Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Timber...


Last Sunday afternoon it was business as usual around here. Well, actually it wasn't. Chris and I had repainted the living room (same color, just fixing a couple of issues) and rearranged some furniture the night before and we were having Oasis group at our house in 4 hours...so I was rushing around to get things put back together. Macy hadn't been outside to go to the bathroom for a while, so I sent Alyssa out with her to make sure that she went. There was a chance of a storm, but no signs of it, so I really didn't think anything about it when I sent her out. 5-10 minutes later she came in and had had success with Macy. I praised both her and the dog. I then went back to straightening. About a minute later I went out to the garage to get something from my car. When I was out there I heard this huge gust of wind followed by a crash that could only have been one thing...a tree. I went inside to find Chris looking out the kitchen window at this:

My first thought was literally "Thank you Jesus, Alyssa had just been out there!" That perspective made a ruined patio set seem like nothing.

Our Oasis group came that evening and helped us get it cleaned up and out to the curb for large trash day which was the next day. While we were out there cleaning it up, I asked Chris if he would chop down the remainder of the tree. He went in the garage and grabbed his ax and went to chopping...in his flip-flops...

All of the sudden he disappeared and no one knew where he went. He came back outside many minutes later looking a little pale. Apparently there had been a little mishap with the ax...

Behold, Chris' broken, badly cut big toe. Poor guy was in a lot of pain...especially when Alyssa jumped on it. He dropped to the ground and it took quite a bit to convince Alyssa she hadn't hurt his toe. Chris has been such a good sport about this. He is in a post-op shoe for 5 weeks while the toe heals, and is having weekly appointments right now watching for infection since it was a "dirty cut."

We had a good chuckle last night as I was reading through a devotional. It was about taking risks, and the following three scriptures were sighted...

"When you work in a quarry, stones might fall and crush you! When you chop wood, there is danger with each stroke of your ax! Such are the risks of life."
Ecclesiastes 10:9

"The wise are cautious and avoid danger; fools plunge ahead with great confidence."
Proverbs 14:16

"A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
Psalm 91:5

Thank goodness God and Chris have a sense of humor!
(Love you sweetheart.)






3 comments:

  1. Chris! Proper PPE for chopping trees: Steel Toe Boots, Safety glasses, leather gloves

    here are a few more quotes (actually slogans)

    "Drive to Zero" - Dow Chemical

    "The Goal is Zero" - DuPont

    All jokes aside, glad to hear you're OK! See you next weekend!

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  2. Andrew - I have been alive 254,000 hours and this is my first broken bone / open fracture, so my OSHA rate is an impressive 0.78! Maybe you can make me a sticker that says "28 yrs OSHA Free"?

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