Ogre

Dude! You look like you’re ready to grab a helldog and go busting rivets on some old crusty bridge...You’re hired! (May be safer than what you’re doing right now) I am familiar with your PPE and think it’s bad ass that you have a mask over the exhaust. I appreciate you, man. This is my instructing mask. I found it in a box of 25 year old PPE I use for my OSHA stuff. It has an excellent seal and the way it is pleated makes it easy to talk and not lose the seal. I know @PASabreFan was interested in a mask of that nature. I’ll look it up and share more about it tomorrow. Not even sure they still make these.

My FIL has this made for me for Xmas. First time it’s been out.

After all you’ve experienced, I don’t understand why wearing a mask the entire time you’re in public is such a big deal! Regardless of the law on the ground, this is a pandemic that affects everyone. I’m dying to get everything open and back to normal too. Unfortunately that has to go on the wish list. I want same but I have no problems comprising. About wearing masks. Your law on the ground (and those signs at business entrances) telling you to wear a mask isn’t a mandate telling you to protect yourself, they are telling you to protect everyone else. Those face coverings are not PPE. They are to prevent your respiratory discharge from spreading. Those N95 masks with the exhaust valve? You should have a covering over the discharge valve! I like to expand a bit on respiratory discharge. That six foot rule comes from tests done in a sterile (in terms of real life air circulation scenarios). Real life indoor air currents bring the virus much farther than that. OSHA’s TWA (time weighted average) really should be the concept that is put into practice. At the least we should all consider it. Think of it this way, the longer the carrier is in that indoor space breathing out virus, the lower you should make the TWA. Same for the non-infected person. The longer the possible exposure the lower the TWA. As for sacrifice, I chose my very dangerous line of work many years ago for my own reasons. I have never asked that what I do in the course of my employment be considered a sacrifice. It ain’t. When I talk about sacrifice I talk about doing the everyday hard things we need to do as a society to get this mother ***** under control and get as many of those poor bastards that lost their lives BACK out there without sacrificing human life. For the Love of Creation, people. WEAR THE *****IN MASK!!! It’s the least that we can do!

Oh. I see. My institution has been granted the gift of resuming in person training. Seven of us including Instructor separated in excess of six feet at all times and we all wear masks at all times, even when we move outside to get rowdy and make some good old Ironworker noise. We wear masks the whole time because we are accustomed to hard living. Fear is a reaction to being unprepared and we prepare like mother ***** so you can probably guess what fear level an Ironworker approaches the world with. We’re also very smart despite the disclaimer that I include with my posts. We understand that we need to exceed expectations to keep everyone safe. It’s not a macho thing. It’s a *****jng sensible thing. Not everyone gets to go home sometimes. As for the masks, as a simple guy that respects his USDOL authorization to train, I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours learning about masks and air currents and decon...and it has all been to teach people to protect themselves, but this time, we’re wearing them to protect other people. It’s a very simple thing to do. It’s also very uncomfortable but as Ironworkers, we accept it as every day life. We‘ve been deemed essential and have folks out there doing the most grueling work on the planet in masks and face shields, even when there’s six feet or more of separation. You do it you’re way, but it’s really about sacrifice now to end this thing. But whatever.

I swing an eight pound hammer at large targets as a deadly skill. When I remodeled the inside of my first house I was a fish out of water with a sixteen ounce hammer and little tiny finish nails. I finally surrender speed for placing each nail in needle nose pliers first. It’s took month for the feeling to come back. My next project has the price of an air nailer included.

Zoom in...I went through the white meat. My favorite is the epidermal skin that is charred black from the wheel burning it’s way through. It’s fine. Flesh wound. You should have seen the back of that same hand after I had a golf ball sized hunk of every layer of skin ripped right off of it. Needed a skin graft for that one. *Disclaimer!* You’ve got to be tough when you’re dumb.

How were you able to eat out in public with your mask on?

This is what human flesh looks like (mine) when it comes into contact with a grinding wheel on a 4” grinder. I’ve worn gloves every time I’ve used a grinder for the last 28 years but this one time at home just hitting a few rough edges on some fencing, 45 seconds worth of work. I’m guessing I’ve done this to several thousand pairs of gloves and didn’t flinch.... Atol.

The rotator repair has been a bitch. The surgeon showed me pics at my last visit. A 1/4” hole straight through the tendon. I’m getting along just fine but my gym time has ceased since January when I had the accident. It shows. I feel like ***** losing all that muscle mass. Muscles remember so I will get it back but it’s tough to look in a mirror. If it was due to my own lack of drive I could look but to have the giddy up and not the health to do it eats at me.

A rare windless night at Baileyshire....

Real American plays at every Amerks game as the team takes the ice for warmups. A few years back this “my aged” dude jumped up and did the Hulkster’s “can’t hear you” bit. His kids were bewildered but I was too far away to high five.

News10 claims that it’s the entire game. I’m looking forward to it. That was my first full year in WNY and it did have a little bit to do with my decision to stay put. ??

I'm an AIC fan from way back but I just found this tonight while enjoying a mid-May snowstorm in the hot tub. Mad Season was put together by Pearl Jam's Mike McCready. He was a good friend of Layne and hoped that if they could get him into a group of sober musicians they could save his life. Layne is so shockingly thin in this video. Layne Staley had a voice that lulled you like a Siren. He died alone on a couch with a platter of cocaine and heroin on the coffee table. His mother had the landlord open the door after there hadn't been the regular weekly withdrawal from his bank account for two weeks. Mental illness is a bitch. Anyways, this is MF awesome.

Sweet potato pancakes!! I had one leftover so I made a cup of buttermilk (one tablespoon vinegar and one cup almond milk) because who ever has that on hand. A big forkful of butter and powder sugar on top. Mmmmmmmmmm!!

Too many people marry far too young because they've panicked that they'll miss out on the chance to be married. Panic leads a fool. We were both older and had separately come to the conclusion that finding someone worth that level of commitment wasn't going to be a thing, then we met. "Every little thing is gonna be alright". We played this one as our first dance as Mr. and Mrs. iT.

I won't go into detail as to why I am a big Danny Carey fanboy. I will present this as evidence though.

This is slightly out of context but...the wife and I were announced as man-n-wife to this..I was 38 never married, she 34 and the same....Panic leads a fool...Yada yada but the vastness of the universe has the proof that this is true.....

The parallels to individualized thoughts that one can find... “It’s hard to believe that somebody tricked you...It ain’t right...”

I hear that they’re very tasty. And they leave a little tingle in your mouth... https://www.cnet.com/news/murder-hornet-munchies-the-horrifying-insect-makes-a-tasty-treat/

Dude...you’re a safety trainer’s dream, you pay attention! When I’m wearing the PPE I was my hands before I remove the mask. Take the mask off remove filters (I use the half mask with replacement filters) and clean the mask. Then I wash my hands again. PPE is uncomfortable. It can save your life and at the least preserve your life. Deal with it. It was 95 degrees this particular day and I was wearing a half mask APR and a hard hat under all that leather and glass. I wore it for ten hours that day.

I left the apology post to @SwampD but the original sentiment remains. Nothing personal. You’re too good with words to let the slip go. Yada yada disclaimers, it just distracts from the literal sacrifices. Too late. I was beating this particular drum fifteen years ago and people thought I was a nutcase. Every key stroke, every single place you’ve been is memorialized.

My apologies. I quoted @Neo from your quote. Working from the fire on iPhone and didn’t catch the mistake. If you’d like I could delete and repost.

So he gone? Does that mean this season is in the books? The last communication I had with the Amerks was an affirmation that my tickets are still good...for when this season starts up......they’re lying to me, ain’t they? No one is getting refunded, are they? What about the renovations that were to start soon? How about those free playoff tickets that were dangled before my eyes as an incentive to renew? My guess? Zach doesn’t have confidence in there being a true 20-21 NA season.