Safety Pains

So, here I sat in a great state of relaxation – Mr. ex-Safety Officer – and I look over toward the house construction site expecting to see yet another minor safety infraction, such as no safety glasses, etc.

But, this is a special day, being Valentine’s Day and all, so I guess Da Boyz thought my blood pressure needed a little boost.

Several of the workers have been setting steel beams which will support the Mirador so that several dozen of you can be up there on the solstice drumming and dancing your way through some pagan rituals whilst having no fears of the deck collapsing under your rhythms. At least that’s what the calculations show. But I digress ...

The beams being set are heavy and some of you know that these workers have no cranes or pretty much ANY type of equipment to help them with the lifting. A slightly abnormal level of excitement must have grabbed my attention. As I looked and the “picture came into focus” in my foggy brain, I realized that the boss is on one end of a beam, holding it in position, above his head ... the welder is on the other end of the beam trying to tack weld it onto its mounting plate ... and they’re losing their grip.
 
So, (of course) they’ve yelled at the oldest and shortest of the workers to, “quick, get up on there on the stack of blocks and help us!” Well, being a good Tico worker, he jumps into action but comes up a little short of reaching the overhead beam. Grabbing the nearest things at hand – more concrete blocks – he creates an even higher stack.

And that’s when I saw it.
 

And this is its photo.
 
And beneath that is an enlargement of it: The Extra Special Stacking Job done in order to reach the beam.
 
I fired up out of my chair and crossed the intervening 30 feet in seconds yelling, “Hey!” all the way while pointing frantically at the block pile about to collapse.
 
The old man looked down and then up at me with a, “Wuuuut?” look on his face. 

But, it was the boss who was quick with the words.
 
“Oh, it’s O.K. – he’s lived long enough anyway.”
 
They all laughed. Pat smirked. I went back to my chair and shut the heck up.