...The only break I had was yesterday afternoon, to take my car in for its MOT (yes my wheel speed sensor fix worked, and it passed with only 1 advisory), and the replacement ground crew managed to get his phone run over. Some people...
Hey, at least he didn't run over your phone with a scissorlift...
mnem
think (+). charge (-).
Of course not, I'm not a fuckwit that leaves his phone on the floor where a 2.5 tonne scissor lift is driving around.
Well yes, but we are talking aboot fuckwits here. There is no doubt in my mind that given sufficient exposure to their presence, they can and will find a way to run over your phone too.
mnem
it does seem that "the lowest common denominator" always resolves all over me.
To be clear, I'm calling the person replacing me as the ground crew a fuckwit, not the driver. The whole point One of the main reasons for the ground crew is to spot dangers that the driver might not reasonably be expected to see from 12 metres up in a dimly lit sports hall, while trying not to bang the MEWP into structural steels or 3 inch gas pipes (the other main reason being to operate emergency controls should the MEWP fail or the driver is decapitated).
Sorry... this is how I read that... having used them more than a few times, and never with benefit of any "workman's safety agency" making sure I had adequate assistance of that nature, I'll tell you they scare the ever-loving bejeezus outta me.
Especially one time when due to narrow spaces between beams, I misjudged my most personal locational situation, and all-too-narrowly avoided rupturing a halide lamp with the back of my big ol' fuzzy haid. Literally got close enough to feel the static and heat and too much environmental noise to hear the buzz...
mnem
"tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I...."
In my first full time job at 16 there were no MEWPs. Some of the 8ft flourescent tubes about 25ft up in the high bay needed changing. The fixtures were on chains so nowhere to put the top of the ladder. Guess who got sent up 3 section extending ladder that was held vertically by a couple of blokes The ladders moving, the fittings swinging around and I'm trying to get the pins aligned. Things you did when you didn't know any better .
My main job was component level repairs on early electroinc amusement (arcade) machines. This was mostly video games and early electronic pintables. However there was not enough of tht to be full time. So you did what ever ws needed. So that was everything from old Jennings "Indian" mechanical fruit machines, refurbishing the cinema projection suite, acting as assistant projectonist, working on early electromechanical fruits with 240V mains on open leaf contacts on relays and sequencers. We also built machines including a video blackjack machine that used an Intel 4040 based board. Test equipment was basic. An AVO 8, Solartron 7040 DMM, a Philips 10MHz dual trace 'scope (can't recall the model but had TV trigger etc) and a "Yaesu" digital frequency counter with 7 seg filament display.
It taught me a lot. I now only go up ladders that are at the right angle on solid non-slip surfaces and if more the 6ft up they are "footed" and secured near the top.
When I worked at TVW7 Studios, there was one lamp that was situated in the "stairwell" alongside the stairs to the second floor.
There was no way to reach it from the stairs, the second floor, or the ground floor, so the Electrician got an extension ladder, dragooned about a dozen people into helping, most standing on successive steps of the staircase, holding the ladder back against the stair rail, & some "footing the base".
This unorthodox method worked well, but raised the obvious question:-
How many TVW staff does it take to change a lightbulb?At a previous job, we had fluoros set into the ceiling in our cavernous transmitter hall, so changing them entailed the use of "the mother of all stepladders".
That was not so bad--------a worse job was changing conventional incandescents in flush fittings at the top of an even higher "breezeway" at the side of the building.
The big ladder just made it, but undoing corroded screws to obtain access, then getting showered by dead moths, whilst teetering at "full stretch" on a ladder got "old" pretty fast!
Needless to say, we cursed the unknown architect who designed such dumb things into a basically utilitarian building.
They looked good, but that was about it!