM

DC, I like the first picture best. Would you mind if I used it as a pattern for a Halloween Mask?

It's getting to be too dangerous to use clown masks.

Modeling a mask out of that pic might have the police looking for yet another scary character roaming around.

I was reading that some of the Halloween stores aren't even carrying those scary clown masks this year, because of all the shenanigans going on.

Posted by Hoggy

- October 22, 2016, 21:58:34 PM

DC, I like the first picture best. Would you mind if I used it as a pattern for a Halloween Mask?

It's getting to be too dangerous to use clown masks.

Posted by CDNRatMan

- October 22, 2016, 16:06:24 PM

Do you and DC live in the same state?

Posted by pcarrell

- October 22, 2016, 15:06:03 PM

That looks like it might have smarted a bit!

Posted by CDNRatMan

- October 22, 2016, 09:20:46 AM

Mr. PP&E have you ever considered a career in politics? You are a fantastic dancer. You danced your way around all the questions and quires that were given you and never once said anything to any effect of what happened or who is at fault......lol....your as good as that guy running for the presidents place........

Posted by DC

- October 22, 2016, 01:32:57 AM

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
Bet that that hurt. But I am sort of confused. But before I go there it was an interesting read about the nerve regeneration. I am also understanding that you are an IT type of person, a brain person a thinker, not a hands on type, am I incorrect on this?

Before I got into IT, I worked many years in manufacturing and Quality. I built radios when I was a kid. I was self taught in electronics, then went to trade school for it. Then I ran a small E/M mfg. shop for a number of years, then moved into quality, then finally military aircraft production. I ended up getting out of mfg. and Quality, since they didn't really pay. Now that I'm in IT for many years, that also doesn't seem to pay, with all the cheap labor flooding the market. They say what goes around comes around. Next week I'm interviewing for a job running high tonnage, commercial HVAC mfg. programs.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
Now with all your wives do you not have a group of male children that could have helped you with this chore? Well even a daughter or 2 who you could have asked for help.

I have never allowed breeding within the compound. So there are no children available to do work. My wives were all out that day anyway. Four of them were at cage fighting practice and the other three were at knitting class.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
Rather then a dangerous killer machine you might have thought to use a wheel borrow, you might have fared better on that front.

There is a steep hill that drops off behind the driveway into the backyard. The wheelbarrow would have been a more dangerous choice for moving the mulch. I should not even think of this, but I'm already picturing what would happen if I tried going down that hill with a wheel barrow full of mulch.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
Now let us get some other information cleared up to better understand how this happened, perhaps we can prevent someone else from getting hurt. You had the mulch piled in the driveway? Do you have electricity to your home? Or are you one of them off the grid people? You did not turn on the flood lights around the driveway so you could see?

The floods were on, but they just weren't up to the job. Maybe I could have dragged out the halogen work lights on the tripod.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
I am sure if you asked a local welder they could have raised the headlights so with the bucket in a operating position you could still see the work area ahead. I guess they do not teach safety courses in PA.

I already decided I'm just going to add a long LED light bar to the safety roll bar. That should solve that problem for the future.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
Have you had any counselling in regards to your OCD issues?

The only issue I have l related to that is avoidance of being stuck in a chronic hysteresis loop. Most people get stuck in these loops and don't even know it. You have to force changes in your daily habits. We live in ruts and most of us don't even realize it. So take a different route to the store or work or where ever. Put the left shoe on first, instead of the right. When you go through double doors, open the left one, instead of the right, etc. You will start to notice differences in how things work and the way you look at things.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
Perhaps you should have (this is called hindsight) put the bucket on the ground and backed up enough to see the mulch pile on the driveway and then swept it into that perfect pyramid pile, and then you could have moved the tractor forward or swept the perfect pyramid pile to the bucket.

There are a lot of things that could have been done differently, but the good news is that after work today, I went out and tackled the remaining mulch, making about eight trips down to the mulch bed with the hand cart and plant containers. Yahoo! I finally got rid of the pile on the driveway, just in time and before the rain tonight. The mulch bed in the back yard is a happy camper now. I even had an audience watching me work. There was this snake that was hanging around the whole time by the mulch bed. Maybe he thought he was going to get a hand out. Sorry bud, I have no mice in my pockets.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
Once again you refused medical attention, correct, and a concussion is very serious, especially at your age. We all know that any cut to the brow or forehead area is going to bleed like a stuck pig, so it is not the blood to worry about, but the damage to the brain getting rattled around in that huge container you call your head........

If I would have gone to the hospital, they would have applied procedure code 99283. Since this was an impact head injury, Level 3 of that code would apply, of which the costs would run about $1,100 to $1,300, to start. Then they would require at least an Xray and possibly an MRI, depending on how the patient was presenting. If I felt I had a concussion, I would have gone regardless, but this was just a routine knock on the head, combined with springing a leak, and this was certainly nothing that a few beers afterward couldn't fix.

My main worry, given the severity of the impact, was if there was any damage to the loader bucket. I haven't looked at it closely yet. Hopefully, the bucket isn't racked and the front edge blade can still sit level on the ground.

Quote from: CDNRatMan on October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM
But we have a really good solution to prevent this from happening again......you either start to wear a motorcycle helmet at all times or at least a hockey helmet and we can all rest well knowing you are safe...........

The funny thing is that there is a certain person here who is always preaching to others about using the appropriate PPE. I WONDER WHO THAT IS.

Okay, I guess I should be taking my own advice. I have a hardhat from when I had a commercial chipper. If I were wearing it at the time, I would not have to be staying up late typing up this report.

Posted by DC

- October 22, 2016, 00:39:14 AM

Quote from: mittico68 on October 21, 2016, 08:49:21 AM
Nice story (not really for the hurt part...).
Maybe you should start wearing accident prevention clothes, such as helmet, mason shoes, bulletproof vest, etc. etc.... lol...

I always seem to be preaching about others not using PPE. I suppose I should start taking my own advice. I should have been wearing my hardhat, which got a lot of use when I had a commercial chipper.

Posted by CDNRatMan

- October 21, 2016, 10:19:18 AM

Bet that that hurt. But I am sort of confused. But before I go there it was an interesting read about the nerve regeneration. I am also understanding that you are an IT type of person, a brain person a thinker, not a hands on type, am I incorrect on this? Now with all your wives do you not have a group of male children that could have helped you with this chore? Well even a daughter or 2 who you could have asked for help.
Rather then a dangerous killer machine you might have thought to use a wheel borrow, you might have fared better on that front. Now let us get some other information cleared up to better understand how this happened, perhaps we can prevent someone else from getting hurt. You had the mulch piled in the driveway? Do you have electricity to your home? Or are you one of them off the grid people? You did not turn on the flood lights around the driveway so you could see?
I am sure if you asked a local welder they could have raised the headlights so with the bucket in a operating position you could still see the work area ahead. I guess they do not teach safety courses in PA.
Have you had any counselling in regards to your OCD issues? Perhaps you should have (this is called hindsight) put the bucket on the ground and backed up enough to see the mulch pile on the driveway and then swept it into that perfect pyramid pile, and then you could have moved the tractor forward or swept the perfect pyramid pile to the bucket.
Once again you refused medical attention, correct, and a concussion is very serious, especially at your age. We all know that any cut to the brow or forehead area is going to bleed like a stuck pig, so it is not the blood to worry about, but the damage to the brain getting rattled around in that huge container you call your head........
But we have a really good solution to prevent this from happening again......you either start to wear a motorcycle helmet at all times or at least a hockey helmet and we can all rest well knowing you are safe...........

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