I am getting clumsy in old age.
I went to the local mart for some shopping.
They had a roped off area outside.
So I tried to step over it instead of going around.
I hooked my foot under the rope and I was thrown over the rope and landed on my right side. I heard a crack as I went down and had broken my arm. So was an ambulance job to get an x ray.
I went to the local mart for some shopping.
They had a roped off area outside.
So I tried to step over it instead of going around.
I hooked my foot under the rope and I was thrown over the rope and landed on my right side. I heard a crack as I went down and had broken my arm. So was an ambulance job to get an x ray.
Oh man, I know that all too well. I once picked up a soldering iron that had been left on a workbench when I was maybe 7 years old using the palm of my hand. It’s a wonder the entire house hadn’t caught fire before that, as it had been forgotten, left on for many days by my dad.
Take care of that blister for certain!
Take care of that blister for certain!
Nigel I hope you are OK, and hoping that the accident you describe is in the past and not compounding the burn.
I am well aware that I am accident prone and have become more cautious in recent years. Distraction and clumsiness don't seem to mix too well in my case. In the old days I healed quickly, no longer the case.
I am well aware that I am accident prone and have become more cautious in recent years. Distraction and clumsiness don't seem to mix too well in my case. In the old days I healed quickly, no longer the case.
Ouch!
It happened to me too not so long ago!
Another thing i'll never do again: i was hired to change the wiring of a studio in Paris during 2003 heat wave over Europe. The client insisted to have climatisation off for economy reason... so i worked with shorts and my Panavise ( third hand handling xlr body) located on the corner of a table for the 300 xlr's to be done... i still have nasty scars all around my knees... because even after the first drop i didn't learn...
It happened to me too not so long ago!
Another thing i'll never do again: i was hired to change the wiring of a studio in Paris during 2003 heat wave over Europe. The client insisted to have climatisation off for economy reason... so i worked with shorts and my Panavise ( third hand handling xlr body) located on the corner of a table for the 300 xlr's to be done... i still have nasty scars all around my knees... because even after the first drop i didn't learn...
Whilst testing an induction motor I was using a special connector with spring clips, when you opened it, it automatically isolated the contacts - what could go wrong. I tested the motor - dead. So I unplugged the connector, opened it up and used one thumb to open one spring clip and my other thumb for the other. 240v in a capacitor ( that certainly worked ) up one arm, past the heart and down the other. My parents had just gone on a weeks holiday so if it had been much worse I'd have been on the garage floor for a while.
When I was studying engineering we used to joke about guys who didn't know which end of the soldering iron to hold.
After working in a lab for a bit I learned not to try to catch anything that fell off the table. Actually we were trained to jump away from anything falling. Tools are easily replaced. Body parts, not so much.
After working in a lab for a bit I learned not to try to catch anything that fell off the table. Actually we were trained to jump away from anything falling. Tools are easily replaced. Body parts, not so much.
I picked up electronics from my father. He used to repair TV sets (valve). As part of his fault finding he would poke around with a metal knitting needle. There was always a look of surprise when a shower of sparks would leap out of the back.
I knew what he was doing was risky. It was only when my knowledge grew, that I fully appreciated the level of insanity.
I knew what he was doing was risky. It was only when my knowledge grew, that I fully appreciated the level of insanity.
I almost burned our house down.
I was working on some really small and hard to see stuff. Used a desktop light with built in magnifying glass. It was raining outside.
Next day it was sunny...
Got a 10 cm black stripe on my desk. My girlfriend thought it smelled funny. It was now burning and cutting through a small plastic transistor radio as the sun moved across the sky!
Been placed at the floor under the desk away from the sun ever since.
I was working on some really small and hard to see stuff. Used a desktop light with built in magnifying glass. It was raining outside.
Next day it was sunny...
Got a 10 cm black stripe on my desk. My girlfriend thought it smelled funny. It was now burning and cutting through a small plastic transistor radio as the sun moved across the sky!
Been placed at the floor under the desk away from the sun ever since.
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I DID burn my shop/house down with a soldering iron.
REAL burning down, with 4 or 5 rooms destroyed, firefighters with big hoses filling everything with water (in a way they did more damage than actual fire), breaking doors and windows to get in (I was not at home), the works.
All because I forgot a plugged soldering iron on a workbench, mains cable hanging to a side, and my cat had been trained to catch a wine bottle cork hanging fom a piece of string stapled to one side of that very bench.
Obviously he was bored and started catching the cable, eventually dropping the soldering iron on the floor, over some wood clippings and sawdust.
REAL burning down, with 4 or 5 rooms destroyed, firefighters with big hoses filling everything with water (in a way they did more damage than actual fire), breaking doors and windows to get in (I was not at home), the works.
All because I forgot a plugged soldering iron on a workbench, mains cable hanging to a side, and my cat had been trained to catch a wine bottle cork hanging fom a piece of string stapled to one side of that very bench.
Obviously he was bored and started catching the cable, eventually dropping the soldering iron on the floor, over some wood clippings and sawdust.
No, I was not insured, and if I had, I would have been sent to jail, or at least get processed in Court.
I had gone to the Cinema to watch Terry Gilliam´s "Brazil" for the 4th or 5th time , dinner at a downtown Restaurant, etc. so I arrived home after Midnight and saw a Policeman guarding it.
Way back then a Populist Govt. had been backing "poor people´s right to have a Home" by condoning squatters taking over "empty homes".
My own qualified as such because it´s a 5900 sq ft, 19 room , 2 floors at the front, 4 floors in the back, 2 separate entrances 1900´s house where I lived alone.
Where I set up a "hidden in plain sight" factory, complete with Carpentry, Metallurgic, winding, painting, screen printing, speaker assembly, soundproof testing, storage and plain electronics assembly sections.
In truth, no Company would insure me, because I was breaking all rules.
When I arrived, I saw broken doors but nothing else so I thought there had been a break in and the Cop was guarding it but no, he wouldn´t let me in, talked into his lapel microphone "He´s arrived" and a patrol car came to "kindly invite me to have a few words with the Police Chief"
They started asking me about "my Insurance" where I replied: "none".
I was under suspicion for a few days until a search at a National Insurance database show I had none.
Why all that mess?
Because Fire Dept had classified it as "intentional arson", go figure.
Later they came to excuse themselves and told me:
Of course, everything had an explanation:
* Toluene/Xylene: 18 kg cans of Contact Cement for Tolexing, as well of an extra can of dedicated solvent to clean brushes and spreaders.
* Acetone/Ethyl-Acetic Ether/MEK : solvents for Polyester Resin, I had a wonderful Swiss made compressed air pistol which was fed catalyzed resin and a fiberglass rope, small rotary knives cut fiberglass into short 1-2mm pieces and I could cover a PA type cabinet in a thick and VERY strong shell in minutes. MUCH faster than hand applying fiberglass mat and brushing resin on, then smoothing it with a metallic roller.
* 18 liter cans of car paint thinner, I use car paints for front panels ans speakers.
Killer colours and finishes (metal flake sparkle, etc.) plus they dry FAST
I had progressed into oven curing Industrial paints but the oven took much space.
Yes, my shop smelled like a car paint shop and could be detected by nose from a block away .... that´s why I moved to old Buenos Aires river port area (La Boca), I am 60 meters away from anchored ships, surrounded by Naval shops, and nobody complains about noise or smells he he.
This is the street corner at my block:
* Butyl Glycol and family: solvents for silk screen paint aand screen washing afterwards.
* plus "home" solvents/fuels such as gasoline (for my 11HP Industrial generator) , alcohol, kerosene, etc.
So when firefighter Labs run my ashes through, meters EXPLODED.
In fact you could SMELL solvents with your bare nose, no need for sophisticated equipment.
Oh well.
I could get back on my feet quickly, I had excellent credit and goodwill earned along years , so I emptied burnt rooms, left bare brick walls and some burnt doors as "decoration" (plaster had fully fallen off, exposing brick and structural iron frame) and started again.
Way back then (70's and 80's) I sold like crazy,was "THE" guy to visit for anything special (dedicated accordion or violin amps, acoustic Piano embedded mikes and preamps, dedicated Heavy Metal/Jazz/Punk/Acoustic amp rigs, the works); I was MUCH heavier hit by the "soft glove" fom 90s on.
Australians will recognize the same pattern: from closed Customs barriers, Tariff, etc. which keep internal market safe and available to nationals, any investment is worth it because "it pays for itself", as you see I heaviy invested in Machinery, self making Transformers, Chassis, Speakers, PCBs, plus accessories such as strip handles, metal corner protectors, rubber feet, horn drivers, voice coils, even own spring reverb tanks, but was knocked off my feet with wide open customs, zero Tariff, cheap (borrowed) Dollars , all Industry DESTROYING measures.
We even made Ford Falcons!!!! (take that Mad Max )
Oh well [2]
I had gone to the Cinema to watch Terry Gilliam´s "Brazil" for the 4th or 5th time , dinner at a downtown Restaurant, etc. so I arrived home after Midnight and saw a Policeman guarding it.
Way back then a Populist Govt. had been backing "poor people´s right to have a Home"
by condoning squatters taking over "empty homes".My own qualified as such because it´s a 5900 sq ft, 19 room , 2 floors at the front, 4 floors in the back, 2 separate entrances 1900´s house where I lived alone.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Where I set up a "hidden in plain sight" factory, complete with Carpentry, Metallurgic, winding, painting, screen printing, speaker assembly, soundproof testing, storage and plain electronics assembly sections.
In truth, no Company would insure me, because I was breaking all rules.
When I arrived, I saw broken doors but nothing else so I thought there had been a break in and the Cop was guarding it but no, he wouldn´t let me in, talked into his lapel microphone "He´s arrived" and a patrol car came to "kindly invite me to have a few words with the Police Chief"
They started asking me about "my Insurance" where I replied: "none".
I was under suspicion for a few days until a search at a National Insurance database show I had none.
Why all that mess?
Because Fire Dept had classified it as "intentional arson"
, go figure. Later they came to excuse themselves and told me:
Of course, everything had an explanation:
* Toluene/Xylene: 18 kg cans of Contact Cement for Tolexing, as well of an extra can of dedicated solvent to clean brushes and spreaders.
* Acetone/Ethyl-Acetic Ether/MEK : solvents for Polyester Resin, I had a wonderful Swiss made compressed air pistol which was fed catalyzed resin and a fiberglass rope, small rotary knives cut fiberglass into short 1-2mm pieces and I could cover a PA type cabinet in a thick and VERY strong shell in minutes. MUCH faster than hand applying fiberglass mat and brushing resin on, then smoothing it with a metallic roller.
* 18 liter cans of car paint thinner, I use car paints for front panels ans speakers.
Killer colours and finishes (metal flake sparkle, etc.) plus they dry FAST
I had progressed into oven curing Industrial paints but the oven took much space.
Yes, my shop smelled like a car paint shop and could be detected by nose from a block away .... that´s why I moved to old Buenos Aires river port area (La Boca), I am 60 meters away from anchored ships, surrounded by Naval shops, and nobody complains about noise or smells he he.
This is the street corner at my block:
* Butyl Glycol and family: solvents for silk screen paint aand screen washing afterwards.
* plus "home" solvents/fuels such as gasoline (for my 11HP Industrial generator) , alcohol, kerosene, etc.
So when firefighter Labs run my ashes through, meters EXPLODED.
In fact you could SMELL solvents with your bare nose, no need for sophisticated equipment.
Oh well.
I could get back on my feet quickly, I had excellent credit and goodwill earned along years , so I emptied burnt rooms, left bare brick walls and some burnt doors as "decoration" (plaster had fully fallen off, exposing brick and structural iron frame) and started again.
Way back then (70's and 80's) I sold like crazy,was "THE" guy to visit for anything special (dedicated accordion or violin amps, acoustic Piano embedded mikes and preamps, dedicated Heavy Metal/Jazz/Punk/Acoustic amp rigs, the works); I was MUCH heavier hit by the "soft glove" fom 90s on.
Australians will recognize the same pattern: from closed Customs barriers, Tariff, etc. which keep internal market safe and available to nationals, any investment is worth it because "it pays for itself", as you see I heaviy invested in Machinery, self making Transformers, Chassis, Speakers, PCBs, plus accessories such as strip handles, metal corner protectors, rubber feet, horn drivers, voice coils, even own spring reverb tanks, but was knocked off my feet with wide open customs, zero Tariff, cheap (borrowed) Dollars , all Industry DESTROYING measures.
We even made Ford Falcons!!!! (take that Mad Max
)Oh well [2]
So my wife is into Moxibustion. I was having trouble with my left arm, where the area between my wrist and elbow would burst into some real pain if I moved it a certain way. Guessing was some kind of tendon inflammation and I thought "My gosh, if that happened to be throughout my whole body and flared all at once, I'd just death stretch and die".
At her suggestion, I tried a box on the afflicted area, which involves an enclosed burning wad of Mugwort suspended inside a screen cage. The idea is to get it close to the skin, but not so close as to burn and cause a blister. The skin on that part of my arm (outside bottom) is probably the fairst anywhere - and I did sense a little bit of a burn, but thought that was how it's supposed to work.
It raised I'd say a 1.5 X .5 X .5" tall blister. She said to pop it, as it contained the poisons the process had extracted from my arm. Reluctantly, I did so. That sucker took about 3 months to heal, with at least two scabbings over throughout the healing process. I still have a distinct discoloration spot on my arm there.
Yeah I can relate - in older age, even seemingly little things like that can take a long time to heal. I've noticed, so awareness is there; what I do with it...
At her suggestion, I tried a box on the afflicted area, which involves an enclosed burning wad of Mugwort suspended inside a screen cage. The idea is to get it close to the skin, but not so close as to burn and cause a blister. The skin on that part of my arm (outside bottom) is probably the fairst anywhere - and I did sense a little bit of a burn, but thought that was how it's supposed to work.
It raised I'd say a 1.5 X .5 X .5" tall blister. She said to pop it, as it contained the poisons the process had extracted from my arm. Reluctantly, I did so. That sucker took about 3 months to heal, with at least two scabbings over throughout the healing process. I still have a distinct discoloration spot on my arm there.
Yeah I can relate - in older age, even seemingly little things like that can take a long time to heal. I've noticed, so awareness is there; what I do with it...
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Oh, they were all different, tuned to specific Musician needs/taste.
For practical reasons, two schizophrenic separated lines, one was making "anything Customer wants" and that means literally anything, for a price.
Literally Musicians brought a Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, George Benson ... even Red Hot Chili Peppers CD and asked: "I want THAT sound".
Boosting image, pride feeding, boosts perceived Brand value, so a good "Institutional" investment in the long run, but quite irregular, many times profit did NOT justify time/$ invested by any means ... on an individual sale that is.
But people remember "[XXXX] using them live", insert any Argentine Guitar God name here, and that counts.
FWIW my amps are currently being exhibited at the National Senate building, which is holding a "50 years of Argentine Rock" event, as "THE Amps used by Argentine Rock Musicians", go figure.
Accompanied by a couple "famous" Guitars, Drum kits, Keyboards, etc.
Hey, in US people remember Grand Funk Railroad using West amps, Doors or Led Zeppelin or Queen using Acoustic amps, Creedence Clearwater Revival using Kustom, The Who (and many others) using SUNN, etc. , yet all those brands have not been commercially made for some 40 years
Same here.
The "other" line, the one which actually paid for home, machinery, cars, Europe trips, Family expenses, kids College, etc. was a very solid "simple/practical" line of 100 to 300W amps for playing Live, never ever made small practice/studio amps because I can not compete with Taiwan/Korea/Japan/China/Vietnam massive production and ultra low cost, so focused on mid sized amps where they are not *that* cheap or competitive.
That said, I stopped everything when Covid Quarantine started (Argentina´s is the oldest one non stop) thinking "they say 14 days, I bet it will last 2 or 3 Months, no big deal anyway" which of course developed into this year-and-a-half nightmare, so now I am slowly firing up the boilers to restart, what else?
Currently designing a small hybrid Guitar head, think Orange Microterror, Joyo Bantam class which will sell well and aims at home use but like all Designers, keep adding features such as going from 20W to 40, 2 switchable channels, effects loop, now tinkering with a digital-ish Reverb (PT2399 based) and so on, think a hybrid Egnater Tweaker competitor.
Should split design in two models (already mentioned Schizoid design trends ), a simple one matching the examples above, another a "premium" one.
To be followed by a *small* Bass combo, think 100-150W driving a single 10" or 12" speaker all packed in a "shoebox" sized cabinet.
Absolutely ludicrous in my view when my "normal" Bass amp is 300 to 500W RMS (solid punchy Class AB, not much love for weakling Class D amps which never seem to deliver what they promise) driving 8x10" or 8x12" speakers in stacked cabinets (not much love for 15" speakers) but hey, I guess that´s the only size that will sell until we are back to normal.
Oh well.
For practical reasons, two schizophrenic separated lines, one was making "anything Customer wants" and that means literally anything, for a price.
Literally Musicians brought a Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, George Benson ... even Red Hot Chili Peppers CD and asked: "I want THAT sound".
Boosting image, pride feeding, boosts perceived Brand value, so a good "Institutional" investment in the long run, but quite irregular, many times profit did NOT justify time/$ invested by any means ... on an individual sale that is.
But people remember "[XXXX] using them live", insert any Argentine Guitar God name here, and that counts.
FWIW my amps are currently being exhibited at the National Senate building, which is holding a "50 years of Argentine Rock" event, as "THE Amps used by Argentine Rock Musicians", go figure.
Accompanied by a couple "famous" Guitars, Drum kits, Keyboards, etc.
Hey, in US people remember Grand Funk Railroad using West amps, Doors or Led Zeppelin or Queen using Acoustic amps, Creedence Clearwater Revival using Kustom, The Who (and many others) using SUNN, etc. , yet all those brands have not been commercially made for some 40 years
Same here.
The "other" line, the one which actually paid for home, machinery, cars, Europe trips, Family expenses, kids College, etc. was a very solid "simple/practical" line of 100 to 300W amps for playing Live, never ever made small practice/studio amps because I can not compete with Taiwan/Korea/Japan/China/Vietnam massive production and ultra low cost, so focused on mid sized amps where they are not *that* cheap or competitive.
That said, I stopped everything when Covid Quarantine started (Argentina´s is the oldest one non stop) thinking "they say 14 days, I bet it will last 2 or 3 Months, no big deal anyway"
which of course developed into this year-and-a-half nightmare, so now I am slowly firing up the boilers to restart, what else?Currently designing a small hybrid Guitar head, think Orange Microterror, Joyo Bantam class which will sell well and aims at home use
but like all Designers, keep adding features such as going from 20W to 40, 2 switchable channels, effects loop, now tinkering with a digital-ish Reverb (PT2399 based) and so on, think a hybrid Egnater Tweaker competitor.Should split design in two models (already mentioned Schizoid design trends
), a simple one matching the examples above, another a "premium" one. To be followed by a *small* Bass combo, think 100-150W driving a single 10" or 12" speaker all packed in a "shoebox" sized cabinet.
Absolutely ludicrous in my view when my "normal" Bass amp is 300 to 500W RMS (solid punchy Class AB, not much love for weakling Class D amps which never seem to deliver what they promise) driving 8x10" or 8x12" speakers in stacked cabinets (not much love for 15" speakers) but hey, I guess that´s the only size that will sell until we are back to normal.
Oh well.