Now folks, I do not consider myself accident prone. But over the years there has been more than once incident where I have had to question this. There were times, that that precious life- giving fluid just seemed to stream out at will.  It didn’t really bother me too much, but sure did excite others that noticed the color.  One time, I was cutting up logs for Morton’s Logging and I went to walk over the log pile. The yard was up on a banking and one had to climb down to get more gas or help the crane load a truck. I stepped on one log and went a flying. The chain saw was not running and that went also. Just before the chain saw left my hand, it decided to take a small bite out of my neck. Now, as everyone knows, that is not a good place to be messing with. Especially with a chainsaw. The saw hit me just under the chin and made three small bites. Well, it wasn’t long before everyone in the area became a bit excited. I guess they didn’t like all that red color. I grabbed a cloth and pressed it against the bites and they quickly shoved me into a truck. I was taken to the local doctors and ya know, I did not have to sit and wait. The doctor took me right in quickly. I guess he didn’t want me to sit and have the other people look at all that red either. All was well though, just three small bites in the neck.

The next time people became concerned about my well being was years later. I had just made arrangements to purchase a house. I was in the process of jacking the middle of the floor back into place.  I really like those tall screw jacks. All one has to do is pull on the steel bar and you could lift things into place very quickly. The middle beam of the floor was almost in place. I just needed another ¼ of an inch and I would be happy with it. Things were going kinda hard though. I noticed that I was picking up other parts of the house also. But I was determined to put this section just exactly where I wanted it. With one final full strength pull I yanked on the steel bar and the jack turned. The bar slipped and proceeded to hit me right in the bridge of the nose. I said a few choice words as that precious red started flowing. I went into the house to survey the damage and started laughing. When I cleaned the area, every time the heart beat the color spurted out. I just had to show it to others. For some reason, they were not impressed and called me a few names. Oh well, I fixed the problem with a couple small pieces of tape and went back to work.

Another time, I was working on a pipe for a friend. The pipe was just not going into place as it should. It was almost in place. All it needed now was just a small thump. It had begun to rain, and I was standing under the overhang. Now, I have to tell ya, this is not the place to tarry long if one is working. Maybe, just maybe if I thump it with my hand, it will be fixed. I guess I thumped it a bit too hard. The pipe went flying sideways and along with it was my thumping hand. As my thumb went by the steel clamp, they exchanged greetings. I guess the clamp wanted to see just what a bone looked like. Great, it was raining, the pipe was not in place and the thumb was spewing forth that red color. The red color was joining with the rain and running down my arm and making a mess. Fine, just fine, but I wanted to finish this small task and go home. I went to wrap the thumb with paper towels and duct tape so that I could finish the job. When my daughter came by, she started laughing. One would have thought I cut something major. Here she was just laughing at me. I showed her the thumb and brought attention to the bone just before I put the duct tape and paper towel on. We went back to finish putting that pipe in place. It’s a good thing it was raining, because that began to clean up the mess I had made. We finally put things in place and left to fix my thumb and get some dry clothes. No doctor was needed, just more duct tape.

There was a time, that I did need to go to the doctors, and I was a bit embarrassed to tell him what I had done. I was cutting an area behind Dodge pond on IP land. It had begun to rain just a bit and that made things a bit slippery.  I stepped on a tree to move to the other side and slipped. Upon hitting the tree, I sat on something I shouldn’t have. I had driven a small stub into my leg just below the buns. Well now, this was handy.  My feet were just about touching the ground. I had to somehow wiggle to lift myself off that stub. I finished hooking things to the skidder and went out to the yard. Because there were three of us working in the same area, we used only one vehicle. I went and informed the others I really should go see the doctor and get the puncture taken care of. Of course, I had to tell them just where I had stuck the stub.  They made plenty of comments about me and a stick that should not be repeated. Yes, and then they all laughed. We all got into the truck and came back into town. Now, I am not sure which was worse, the comments the others were making or the wound in my leg. They delivered me the doctors and I then had to explain to him just what I had done. He giggled a little bit and made some comment about the location of the puncture wound. This is how it often goes in Rangeley folks. Anyone who has lived in Rangeley long enough has to take a turn on the barrel. All of the other locals get to make snide comments about how things were in your life. These comments were all made in jest because they all know it will be their turn one day.

Have a fine day now… it may be your turn tomorrow.


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