Post by Tony W on Nov 18, 2008 18:12:18 GMT -5
A cautionary tale..... I post it here because if you read to the end you'll see it is cabbers who need to hear my story, more than most.
I've had some freaky things go on around me in my life... I just kind of accept that things are going to happen without me getting too messed up.. so I try to relax and enjoy the show. Like the tree I cut down the other day that was coming down of top of me when I looked up... rather than off out that way where the cable was pulling it. And the cable hung in a tree on the way down so the trunk swung 20 feet just off the ground, like a giant battering ram, but didn't get me... and the cable didn't break, cutting me in half... stuff like that. Wierd, freaky stuff... Tony did something really stupid that didn't end up killing him stuff So.... here goes the tale....
I have my arbor set up in one of two wing sheds that come off the main shed. All have open fronts. My chair and arbor are just a few feet in under the overhang by the openway which faces south. It is winter now so the sun tracks across the sky further to the south, so from around 11am 'til maybe 3 I have sun on my work space, but only because I am so nearly outside In winter I can still cab on cold days as long as the sun is hitting me the whole time to warm me up. It was 41 around noon today, but I could have cabbed as the sun was warming the area.
The shed houses all kinds of important things. The side with the arbor has my saws, a generator, all my rocks... from the first box I bought (from Jamie) to the last rock I've gotten (wood from Curt). I have my extra wheels and belts there. I have a big work bench down at the far end made from wood, and closer to my arbor I have a door on saw horses that has on it, a bunch... a big bunch of yogurt cups full of blanks, dopped blanks, finished cabs, half finished cabs, recent slabs, old slabs... stones of all sorts...probably precious only to me.. but important nonetheless.
The other side shed has wood and paint, and doors and such stacked up and leaning against the walls...projects to do, or to get back too, and important bits of wood I just can't throw yet Also, near the door is a 5 gallon bucket full of muriatic acid for cleaning rocks, and two 5 gal. plastic containers with $4.35 a gal. gas I got a few months back when I was sure we were going to 8 bucks a gal. and you couldn't get gas in Ga. anywhere at that time.... so I stocked up.
The middle bay is big enough for me to work on a car... but for now it is crammed full of chainsaws, and tillers, kilns and lawnmowers, and on and on, all needing work of some sort. And all my car tools.... each collected during uncountable trips to the pawn shop to get just the right socket at 50 cents a go. Junk to many but priceless to me ..... As it all works.. or will whenever I can get back to working on them.
And two things live in that shed that are priceless to me beyond measure. My sleds. Remember Zonker in Doonsbury? He had his priorites and sledding real fast down steep hills was his top one. When snow and ice came he was on the slopes no matter what. Well, I'm Zonker! The world stops for me when I get sleet and/or snow. Which in the deep south isn't often... so you get my drift. My sleds are precious. One of them is a Flexi Flyer type but it is the long boy. I'm 6 foot and when I lie down on it my knees are supported... even my shins. At 30mph on Devils Dive at 3am, fortified out of your mind against the cold, you need to support your legs. You just do!
YOu just can't get a sled like that anymore, at least not in the deep south. The other I made a few years ago from an old water ski, a snow ski, some plywood and some 2x2's. It is fast as lightening on snow, and more so on ice, but I found a drawback when I got to use it two years ago. I discovered my steering mechanism hadn't been fully thought out as I was about to go up under a Winnabago. It is now corrected, I hope, but I have't gotten to try it out yet. Maybe this winter!!! Well, now the scene is set....
So, I got out to the arbor early this afternoon, with a couple of yogurt cups full of dopped opals and other goodies and find there has been a FIRE!! I had a 5 gal. bucket next to my chair. A 1x2 stuck out from under the door/table corner a few feet and I had a towel hanging from that to wipe the healing Aussie mud from my hands. The towel hung down to below the top of the 5 gal. bucket. The bucket had another towel on top of it, and on top of that was around 75 cabs... in plastic yogurt cups. Some were finished, some near done, some just started. All my best opals were there... all the ones I've posted. All of them....
The towels were both gone except for bits. The 1x2 the towel had hung on was mostly gone with a charred stump protuding from a badly heat scalded table/door top. The yogurt cups were disappeared! The 5 gal. bucket had melted and slumped around the top, and all my rocks and cabs were in a big congealed pile of melted plastic, and rayon towel. I found cabs several feet from the bucket so there must have been a pop from something... maybe a water holding rock? I don't know... but it is freaky/scary. There were scorch marks on the rafters and the underside of the tin roof 6 feet above the bucket. There is wood everwhere. The door/table top is just sawdust mixed with glue. The towel was touching the saw horse legs. The arbor is on a wooden cabnet. For a tin shed it has lots of inflamables in it. The rock gods must have been saving the opals when they chose not to burn the whole thing down!! Precious life saving opals!!!
Ok... here is the kicker and the reason for all this. On the corner of the door/table top, by where the towel hung, I have my magnifier light attached. Sunday afternoon was warmer than yesterday or today, so after the game I went out to do some grinding before dark. And... I turned the magnifier to face the south so as to catch the last bit of sun. Checked out the girdle I was working, got up, turned off the motor, uplugged the lights and walked off... just like I've done for several years now.
I see many of you have figured it out now... I saw it pretty quick. The sun going further south as it crosses the sky, the magnifier tilting toward the sun as it would be at high noon. The towel as the ignition fuel.. even though it was at least 2 1/2 feet from the glass, it was obviously at just the right distance to focus the sun on the towel... and as the sun stays within the frame of the opening for several hours there was plenty of time to catch the towel alight, and dang near burn the whole thing down!! Folks, I could have lost my sleds!! And all my rocks could have heat cracked when the fire dept. put the water on.
The magnifier lights are dangerous weapons! Beware, beware. Pay close attention to how you leave them when you walk away. In your house or in your shed. Watch out if they are near a window. As unlikely a senario as any you could make up, but it happened to me. Na, na, na, na...Na, na, na, na It's the Twilight Zone folks and it happened to ME!!!! Please save your selves and your precious sleds!! Pay attention the the mag. light. No joke!!!! Really, no joke. Tony
I've had some freaky things go on around me in my life... I just kind of accept that things are going to happen without me getting too messed up.. so I try to relax and enjoy the show. Like the tree I cut down the other day that was coming down of top of me when I looked up... rather than off out that way where the cable was pulling it. And the cable hung in a tree on the way down so the trunk swung 20 feet just off the ground, like a giant battering ram, but didn't get me... and the cable didn't break, cutting me in half... stuff like that. Wierd, freaky stuff... Tony did something really stupid that didn't end up killing him stuff So.... here goes the tale....
I have my arbor set up in one of two wing sheds that come off the main shed. All have open fronts. My chair and arbor are just a few feet in under the overhang by the openway which faces south. It is winter now so the sun tracks across the sky further to the south, so from around 11am 'til maybe 3 I have sun on my work space, but only because I am so nearly outside In winter I can still cab on cold days as long as the sun is hitting me the whole time to warm me up. It was 41 around noon today, but I could have cabbed as the sun was warming the area.
The shed houses all kinds of important things. The side with the arbor has my saws, a generator, all my rocks... from the first box I bought (from Jamie) to the last rock I've gotten (wood from Curt). I have my extra wheels and belts there. I have a big work bench down at the far end made from wood, and closer to my arbor I have a door on saw horses that has on it, a bunch... a big bunch of yogurt cups full of blanks, dopped blanks, finished cabs, half finished cabs, recent slabs, old slabs... stones of all sorts...probably precious only to me.. but important nonetheless.
The other side shed has wood and paint, and doors and such stacked up and leaning against the walls...projects to do, or to get back too, and important bits of wood I just can't throw yet Also, near the door is a 5 gallon bucket full of muriatic acid for cleaning rocks, and two 5 gal. plastic containers with $4.35 a gal. gas I got a few months back when I was sure we were going to 8 bucks a gal. and you couldn't get gas in Ga. anywhere at that time.... so I stocked up.
The middle bay is big enough for me to work on a car... but for now it is crammed full of chainsaws, and tillers, kilns and lawnmowers, and on and on, all needing work of some sort. And all my car tools.... each collected during uncountable trips to the pawn shop to get just the right socket at 50 cents a go. Junk to many but priceless to me ..... As it all works.. or will whenever I can get back to working on them.
And two things live in that shed that are priceless to me beyond measure. My sleds. Remember Zonker in Doonsbury? He had his priorites and sledding real fast down steep hills was his top one. When snow and ice came he was on the slopes no matter what. Well, I'm Zonker! The world stops for me when I get sleet and/or snow. Which in the deep south isn't often... so you get my drift. My sleds are precious. One of them is a Flexi Flyer type but it is the long boy. I'm 6 foot and when I lie down on it my knees are supported... even my shins. At 30mph on Devils Dive at 3am, fortified out of your mind against the cold, you need to support your legs. You just do!
YOu just can't get a sled like that anymore, at least not in the deep south. The other I made a few years ago from an old water ski, a snow ski, some plywood and some 2x2's. It is fast as lightening on snow, and more so on ice, but I found a drawback when I got to use it two years ago. I discovered my steering mechanism hadn't been fully thought out as I was about to go up under a Winnabago. It is now corrected, I hope, but I have't gotten to try it out yet. Maybe this winter!!! Well, now the scene is set....
So, I got out to the arbor early this afternoon, with a couple of yogurt cups full of dopped opals and other goodies and find there has been a FIRE!! I had a 5 gal. bucket next to my chair. A 1x2 stuck out from under the door/table corner a few feet and I had a towel hanging from that to wipe the healing Aussie mud from my hands. The towel hung down to below the top of the 5 gal. bucket. The bucket had another towel on top of it, and on top of that was around 75 cabs... in plastic yogurt cups. Some were finished, some near done, some just started. All my best opals were there... all the ones I've posted. All of them....
The towels were both gone except for bits. The 1x2 the towel had hung on was mostly gone with a charred stump protuding from a badly heat scalded table/door top. The yogurt cups were disappeared! The 5 gal. bucket had melted and slumped around the top, and all my rocks and cabs were in a big congealed pile of melted plastic, and rayon towel. I found cabs several feet from the bucket so there must have been a pop from something... maybe a water holding rock? I don't know... but it is freaky/scary. There were scorch marks on the rafters and the underside of the tin roof 6 feet above the bucket. There is wood everwhere. The door/table top is just sawdust mixed with glue. The towel was touching the saw horse legs. The arbor is on a wooden cabnet. For a tin shed it has lots of inflamables in it. The rock gods must have been saving the opals when they chose not to burn the whole thing down!! Precious life saving opals!!!
Ok... here is the kicker and the reason for all this. On the corner of the door/table top, by where the towel hung, I have my magnifier light attached. Sunday afternoon was warmer than yesterday or today, so after the game I went out to do some grinding before dark. And... I turned the magnifier to face the south so as to catch the last bit of sun. Checked out the girdle I was working, got up, turned off the motor, uplugged the lights and walked off... just like I've done for several years now.
I see many of you have figured it out now... I saw it pretty quick. The sun going further south as it crosses the sky, the magnifier tilting toward the sun as it would be at high noon. The towel as the ignition fuel.. even though it was at least 2 1/2 feet from the glass, it was obviously at just the right distance to focus the sun on the towel... and as the sun stays within the frame of the opening for several hours there was plenty of time to catch the towel alight, and dang near burn the whole thing down!! Folks, I could have lost my sleds!! And all my rocks could have heat cracked when the fire dept. put the water on.
The magnifier lights are dangerous weapons! Beware, beware. Pay close attention to how you leave them when you walk away. In your house or in your shed. Watch out if they are near a window. As unlikely a senario as any you could make up, but it happened to me. Na, na, na, na...Na, na, na, na It's the Twilight Zone folks and it happened to ME!!!! Please save your selves and your precious sleds!! Pay attention the the mag. light. No joke!!!! Really, no joke. Tony