LUCKY # 13

THE DANGERS OF ELECTRICITY


We are extending the deck at the front of the house at present. This will give us better outside entertaining, a different angled view of the harbour looking West to the hills and will cover the useless bit of lawn at the front so that I won't have to mow it. It all looks pretty good at present except for the fact that from one corner you can now reach up and touch the telephone wires. You can, with a stick or umbrella also touch the power line which annoyingly spoils the view.

I have been reading up on power lines and there are conflicting opinions. Some say that it is perfectly safe to touch power lines unless the rubber coating is damaged. Others say that if you touch them you fry. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. I will put large pots in the corner where this is an issue so that no one can experiment.
Electricity gives me the creeps as I had a bad experience with it once.

Lucky # 13

My Dad was a tradesman and owned a plastering business. He had lots of jobs going on building sites around Wellington and I used to help him on school holidays. I used to mix concrete and plaster for the men, make the tea and generally help out. I used to enjoy climbing the scaffolding on the tall buildings. No mishaps happened in doing that.

I remember once setting up the concrete mixer in a building. It was about a seven story building that had the framework and concrete floors finished but everything was still pretty rough. I was on one of these floors where there were stacks of timber, piles of sand, cement and lime bags, steel etc. and there was a lot of water. Water on building sites is the norm from taps and hoses, spilled buckets and the elements as invariably there are no windows. I ran the very long power cord from the electrical box to the mixer. I normally would run the cord through a power transformer before the mixer and cannot remember if I had done so on this day. The cord of course ran through several puddles of water and was wet. As I plugged it into the mixer there was a flash and a bang and I was literally thrown about fifteen feet against a wall. If the wall hadn't been there I don't know how far I would have gone.

It was a weird sensation. I had bitten my tongue so that hurt and hitting the concrete wall hurt but I also had a dull ache in my chest and arms. I checked myself thoroughly but had no burns or puncture marks so I don't know where the electricity went. Maybe it stayed inside me.

My feet are so tired

My brain is so wired

And the clouds are weepin'.

- Bob Dylan 'Lovesick'

I got a new and dry power cord making sure that it was nowhere near water, rigging up a complex system of trestles before plugging in the mixer again. After that I have always had a healthy respect for electricity.