How'd it go today?

Wow, crazy saga. Glad you focus on the bright side.
 
That's tough Gary, I've lost friends and family in a similar fashion, the hole it forms is very wide. I have also worked around many a hand injury, and i often wonder if it's better to simply amputate at times. I've known guys who have had both, and the ones without did just as well as a luckier guy who hadn't had that happen. I've had multiple close calls, and my son was born without the middle 3 fingers on one hand. He started preschool this year, and no kid even noticed for almost 2 weeks because it doesn't even slow him down. I dunno, it's a tough place to be and i haven't been there yet thankfully, I'm not sure what i would choose.
 
Sat in a conference room all day. Learned a few things. Went to set up the crane this evening cpr a bit of seat time and the starter decided to act up. Engaged the flywheel weird and locked. Pry bar to release it after a bit of swearing. By then the others wanted to go home and study their books. I did a bit of maintenance and called it a night around 7:30.
load charts and written exam tomorrow. Practical exam Thursday. I’m going to see if I’m allowed to test on more than one Type of crane. If they have the different options available, I might as well get as many as I can.
Also I’m in the class with Johnny Pro’s brother.
 
09, btw, one of the top jui jitsu guys in the world was born missing several fingers on one hand. JJ is a sport very dependent on grip, he found a way around his challenge and is at the top of his sport. Jean Jacque Machado.
 
Noah had so much going right for him at a young age....tough, strong, funny, agile...he got bested by a horizontal ladder challenge at a fair as a teenager so he went home and made one and learned to beat it. He took exception once to a soldier that was dumb enough to waltz in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen in Adel, GA, where Noah was hanging out. Noah said they ended up in a fight. Noah usually won fights but not this time. He found out later the soldier was a Green Beret so I guess it was OK to get whipped by a bonafide badass (this was late 60's, early 70's).

But being young, braggadocious, and full of life he took some wrong turns. Fast driving, drinking, things teenagers often do. But he could not handle the demons. He had alcohol problems for years, then a serious hand injury (let hand...almost amputated by a radial arm saw making aluminum storm windows. They re-attached but he needed a real hand specialist. We told him to come to Atlanta where we had a good surgeon lined up for him. But, the local orthopod assured them he could handle it. He could not...poor blood supply, nerve issues, etc. He never got good function again, hand withered, he wore a single black glove so folks didn't have to see how bad it was. Long story short, after that he also had medication issues for pain to complicate things. That led to marriage problems and divorce. At some point he had an issue with an elbow problem. It all came to be too much...a self-inflicted .45 to the heart was his final shot. Pretty sad stuff.

I work to keep alive the younger Noah memories...and still miss him. I am still in touch with Ike, Noah's younger brother that was the target of the gator in the boat. Ike laughs just like Noah. He is a S. GA pastor, as good a fellow as you could hope for. We have fun re-living Noah stories when we get together.

RIP, Noah. We all face some demons, a few of us do not survive the encounter. Wish it had a different ending for him, Gary. Thank you for sharing his story.
 
Sad stuff Gary.

Warning picture heavy!

Today was wannigan (float camp) moving day. Boat engines were started at 0630 when we had enough light to see. Started down the Back Channel but ran into the expected fog monster. No worries, the wise one (me) had a backup plan...we would try the Zimovia Straight route instead. Good call wise one. Arrived at Anan and got hooked up to the camp and started pushing at 0900. IMG_20211005_080944.jpg

On the way down we had a fine sunrise on the Three Sisters peaks.
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Glassy water for the majority of the trip and lots of good scenery along the route. IMG_20211005_094924.jpg

A few pictures of the boats we have set up to move the camp. Depending on tide we move around 4.5 to 6.7 miles per hour. IMG_20211005_095136.jpg IMG_20211005_095300.jpg
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Got a call earlier and found out the client didn't mark the deflection points correctly between two of the structures on the bridge I did today. I have to go back tomorrow to reshoot them. Fortunately, it was the easier half. That part has 1/10 points. The other half has 1/20 points.
 
Boring. Got stood up for any tree work this week, half-day of class tonight with a substitute teacher, and I've done about everything I can do to get ready to go help/teach a veteran oriented (not veteran exclusive) disaster response organization with some felling and bucking technique on a fire mitigation project this weekend.
 
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Took Lilly to work today. She was kinda down. But I talked her into going to the horse ranch with us. She lost her bottle baby goat yesterday to a pack of coyote. So she made some new friends today at the ranch and the owners let her help with brushing a few out. Guess their dogs as well. Happy kiddo by the end of the day. 20211006_103512.jpg 20211006_103518.jpg
 
She sure is growing up on us, isn't she Stephen. Won't be long (maybe already, darn it) before the boys circling around will need to hear "the talk" from daddy...him that is "just cleaning his guns" :D.

There is probably a rough patch or two ahead, my friend. Better you than me...but a tiny word of advice from one who is thankful not to have to steer your shoals and reefs ahead...keep your cool ;).
 
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