RonL
Well-Known OPE Member
Heard a quote recently. Had to laugh. It went something like this: " If you want God to laugh, tell him your plans.
I have worked all my life. When I was a kid I had a morning paper route, an afternoon route, and a Sunday route. I got up seven days a week to deliver newspapers. I went back to college when I was 23. I worked two jobs to pay my way.
My wife and I bought property up in the mountains. We eventually bought a second enjoining piece of property. For the past twenty years my wife and I have worked all kinds of hours to pay for all the things we wanted. In the past twenty years we have acquired a bulldozer, backhoe, skid steer, and mini excavator. We also acquired ten chain saws ( two recently were stolen ), rolls of chain, chain breaker and spinner, and other equipment to develop our properties.
After having worked as a civil servant for nearly 33 years, on December thirty-first of 2015, I pulled the pin. I figured I was going to work full time for two or three years on the properties. I ordered the steel trusses that I would need to build a barn/workshop. I have developed a fascination with splitting mauls and acquired twelve or thirteen different mauls and axes to test.
I spent two weeks in May surveying and clearing the area for the barn. I dropped hundreds of trees and cut them into rounds. I pulled and piled the stumps. A local gentleman hauled the branches away. The last thing to be done was to drop a huge old maple that was hanging over where I wanted to put in the power line. The tree had rot and part of it had fallen. I was going to climb it and dismantle it piece by piece. I had a bad feeling about it though. I had visions of myself riding it to the ground. I decided to just drop the whole tree. I had left rows of trees that I figured would guide it from falling into a shed or into the power lines. I poked a screwdriver into the tree. It seemed solid at the bottom. I cut a small notch to see if there was any hollowness. It was solid. If it was hollow, I would have gotten my heavy chains, the dozer and the backhoe, and would have braced it. I kept enlarging the notch until I got to where I wanted it. I then made my back cut, and drove in wedges. The tree dropped right where I wanted it. I was not going to have time to cut it up. Even though there was some punkiness to it, there had to be well over a cord of good wood in it. I told the guy that helped me that he could have the wood from the tree if he cut it up and hauled it away. My wife and I left to go back to the city.
A week after coming back, I was sitting in my office, working on the computer. My aorta ruptured. It was like a bolt of lightning hit me in the jaw and traveled to my chest. There was a deep agonizing pain in my chest that told me that I was dying. Not wishing to have my wife find me dead in the house, I staggered to the bathroom, took aspirin, and called 911. I could barely speak. I staggered out the door, locked it, put the key under the steps, and sat on the steps. The ambulance came and took me to U-Mass hospital. I was able to tell them that my father had died of an aneurysm of his aorta. A CAT scan showed a flap on my aorta. the doctors told me I was dying and needed immediate surgery. As luck would have it, they were performing open heart surgery at the time. They put me on a helicopter and shipped me to Mass General, where I spent 8 hours on the table. After six days in the hospital I went home. I have been building myself up since.
Life is short. Enjoy yourself.
RonL
I have worked all my life. When I was a kid I had a morning paper route, an afternoon route, and a Sunday route. I got up seven days a week to deliver newspapers. I went back to college when I was 23. I worked two jobs to pay my way.
My wife and I bought property up in the mountains. We eventually bought a second enjoining piece of property. For the past twenty years my wife and I have worked all kinds of hours to pay for all the things we wanted. In the past twenty years we have acquired a bulldozer, backhoe, skid steer, and mini excavator. We also acquired ten chain saws ( two recently were stolen ), rolls of chain, chain breaker and spinner, and other equipment to develop our properties.
After having worked as a civil servant for nearly 33 years, on December thirty-first of 2015, I pulled the pin. I figured I was going to work full time for two or three years on the properties. I ordered the steel trusses that I would need to build a barn/workshop. I have developed a fascination with splitting mauls and acquired twelve or thirteen different mauls and axes to test.
I spent two weeks in May surveying and clearing the area for the barn. I dropped hundreds of trees and cut them into rounds. I pulled and piled the stumps. A local gentleman hauled the branches away. The last thing to be done was to drop a huge old maple that was hanging over where I wanted to put in the power line. The tree had rot and part of it had fallen. I was going to climb it and dismantle it piece by piece. I had a bad feeling about it though. I had visions of myself riding it to the ground. I decided to just drop the whole tree. I had left rows of trees that I figured would guide it from falling into a shed or into the power lines. I poked a screwdriver into the tree. It seemed solid at the bottom. I cut a small notch to see if there was any hollowness. It was solid. If it was hollow, I would have gotten my heavy chains, the dozer and the backhoe, and would have braced it. I kept enlarging the notch until I got to where I wanted it. I then made my back cut, and drove in wedges. The tree dropped right where I wanted it. I was not going to have time to cut it up. Even though there was some punkiness to it, there had to be well over a cord of good wood in it. I told the guy that helped me that he could have the wood from the tree if he cut it up and hauled it away. My wife and I left to go back to the city.
A week after coming back, I was sitting in my office, working on the computer. My aorta ruptured. It was like a bolt of lightning hit me in the jaw and traveled to my chest. There was a deep agonizing pain in my chest that told me that I was dying. Not wishing to have my wife find me dead in the house, I staggered to the bathroom, took aspirin, and called 911. I could barely speak. I staggered out the door, locked it, put the key under the steps, and sat on the steps. The ambulance came and took me to U-Mass hospital. I was able to tell them that my father had died of an aneurysm of his aorta. A CAT scan showed a flap on my aorta. the doctors told me I was dying and needed immediate surgery. As luck would have it, they were performing open heart surgery at the time. They put me on a helicopter and shipped me to Mass General, where I spent 8 hours on the table. After six days in the hospital I went home. I have been building myself up since.
Life is short. Enjoy yourself.
RonL
