I have mentioned how I didn’t like to get away from solid footing.  That’s me.  Some people are regular daredevils.

On one job we had set some metal poles that were quite tall.  The poles were engineered to telescope together in pieces, placed on top of one another to reach the required height.  You may have noticed quite a few of them recently.

On the job I was on we had used a bucket truck to set some of the first, lower, sections, but as we got higher the bucket truck no longer sufficed and a crane had to be used to lift more sections up.  A man was required to go up the pole on pre-installed pegs to help guide the next section in and fasten it in place.

One of the boys I worked with would scamper up these poles like he was right at home.  He would climb to the very top and stand there looking around the countryside.  One time he announced; “I can see your house from here, Adrian.”  It was about 5 miles away.  Just to say he did it, he then went over the top and came down the other side.

Iron workers that work in tall buildings are another group I would call daredevils.  Iron workers will go up the framework of a structure as they are assembling it.  I have wondered if they have a death wish.

Another group of daredevils that I met on one of our jobs was a crew of Native Americans that would assemble T.V. antenna structures.  When they put together the structure on the outskirts of the town I was living in, the tower was quite large.

The tower was so large that a temporary lift was installed on the inside of the framework.  When the lift could go no higher, this crew would get out and climb up the legs of the tower to do their work.  The tower was supported by guy wires running from the upper reaches of the tower to the ground, and they were periodically checked for proper tension.

To do our electrical end of the job, we would carry the light fixtures, conduit and wire to the top of the structure and work our way down.  We installed one light fixture at the top and added to that on our way down at regular intervals.

Maintenance of the light fixtures and bulbs as well as the inspection of the guy wires required someone to go up and come down this tall tower regularly.  The crew that installed the tower solved part of that requirement by attaching a small hand cart with a breaking system to a guy wire and then zip down the guy wire to the ground.

The descent could be described as “rapid.”  Sometimes the breaking only occurred at the very end of the ride.

After finishing the job I was on, the tower crew moved south to another town to install another tower.  During the construction of that tower, the tower tipped over and killed everyone on the crew including the man on the truck.

You gain a lot of respect for men like that.

And it’s why I try to stay as close to the ground as possible.

Rich or Poor

I remember meeting many interesting individuals in my years as an electrician.  One gentleman I knew owned a delicatessen across the street from the Post Office in Havre, Montana.  He attracted a great many customers because of his food.

His commercial advantage was due to the fact that he owned several feed lots around the town and could fatten up his meat stock before butchering it for his own deli.  He also had some large ovens for making his own pastries.

I was frequently called down to the deli for maintenance work and to add wiring for additional appliances.

The deli had a high ceiling and frequently I would work over the heads of the staff.  One day I was working on a light fixture on the high ceiling.  The fixture was about 4 feet long and had some of the early fluorescent light tubes as bulbs.  The tube in this particular fixture was almost 2 inches in diameter.

Below me was one of the deli employees, a young girl, either putting something into, or taking something out of, one of the ovens.  At that point I accidentally dropped the fluorescent bulb I was working with.  It landed flat on the floor, right beside the young lady, … and exploded.

The sound was akin to a bomb going off.

The young lady moved like she had been shot.  I’m amazed she didn’t have a heart attack or faint.  Today something like that would get you sued.  As she took time to recover I apologized profusely while I cleaned up the mess.

Some time later I noticed that the deli was no longer in business.  I was worried that I might have been responsible in some way.

After time had passed I was sent to do wiring on a house in the midst of a remodel.  When I arrived I saw that it was owned by the man that had operated the deli.  The carpenter on the job was talking to the home owner and we found out that the home owner, who had owned the deli, had inherited a large fortune.  He had sold his deli and feed lots and retired.

The carpenter inquired of him how it felt to have all the money you want.  The reply from the home owner was that; “It had taken all of the fun out of life.”

He told us that before, when he had wanted to buy something, he saved in anticipation of the purchase.  Then when he finally had the money, he would go buy it.  Now when he wanted something he just went and bought it.

As he put it, it was ‘like buying a box of rocks.”

I thought to myself “how observant.”  The Bible tells us “Untruth and the lying word put far away from me.  Give me neither poverty nor riches.  Let me devour the food prescribed for me, that I man not become satisfied and actually deny you and say ‘Who is Jehovah?’ and that I may not come to poverty and I actually steal and assail the name of my God.” – Prov. 30:8

When I started my own company, that scripture was posted on a wall in our office.

As long as I am still in contact with the earth, I don’t mind airplane rides.  Because of various forms of necessity, I have had to learn to use airplanes as an optional means of transportation.

When I was a youngster if we heard an airplane overhead, everyone ran outside to look at it.  It was a rare occurrence.

The first electrician I worked for loved to fly.  He said he never felt good until he was up in the air.  Many mornings before he went to work he took his brother’s plane and flew around a bit.  One morning he offered to take me for a ride.  It was my first experience up in the air.

(To me it is a feeling similar to climbing a pole or ladder or being in a lift.  I am apprehensive all the while I’m up there.  But I swallow my fear and get the work done.  It is such a relief when I get back down on the ground.)

I asked my pilot boss what it feels like when there is rough weather.  (If you have a tendency towards air sickness this is a question best asked while on the ground.)  He said; “Like this.”  He then proceeded to make up and down waves, with the plane, in the air, while flying,  that resembled sine waves.

(For the sake of description, a sine wave depiction is used when drawing a representation of sound waves.  Now visualize the plane you are in performing a maneuver that looks like that.)

About the second time he finished his second “wave” I told him; “That’s enough!  I get it!  You can stop now!”

The next time I was airborne, I was working for a contractor with jobs all over eastern Montana.  Each of us electricians had a pick-up with radio communication.  One day I got a call saying there was a problem where I was needed about 40 miles away.  I was told to pull off onto an approach, grab my tools and I would be picked up by the company pilot.

The pilot landed on the gravel road and taxied over to my pick-up.  I got in and he took off.  This guy was an excellent pilot.  He had flown a fighter plane in W.W. II.  I think he could have landed on a rock pile.  I was completely relaxed while he was flying.  He was like an expert driver driving a wheeled vehicle down a well maintained road.

When we got to the job he landed in a cow pasture.  Our foreman came while I was working on the job so the pilot took off.  The foreman would get me back to my pick-up.

As the pilot left the pasture I watched him go.  He had to get enough lift to clear a fence at the end of the pasture.  As he flew away I called him on the radio.  I told him; “You had lots of room.  You cleared that fence by at least a foot.”

That was not my last airplane ride.