oops- was that my finger?

[Acute Cut]

Just a reminder to yall, keep your wits about ya. Normally i am mr.anal when it comes to safety. i wont even move my wb mower off my trailer without hearing protection.

well, last sunday my gf decided she wanted to use my ariens 21" mower to mow the lawn. She wanted to compare the cut with her crapsman. no contest right. So about half way through the front lawn i notice she is cutting too high. So, i go over to lower the deck. Now, when i use the machine and change the levels i HAVE TO let go of the clutch to change them. No problem to restart. Well, with her at the controls, me with hearing protection in, and no brain to be found anywhere...............

la, de, da.......
WHAM! "SON OF A>>>>>>> OH DAMMIT! Hon lets go to the hospital."

Left hand lost the tips of my two middle fingers. It could have been much worse, but god spared me that. I lost about 1/2 the fingernail up on the middle finger and from the tip of the fingernail up on the ring finger. 9 years and only a few rocks tossed unger my glasess, now this. I am pretty embarassed and all my lawn buddies around feel for me, but laugh at/with me too. I am going to TRY and start mowing this monday. Doc says only thing resricting me from work is the amount of pain. If i caN HANDLE IT I CAN WORK ALL I WANT.

sorry for the lack of caps, working impired here, hehe. Be safe and have a great day. I am off to have my moring breakfast, coffee and vicadin.

[1grnlwn]

Sorry about your accident. A good story for those ( I am experienced It can't happen to me) Guys.
Mark

[bob]

Your real lucky!! It could have been a lot worse. We all learn from our mistakes and hopefully from others.

[leprechaun_50]

Glad to hear it wasn't more serious. It just goes to show that you can't let your guard down even for a second.

[stick9]

Man!!

You reallly have a great attitude about things ... that's a rarity in this day and age ... most people would be looking to sue the lawnmower company or the blade manufacturer or something ... or worse yet, blaming others or even God for this ... you just accept it ... you appear to have a very optimistic outlook on life ...

I know it's a very small thing, but you have my respect.

SticK-niNe

[KirbysLawn]

Dang, hate to hear that. This will complicate your nose picking abilities on the left side huh?






Just kidding, hope the pain (I'm sure it's great) goes away soon.

[script]

Sorry to hear about the accident, but very glad it wasn't worse. You were probably distracted because your gf was there and you just did not think it through like you would normally. I have to say though that I agree with stick-nine in respecting your great attitude, and hope that if anything ever happens to me that I can be as optimistic. Hope it heals well and quickly.

Bobby

[leprechaun_50]

A.C. Just woke up to the fact that you are from Bellingham, Wa. I spent the last half of '72 and most of '73 up at Blaine AFS. Loved the area, all the people were very friendly. Had a super time.
Sorry again about your hand.

[Just Turned Pro]

I feel your pain.... I did a similar thing about 16 years ago or so... Of course I was twelve at the time. :) (It must be something in the water up here in the PNW)

I was adjusting the wheel height on my parents old mower. This one had no blade brake or engine kill levers.... and of course I left it running because if I shut it off I would never get it started again. Anyway, one of the front wheels was very tight and hard to adjust. So for leverage, I grabbed the bottom of the deck....OUCH!...Luckily the blade only nicked the tip of my left middle finger a couple of times and the angle was more of a fillet than a crosscut so a trip to the ER and a few stiches later it was all good.

I still have a small scar on the tip of that finger. I look at it a few times each year when I behind and in a rush... It serves as a good reminder not to get in so much of a hurry that I compramise safety!

[deason]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Everyone is entitled to a brain-fart. With this one, you were lucky.

[DaddyRabbit]

Age and experience is lifes best teacher. I have never nor never will trust any of my wives or ex wives good enough to handle controls where my fingers are concerned. Never trust a woman. I am sorry that this happened and as you stated it could have been much worse. Keep it clean as infection is rampent where injuries like these are concerned. :eek: :eek:

[MOW ED]

Just change your story to:

I was outside giving my girlfriend a couple of TIPS on how to run a mower and...

Sorry. I am just trying to give ya a little humor. It was an accident and unfortunate as it was, you will be ok. The only time its not ok is when you do something like that on purpose.

I hope you can mow on Monday. BTW be careful with the Vikes, they can sneak up and make ya do something you didn't want to do.

[65hoss]

Dang, my hands hurt just reading this.

Be careful guys and gals. These are fun machines to play with, but these toys can kill you.

[Acute Cut]

hehe, thanks guys. i am in good spirits about it all. god gave me a wake up, but made it so that i can still do the job i love. i lost nothing really except a few days of mowing.

i will say however that this incident gave me a big wakeup as to how wonderful my girlfriend is. she has doubled her work around the house(Not an easy chore with four boys) and is totally babying me. i am not ALLOWED to do a dam thing. Women can be wonderful. i sure do love this woman of mine.

thanks again all.

Praise god for his mercy.
acute cut

[geogunn]

AC--you are right to feel that it could have been worse!

back in '72 I cut off two fingers with a table saw at work.

they put them back on.

now they are a little unusual looking and the last joints only bend about 40 percent but otherwise they are strong.

I even have feeling in them after all of the time for the nerves to regrow.

GEO

[scott's turf]

At least you can still type :D

[sirsweatsalot]

i thought of you while i was messing around under my mower this morning. the middle blade was makeing this funny noice like it was hitting some thing. so i got down there and the blade was two turns from falling off! the impact wrench needs some work i guess.

[Sean Adams]

Behind every good man is a great woman. Did she type the post for you too???? Keep her around....and be careful.

[crawdad]

This shows that no matter how many times you've done something, you should first stop and think about what could happen.
crawdad

[Bob Minney]

Originally posted by crawdad
This shows that no matter how many times you've done something, you should first stop and think about what could happen.
crawdad


:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Brickman]

:D :D :D the beaver should think farther ahead.


Was your girl wearing a bikini and that is why you were so distracted?? :D :D :dizzy: