Whatʼs the saying the old timers keep saying?...oh yeah...”Living the dream”.
Since Iʼve been working here for all of a week Iʼm not sure iʼve earned that saying yet but...
Just a stupid grunt...and I was...trying to do whatever is necessary so I wouldnʼt get my ass ripped.
So now, out here in the middle Palm Springs, the wind blowing so hard the sand in the air was like fog...visibility about 10ʼ or so.
The job weʼre on is fix an arching wire...at least that was the foreman was told We put the platforms on the boom truck and the 2 Journeymen strap themselves on-- and Me, the most inexperienced Grunt in the district, starts to run the truck and put them in position.
Screaming, just screaming and I donʼt understand a word theyʼre saying... So, why not have the freaking Foreman start screaming too...
With the wind cranking, the boom never stopped swaying, so the linemen never stopped screaming about keeping them in one place.
Off the truck i step, no freaking idea what theyʼre doing, or myself either... when a giant flash of light appeared and fire I thought, and the next moment I remember is being knocked to the ground with a 4/0 copper phase wire laying on top of me...what the hell!
The foreman runs over to me and says..."Donʼt move!”I remember hearing that the wire may become energized again to test so naturally I said,
"F*** you!" and rolled away.
All good...the wire didnʼt test I didnʼt die...
The newspaper wrote a story about the incident... And I didnʼt tell my wife about it for 15 years...
ahhh...the perfect job.