So - I've been doing some work on my truck to get it ready for plowing this
winter. It's a '94 Silverado that only plows snow and makes dump runs these
days, with an occasional trip to Home Depot. The frame rails have been
rotting through and the truck has taken on that characteristic
bent-in-the-middle look of Silverado's of this vintage.

No problem for a crafty guy like me - I takes the box off and set it on some
sawhorses outside, and park the truck in my car bay in the garage.
Passenger side went fairly well, with the exception of closer inspection
revealing much more extensive rot than I first anticipated, all along the
frame rails. But - some angle iron, some welding, some new hardened bolts,
some sweat and stink, and that side was shored up enough to at least get
through the winter.

On to the driver's side today. Smoking a cigarette and drinking a cup of
coffee in my bathrobe this morning, I was happy to see that the driver's
side was in better shape than the passenger's side was. Not much better,
but enough so to halve the amount of work I'd have to do. Man - it really
feels like a scene out of a John Belushi movie to stand in your garage in
your bathrobe, smoking a cigarette and drinking a cup of coffee. Oh what
the hell - step out on the front lawn, take a pee, and back into the garage
to plan the day's work.

Off I go to get a shower, jump into my dirty shorts and a shirt I didn't
care if it got welding holes burned in it, and I was ready to get this
crappy job done.

I grabs my grinder and stretch out comfortably on my creeper (hahaha...) and
roll under the truck to start grinding off the rust to get a weld-able
surface. Now... I've never been one to put on gloves when I use my grinder.
Face shield - yes, Gloves? Hell no. Well... there's some stuff I have to
navigate around on this side of the truck - brake lines, fuel lines,
electrical wires - that kind of stuff. So, there's a bit of re-positioning
that takes place in this operation. Twist the grinder this way, that way,
the other way, and all the while hope you don't get into one of those
previously mentioned items.

Yup- somehow during one of those twists or re-positioning things the grinder
hit the frame unexpectedly. Now let me tell you - when I use a grinder, I
have a real man's hold on that tool. I'm not the least bit afraid of a
grinder, but I know very well what they can do. So - no short cuts on my
end - I've got a real man's grip on that tool - right until it winds down
when I shut it off. Except... sometimes - apparently. In the blink of an
eye - or maybe less... that sucker came flying back in the wrong direction.
Wrong being defined as the direction in which I was laying in an awkward
position. I've got both hands on this sucker and somehow it found a way to
twist, and drive itself right into the end of my right thumb. Not along
side of the wheel - straight in as if I were trying to grind a channel from
the tip of my thumb, right up through my thumbnail - which I did.

Can I tell you that this episode both ****ed me off and kinda ruined my
morning? And of course it required that I confess my stupid stunt of the
day in the same way my peers here do.

I did give it all of the appropriate medical attention. Got a clean napkin,
rinsed it under some cold water, twisted that napkin on there real tight,
smoked some more cigarettes and paced around my garage like I was still in
my bathrobe. All of the right stuff.

Sometimes this stuff just jumps out at ya from where you don't even expect
it. Gloves - you bet. From now on. Just as soon as I can get a glove on
my right hand.

Nope - this don't have a damned thing to do with woodworking....

--

-Mike-