I almost died tonight…Please be careful guys…
I almost died tonight…Please be careful guys…
I’m still shaking as I write this from the after effects of electrocution. I can only type with one hand as my other is wrapped in paper towels to slow the bleeding.
I was in checking my little guys and decided to lower the reflector as I thought the little guys could now handle a little more light. I steeped up on my large wooden planter and braced myself with one hand against the ceiling. I reached out with my other hand to grasp the chain that was supporting the reflector from a hook in the ceiling…
It is the worst feeling. You can actually feel the 60Hz, your body actually vibrates at the AC frequency. Everything tenses up, you can’t breath, and Lord only knows what happened to your heart. You can’t let go, you can’t move. Hell I don’t even remember seeing anything. The hot lead to the light must have shorted to the reflector and had energized it to 500V AC. The electricity was flowing from the reflector threw my hand down my body and out my bare foot that was now in the large planter (that had moist soil). I remember falling backwards and landing on the floor. There was blood everywhere, all over my sweater, jogging pants, feet. I looked down at my hand that was covered in blood and the pool forming below it. The flesh wound didn’t bother me nearly as bad as how close to death I was. You could actually follow the trail of blood to the bathroom where I washed my hands and wrapped them in paper towels to slow the bleeding. I don’t know what I sliced my hand open on? The reflector I guess? It looks to be only a 3 cuts 1-3” in length that are fairly shallow. Thank God there is no entry and exit burns.
After cleaning up the bloody mess. I laid down on the couch for a while after taking a few puffs to calm my nerves. What a way to go? Damn it guys this is not how I want to go!… I got a flash back from when I was younger.
I had a small patch of plant up in the mountains. They were doing fairly well and it was a beautiful summer afternoon. And I had taken a break from my watering to enjoy the great outdoors…when all of a sudden I heard something coming through the bushes towards me. What ever it was it was large, bigger then any damn deer. It would move fairly fast and then stop. And then this large bear came into the clearing where I was tending my crop. The bear didn’t seem that interested in me and was just sniffing my sweaty shirt that I taken off and the tree I had taken a piss on earlier. I stood up as high as I could and started talked, loader and loader to try to scare the bear away. Only a few feet away from me the bear didn’t seem that interested in me or my load preying that she would go away. It finally did leave but not for some time. I stayed in that clearing until after dark before I decided to venture back to the car. But what would have happened if I had gotten in a scuffle with the bear? I don’t think it would have killed me, but it would probable mauled me fairly bad, and I was far enough in the bush that I’m not sure I would have been able to make it back to the car. And of coarse no-one new where I was. Earlier when I was staring at the bear that was staring at me I remember thinking to myself. ‘This is not how I want to go…Bleeding to death after a scuffle in the middle of my crop in the middle of nowhere, with no one even knowing where I was’.
Just be careful guys. Don’t get complacent as I had tonight. Please have respect for electricity, there is a lot of things we all do here while working on our little endevers that can be very dangerous if not respected. Water & Electricity is a bad combo.
Please don’t get complacent as I had tonight…
Peace