The Tinker-Fool

Have you ever had an experience where you thought, "Should I call for help yet? . . . how about now? . . .how ab. . . NOW, DO IT NOW!!!"

Yeah, that happened to me a couple days ago.

I was helping my brother move some things out of our carport with a few friends.  We were in a rush, because the landlady showed up and was angry that he was storing tools, workbenches, and wood in a carport that we were paying extra rent for.  She demanded that it go away immediately, and "asked" that we follow it as soon as possible.

So you could say that I was in a hurry and not thinking clearly.

Ben hired a truck to haul the big stuff, but we were going to put the small stuff in the back of his red Land Cruiser, an FJ55, affectionately known in the LC community as an Iron Pig.  I was going to open up the back end, but the white Cruiser was parked up against the back of it (reverse of the picture below), so I needed to move the red one down the road a bit.

We live on a 10% grade, so we always chock the wheels with a rock.  Because I was under pressure, I didn't check anything inside or ask for help.

I moved the rock.

Well, the Pig started to move.  I don't remember if I tried to shove the rock back under it or not, I just remember thinking, "I have got to get this thing stopped before it rolls a kilometer down to the highway, destruction in its wake."  Probably not that eloquently, but yeah.

The only thing I could think to do was grab the tire and make it stop rolling.  It knocked me down and dragged me several feet.  I don't remember feeling the steps, but I obviously went down them.  That concrete planter there helped stop the truck -- one of the spring bolts broke it off as we went past.

I did yell for help, but it was pretty feeble, as I couldn't get my breath, due to the 31x10.5 BFG AT on my chest, backed by 4000 lbs of Pig.  Ben and a couple neighbors came out to find me flat on my back on the side walk, holding the tire.  But I stopped it!  It was literally 2 inches from hitting a neighbor's car!

I got a nasty abrasion on my arm and more minor ones on my chest (almost to my collar bone) and shoulder blade.  You can see the tire marks on my shirt.

I don't feel any internal damage.  Ribs feel good, as do my spine and shoulder.  I have a lot of muscle pain in the back and pectoral, but that is fading, and feels much better with a little heat on it.

Thankfully, I was wearing a good pair of goatskin gloves (that my MiL gave me for Christmas - thanks Mom!) and didn't damage any fingers.  The kickoff for our church's 15th anniversary celebration was last night and the worship team played about 12 songs.  The guys would've been pretty disappointed if I couldn't pluck my bass!

UPDATE:

At a week and a half later, I feel good and the abrasion on my arm is almost completely gone.  Of course, practically the whole church has heard about it, and keeps telling me to go to the doctor. :)  I took this photo of the Pig last night -- this is more or less how it was sitting at the time of The Accident: