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ambergris's avatar

Men who work hands on in the energy sector are something else. Roughnecks, linemen (power not fancy phone), and power plant staff need a bit of boldness. Crazy respect.

The bad asses trimming trees branches away from high power transmission lines while hanging from a helicopter are wild.

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Cluis's avatar

My mom's boyfriend back in the day was a lineman for AT&T and his nickname was "Cable Cutter". Guy had forearms that like they were made of wire rope. Granted he was from Iowa, so that might have more to do with it than his job. Anyways. I got uppity when I was in my senior year in highschool (as one does) and thought I was stronk cause I lifted some weights. We were out doing a siding job and I made the usual "old man" comment cause his back was always somewhat iffy and he walked funny. He made some remark about "one day it will be me". I nah and flashed my bicep at him. He laughed, walked over to me and said "lets see". I flexed again and he put his hand around my arm and squeezed. I immediately had pins and needles in my fingers, and a bruise showed up by the end of the day. He did it so casually that I think I finally understood the whole "old man strength" thing. So like, I guess I learned a lesson there.

I have never wanted to be anywhere near electricity. Those powerlines are terrifying the way they buzz and what not. Those angry pixies in the line are most angry out there in the woodline up on those towers, so that is a hard pass from me. :D

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ambergris's avatar

Haha Cable Cutter was doing pullups all day long when working on lines. You got off light.

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Cluis's avatar

Its funny cause prolly a year prior he had once picked me up off the ground by my wrists to lift me up on an overhang that was about 3 feet below him. It never had occurred to me how strong you have to be to do something like that with a 150lb person. Old man strength is real for sure :D

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Tardigrade's avatar

Safety Man slumping over: when I first saw that one, I thought they were warning us against the dangers of yoga.

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Cluis's avatar

"Downward facing dog hazard area, caution advised, namaste"

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Boring Rocks for Nerds 🍪's avatar

Our cases of a pneumatic coil nails used to come with a drawing of a guy driving a nail into the top of someone’s skull, with a big line drawn through to indicate that you should not do that. I wish I had taken a picture of it

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Cluis's avatar

My memory is so bad but there were so many from the military I was CERTAIN existed, but I could find no evidence for. Like I remember one of a guy eating a brick of C-4. I looked everywhere and could not find it. If the maxim holds true there is a horrible incident behind that warning label. To be clear, having done my fair share of roofing back in the day, I find it HIGHLY likely that drawing had a real world correlate. :D I have accidentally nailed myself before, but it would surprise me not one bit that someone did it on purpose.

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Boring Rocks for Nerds 🍪's avatar

You can’t call yourself a carpenter until you’ve shot a 3-1/4” nail through some part of your body. Apparently knees are a very popular choice, people walk around with their finger on the trigger and then when they step up onto a ladder or something the gun go bang

I’ve been lucky, a few fingertips and one hand piercing, no lasting damage

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Cluis's avatar

Lol holy shit, I did just that. I was nailing down some decking on a roof and there was a rather stubborn sheet. I put my boot down on the corner of it to force it to flush. I was "careful" not to shoot the nail directly into my foot, so I butted the guard up to the side of my boot. Well, apparently the thing keeping the sheet from being flush was another nail in the rafter under the decking. The framing nail went in to the board, hit that nail perfectly, and curled up through the sole of my boot. I had to claw my boot off the roof. It didn't hurt, but about 10 mins later I started feeling woozey, so I got off the roof. Got to the truck sat down and took off my boot. My entire sock was soaked with blood :D. Man FUCK roofin.

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Boring Rocks for Nerds 🍪's avatar

I’ve never met an old roofer, it’s probably not a great lifelong career choice. Utterly debilitating in so many different ways

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Cluis's avatar

Facts. Roofing is a self cleaning oven, that is why I got on the computer in the first place. I like walking upright.

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Maenad's avatar

I see a warning on opening umbrellas indoors.

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Cluis's avatar

In my research I came across this from an Austrailian group that had some good chuckles in it: https://i.imgur.com/4oBr6v8.png

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Maenad's avatar

This would be a spectacular stand up piece. Hilarious.

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Cluis's avatar

It's all yours if that is something you do. :D

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WitchPHD's avatar

I would always ask management if they had a book that would actually explain all of the pictograms, alas none exist. We thought it would be fun to give it the newbies and then quizz them later. My favorite is the guy going through the woodchipper head first, it looked awfully painful.

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Cluis's avatar

Its funny cause OSHA does have an index, but as is expected people deviate and add their own spin to it. The standard ones like corrosion, fire, biohazard, nuclear are pretty clear, but when you start dealing with machinery its just a horror show. I had seen one for a paper machine that showed someone getting scalped by their hair, but couldn't find it for the post. Shit is out of pocket :D

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Ginger Cook (GC)'s avatar

You got me with, Rating: Loretta Lynn

Great piece, man

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