Somehow when I hear a certain distinctive sound in Craig's voice as he yells out "Merikay", I know it means a bandaid or a trip to the ER.
This time it was a trip to the ER because he had cut his arm with our power cutoff saw as he was cutting new baseboard pieces for the bathroom.
He yelled, I responded and met him in the bathroom to apply a pressure bandage. I grabbed my purse and keys and we were off.
When we got to the top of our road we had a brief discussion as to whether to go to the urgent care center in Scotts Valley or the ER in Los Gatos. I had not really seen the extent of the cut, but it was a power tool and it was his wrist, so I opted for the ER.
I dropped him off at the door and parked the car. By the time I got in they had already triaged him into the inner sanctum rather than the outer waiting room. He was quickly seen by a physician's assistant who seemed to cringe at the words "power saw" but after looking at the cut, told us Craig was very lucky. It didn't look deep, and by the way "could he still move all of his fingers?"
The bleeding had stopped, so we were then sent out to wait. And wait. And wait.
I'm pretty cool about such waits. After all, it wasn't my arm. However, Craig got a bit grumpy. The PA walked by and Craig said "you were wrong". The PA asked what he meant and Craig replied "I'm not lucky. We came here!" The PA made a face and went away.
Finally, Craig was called to be stitched up, and I got a good look at the cut. It wasn't too deep. He was indeed very lucky.
I sure will be glad when this house fix-up is finished.
I think everyone loves to get new tools. Men seem to really like them if they are bigger and more powerful!
After working with his old, smaller belt sander. Craig decided he needed a new bigger one to sand the 28 steps involved in the deck refinishing project.
He bought a 4 X 24-inch Variable Speed Craftsman belt sander at Sears. He has not had a chance to use it on the steps yet, but he did try it out on the top board of the railings.
More Power!
[From Craig] This new belt sander is one of the finest tools I've used. It includes a speed control that keeps the belt speed constant, regardless of how hard or how lightly it's pressed onto the work. Its 11 HP motor enables such pressure-independent speed control, and at 8.8 pounds it's much lighter than Makita's competing 11 HP sander (16.6 lbs). The speed with which it handled today's work on the top boards of deck railings was very satisfying! (Just don't let it near your clothing! See below :-)
But then he got in trouble! I had just walked up to him as he was working, when he suddenly started shouting: "Turn it off! Turn it off!" As far as I could see, nothing was on, and then I realized the sander had stopped and was jammed in some way. I grabbed the cord and unplugged it.
He was lucky this time. It only got his jeans.
I don't think Sears will want this picture for an ad campaign.
He took his pants off and tried to get them out of the sander without damaging it. He had to take it apart a bit and use pliers to get the jeans out.
The sander is fine, Craig is fine, but the jeans are beyond repair.
Craig has had other power tool accidents in the past. He cut his leg with a chain saw, his finger with a table saw, and scuffed his knee with his disc sander. Three trips to the ER in almost fifty years is not bad.
I'm very glad he was not hurt this time, and that we can laugh about it. As I took the pictures above, he said: "I sense a blog post coming." He was right.
Accidents: I almost always cut myself with a new knife or after one is sharpened. I have burned myself more times than I can count both in the kitchen and with hot glue in the studio. I bought an electric scissors once and it cut more than the fabric I was working with.
What about you?
