To Whom It May Concern

Giving The Machine The Finger!!!

At work we have a large machine that is basically a hydraulic press with a steel frame built around it, like a box, called a cardboard press, which puts out bails of cardboard. We call it simply the "bailer" for short.

On the front of the bailer is a door that you normally shut when you fill it full of cardboard boxes, so you can press it. This door has two 40 lb weights as counterbalances, each connected to a chain that runs over a sprocket. Now, a lot of the time we basically break the rules and leave it open, and sometimes, a piece of cardboard will catch on the bottom of the open door and lift it up higher than it's supposed to go and knock one of the counterbalance chains off it's sprocket.

When this happens, I'm the one who ends up fixing it, because our assistant manager is a chode, he's supposed to be the maintenance guy but he's about as useful as a fork to eat cereal with. All I need to repair the door is a large screwdriver, which I wedge underneath of the chain, lift it up, use my other hand to position the chain on the sprocket, then slide the screwdriver out letting the counterweight pull the chain up and over the sprocket where it belongs.

Well, because I am so infinitely wise, I figured I could repairing this problem a couple of days ago without using the screwdriver. Everything went as to plan at first, I got the chain pulled up, using my hand to hold up the end with the weight on it, and my other hand instead of a screwdriver to align the chain to the sprocket, but as I went to slowly release the weight it slid in my hand, and the chain pinched the glove on my other hand and pulled my middle finger up and through between the chain and the sprocket.

Uhm, OUCH!! *hopping on one foot*

I jumped down (you are about 8 feet in the air when you are repairing this thing) and it didn't seem too bad, but then the shock sort of wore off, and as I was trying to tug that glove off, the pain started in like a large nail being pounded into my finger. I got the glove off and blood was squirting from the end of my finger, I just wrapped it into my shirt and sort of doubled over, I was sort of in that semi coherent state of "arggggggh, how bad is this going to be" and trying to fight crying out from the pain.

Of course my dingleberry assistant manager is out of the office asking "what's wrong, what happened?" and of course I can't answer because it hurts too much to talk. After about 2 minutes I pulled my finger out of my shirt where I had been squeezing the hell out of it, and saw the damage. As it ran through the sprocket, a tooth punched right through the middle of the nail, and that is where blood was now slowly oozing from. The nail was cracked near the edge where another tooth had clipped it. All in all, painful, but lucky even so. had it caught my hand further in it could have broken the finger or worse, might have lost my insulting digit!!

So here I sit with a blackened fingernail. It won't build up pressure because of the hole already busted through the nail, so that part is good, no need to have to drill a hole for relief. The nail is going to be about half dead though, so it's likely I won't lose the nail completely. Anyways, a really bone headed move on my part, I tried to save myself the 30 seconds to walk to the tool cabinet and get that screwdriver and instead gave the machine the finger, damn near completely. And the machine damn near took it!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings
Can you feel it crush you, does it seem to bring the worst in you out?
There's no running away from these things that hold you down.
Do they complicate you, because they make you feel like this?
Of all the colors that you've shined, this is surely not your best.
- Colors, Crossfade