It's a Bird, It's a Plane...Nope...It's a tire!!

The construction field puts us in some pretty precarious positions sometimes.....

I have been in this business long enough to have seen many dangerous situations that arise from neglect or just plain and simple stupidity. Before I owned my own business....going on 26 years...I worked for a few other contractors, including my Dad.

My Dad was notorious for using equipment that really wouldn't meet today's safety standards. 

There were plenty of times that being on one of his scaffolds was not only a miracle of engineering, but it was also a challenge for every person on them not to soil their pants....except my Dad, who would call us "names" if we complained (while trying to keep our balance). I must admit that he was a very resourceful man. He would be able to build a scaffold with pallets and two by fours. I have not only seen these works of wonder go down, but I have been on a couple. It got to be a "normal" thing around there.

This is a monster fork lift!

One time he had purchased a very big construction site fork loader. It was a really beautiful machine, that could carry literally tons of material up to the highest sections of the scaffold. The machine was in great condition when he first bought it, but after about a years worth of use, and not too much upkeep, the brakes


were starting to go. It must have looked like a comedy show, because every time someone would approach the scaffold with the forklift, ALL the men on the scaffold would stop work and hang onto the wall or a window for dear life. That was until one day the forklift didn't stop, and smashed into the scaffold. Luckily no one was hurt, but the crew wholeheartedly agreed that no one was going to work on the scaffold until my Dad got the machine back in safe working condition.

He had plenty of equipment that was in need of dire repair.

The Orion P3...I was in VP 27...the Batmen

!

This one incident happened while I was working for him, as an adult. I was just out of the Navy, and I was determined to get a job that had pertained to my training, which was an aviation electrician. I worked on the guidance systems of the Orion P3, sort of like the commercial DC 10. I tried a few of the airports in the area, but during that period of time we were in a pretty bad recession, and I kept hearing...."Maybe in a year or two kid" So in the meantime I worked for my Dad, and he repeatedly reminded me how lucky I was to have a job, and I admit that he was right. I guess he wanted me to feel important so he took me aside one day and told me he was going to be giving me my own crew!


Sadly for me the crew included a pickup truck that was branded "the death trap" by anyone who ever drove it, because if you let go of the steering wheel, even for a second, it would automatically make a U turn. And I was the laborer for two masons.....realistically, not "my own" crew.....but I had a job. The cement mixer we used was also a death trap. first off, it was way oversized for our needs, as a matter of fact I remember one time I was "dumping" a batch of cement into the large holding tub, and one of the paddles inside the machine got a rock stuck between itself and the barrel. When this happens the best advice is to let go, and fast! Because the first time this happened I didn't let go, and the barrel flew back to the upright position and took me with it and smashed me into the sand pile. This same machine was run into by one of my Dad's helpers who was backing up one of the trucks, and ran into one of the wheels on the mixer. This bent the axle on the cement mixer and it was a site when that machine was being towed on the job site form one lot to another. The wheel would sway back and forth, and we would place bets that the wheel would fall off before we got to the next lot.....it never did.


One summer day my Dad pulled up on this particular jobsite because he had purchased a brand spankin new cement mixer!  I was like a little kid, because I knew that somehow that old monster of a machine was gonna kill me someday, and now it was finally being retired!!. My Dad told my Uncle to take the old machine back to the shop, and he was VERY clear telling him to

"Take it slow Paul, I don't care how long it takes. I'll pay you for the ride. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!"
The ride from that job to the shop was normally about a forty five minute drive, and with the crippled machine in tow, my Dad figured it would take us around two hours, which was why he let us go around two thirty.

So, we got into the "Death Trap" towing the other death trap and started our journey home. Right before we left, my Dad reminded Uncle Paul again "Please Paul, don't go over 25 miles an hour, and Dominick, keep an eye on the machine" We both assured him that we would obey his wishes and headed down the highway.

The first half hour went well, as the windows were open and we were listening to the radio.

 I could see the speedometer from where I was sitting and I would glance over every once in a while just to "see". I would occasionally look back at the crippled machine that seemed that it was not happy being pulled, as it was bouncing, and not rolling down the highway.


Then Uncle Paul opens up his lunch pail and pulled out a "funny cigarette", lit it up and smoked the whole thing! I'm not going to say that this didn't affect me, because all of a sudden the music sounded really good, and the cement mixer was the last thing on my mind. We were both singing a song that was on the radio, I think it was "Let it Be" by the Beatles, which was when I realized that the wind in the cabin of the truck was more like a wind tunnel than the light breeze that we were getting while driving at 25 miles an hour. I looked over at the speedometer, and saw that Uncle had hit the 55 mark!......I said to him..
"HEY, you better slow down, you're doing 55!" I looked back at the machine and it was in the air more than it was on the highway...I said to him, "Uncle Paul, you better slow down, that machine is gonna flip!" He looked over at me in his cool dark sunglasses and said "F that....it isn't going anywhere. I want to get home early today and take Aunt Fran out for dinner" I knew I couldn't argue with him, although I tried but he turned up the radio to drown me out.


So now were doing 55 mph, the machine is bouncing uncontrollably, the wind is howling in the cab of the truck, and Uncle Paul was singing "Low Rider" at the top of his lungs. I became a bit paranoid, slumped down into the seat, and looked at the machine from the trucks back up mirror. This went on for about ten minutes......THEN...........

There was a LOUD bang!....The machine spun around two times (like an alligator does when eating it's prey) with pieces of itself flying all over the highway, and in a "I told you so" tone, I yelled at my Uncle "Oh shit, my Dad is gonna kill you!" As I was saying these words, and my Uncle was slamming on the brakes, I see the tire of the cement mixer, which is about the size of the tires on today's small cars, FLY past my window!!

Rollin down the highway....

This whole episode was running in slow motion....

As we stopped, somewhat due to the machine digging a trench in the middle of the highway like an anchor, we watched in amazement as the tire flew through the air, and as luck would have it, there was a young man sitting on the curb next to his ten-speed bicycle. I yelled for him to move, but I'm sure he didn't hear me. Luckily he was aware of what was happening, because he jumped up and started to run. Then BANG.....the tire hit the curb, exactly where that guy was sitting...Bounced back towards the highway, and hit a car, which totally smashed the passenger door and caused him to slam on his brakes, and then SMASH...another car slammed into the rear of the car that got hit with the tire!


We sat there in total disbelief, and I'm pretty sure my Uncle was praying, because I know that I would be. With all that was going on all around us, I noticed that the tire was still rolling down the highway like it was determined to make it back to the shop with or without us! Within minutes the police arrived, and we had the whole highway shut down and blocked off. That was kind of a good thing because my Dad was a few miles behind us and got detoured onto another road and he had no idea what had happened until he got home, because the police were there to tell him of the day's events.

Here lies the tire....BUT WHERE??!!

Needless to say, Uncle Paul did not take Aunt Fran out to dinner that night, and my Dad freaked out at me for not controlling the situation. And he swore that we were going to pay for all of the damage. Uncle Paul stood by his "I swear....I was only doing 25 mph!" story, but that story got shot down by the owner of the car that got hit by the tire. My Dad got a bill from the state to repair the gash in the middle of the highway, and it took them something like three weeks to repair it....and one final thing....we NEVER found that tire...and we did look for it!

    TIP OF THE DAY:

MIXING CEMENT:

This is good mortar..I use it in a pinch!

In this economy, I find that many people are trying to do their own home improvements. After all, with all of the DYI home improvement shows, who can blame them?

The problem is.....it may look easy, but unless you do these things often enough you could end up making more of a mess than you might think. 

I've seen the PBS NOVA show on how to repair a bad knee.....I've seen that one about five times....I think I can do it, but in reality, no one has agreed to let me try on them.

So, I'm going to help you on how to mix cement. The best and easiest way is to purchase the pre-mixed kind that you can find at your local home improvement center.

Put the desired amount in a wheelbarrow, or a mortar tub, add water a little at a time making sure that you keep the dry material on one end, and slowly bring the dry mix into the water with a hoe, or shovel.  Add the water, a little at a time as need to get the consistency of a thick pudding.  Mix only what you can use in a twenty-minute period, as it will begin to harden and ultimately be weak. 

On the other hand you  could rent a cement mixer,...... just make sure that the tires are in good shape!

See you next time......from beyond.........