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May 18, 2003
When stripping wires with the
When stripping wires with the wrong set of pliers, one should always point them AWAY from one's eyes. After a long week at work, I had no energy for fun on Friday. My roommate Bryan has been needing some new electrical outlets for his dj equipment and computer for some time. We had already bought the materials, including some fun flexible conduit wiring. Very exciting stuff, plus installing new breakers in the main box is always an adventure.
I started fairly well, progressing backwards from the last outlets to the closest. To access the wires inside of the conduit cable, you have to have an expensive cutter or a lot of patience with pliers. I had neither, really. I was making progress, Bryan offered me my first beer. Beer is always an excellent choice to mix with high voltage equipment. Supposedly one shouldn't operate heavy machinery under the influence, but they never mention electical components. After one beer, I was really making excellent progress, looking like a true professional.
Then he gave me the second beer. Maybe it was the fact that my stomach was empty, maybe it was the fact that I'm a lightweight, maybe it was the nasty biblical-curse level boil on the side of Bryan's face wanting to jinx me. I'm separating the outer sheath off of the wiring, then SNAP! Whack! Right below my eye, a nice little divot taken off my face.
I'm a bit like one of those really stupid dogs that is nearly impossible to train. I curse, go to the bathroom, put some pressure on the cut until it stops bleeding. I return to the wall, continuing the work along with drinking beer. Did I change my method? Nope. Did I keep drinking beer? Yep. Strip, rip, snap, WHACK, ow. Above the eye, this time, lots more blood. Hmmm, maybe I should rethink this process. Maybe I shouldn't drink beer when working with sharp objects.
I'm good with stuff like this, I swear. Everything else went well, except for slicing open my index finger the next morning closing the last outlet. Loads of blood, of course, but I have plenty of pints chugging through my body. As my direct ancestral Monty Python knight would say, "It's just a flesh wound."
Posted by G at May 18, 2003 01:53 PM