Ever have "One of those days"?

Well, this is the second time in trying to post today. The first time I was about 3/4 done when the electricity went out and erased everything which of course brought an Irish blessing from me.

I got to thinking about a friend of mine who was accidently killed in 1961 (I think). My mind is becoming more and more forgetful each day. Cheryl swears she tells me things to do and I swear just as hard that she did not or I would remember them. Hmmmmm.

About my friend. His name was Garl Winger and we had spent the summer working in Island Park, Idaho logging timber. We had a blast that summer and were into a little mischief but boys will be boys. One rule of thumb we had in logging was to never leave a tree hanging in another tree at the end of the day. It was; take the time and drop them to the ground so someone would not get hurt accidently.

This particular day in mind Garl had not only dropped one tree into another and it was hanging there, but he had managed to put two trees into the same one. We were tired and knew we would not forget those hanging trees so we just left them and went to camp.

The next morning as we approached the cut site we had, quite naturally, forgotten all about those two trees still hanging in the third one. Garl neve so much as looked up. He just started his saw and began cutting on the third tree. I was about 30 yards from him but had a lot of fallen trees in between us so getting to him in time was impossible to do. I yelled like a wild banshee (I really don't know how a banshee yells) but it was to no avail. As I watched in horror I could see the scene unfolding before my eyes. If the third tree came down the other two were obviously coming down too with Garl directly in the path and could be killed or seriously injured.

As he finished cutting on the third tree he raised up and turned a quarter turn to look at me for some reason. Just as he did that one tree passed his chest, brushing it as it went past. Not the branches mind you but the trunk. The other tree passed his back, brushing it as it went past. If he had not turned that quarter of a turn both trees would have hit him squarely on the shoulders.

Needless to say we both stood there in shocked silence. Then, as young men are prone to do, we just laughed it off and went back to work. About twenty minutes later I finished cutting a tree and turned to see what Garl was doing. He too, had just finished cutting a tree and was watching it fall to the ground. As it fell it crossed over the butt end of another tree lying there. The butt of the tree flipped into the air catching Garl squarely on the chin and flipping him about four feet into the air and knocking him out cold. I ran over to him to see how he was and he was lying there moaning and groaning but otherwise all right. That was the second issue for the day and all within an hour.

Once we dropped our trees we would take double bitted axes and walk the trunk chopping off limbs. One had to be somewhat careful or you could cut yourself very easily but having done it for some time we had no fear and were just swinging away.

I still don't know why Garl did what he did, but he went to sink his axe in the trunk of the tree for some reason. As he did, he managed to sink it right into his foot. I mean his foot was pinned to the tree trunk by that axe and I just knew he had cut it off. Again I ran over to him to see what I could do, got the axe out of the tree trunk and his foot; all the time cussing him for being so careless. We did not dare to take the boot off because it made a good pressure bandage. Garl said he could feel the blood inside and it hurt like blazes. I looked at him and said we were going home. Of course home and the nearest hospital was almost 100 miles away.

When we got to the emergency room, the boot was cut off and we found that he was the luckiest son of a gun alive. He had managed to place the bit of the axe right between the small bones in his foot and did not break or cut a one. Didn't stop him from going to the dance that weekend with his girl friend either.

So I guess all of us have "one of those days" every now and again. Me. I am so joyful and such a pleasure to have around all the time that I seldom have bad days. It is either that or all my days are bad and I seldom have good days to compare them to.

Hope all of you are having a good day today. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.