Thursday, July 22, 2010

Teeth Are Made For Chewing, Hands Are Made For Catching

I grew up working construction with my three brothers: Tom, Andrew, and Austin. Our Dad always had some side project going to supplement his pastor's salary, or a rental house that needed some fixing up. No matter what we worked on, though, we always enjoyed doing it together.

This summer, all of my brothers are at home with my parents, and Ashley and I live less than an hour away. For the past week, I've been making the commute to do a siding job with the three of them. We've been having fun...

Until Wednesday...

A vital tool in the field of vinyl siding is the tin snip. We had three of them and four of us. We were playing "musical snips," tossing them back and forth to each other all day as needed.

I was working around the front of the house, and everyone else was in the back. As I was walking around the house, I heard Austin yell "HEADS UP! HEADS UP! HEADS UP!" When I rounded the corner, I saw Andrew and Austin looking very concerned, and Tom kneeling in the yard with a tooth in his hand, spitting blood on the grass.

Here's what happened. Tom needed to borrow the tin snips from Austin, who was working on the deck above the yard, about 10-12 feet high. Austin grabbed the tool, looked up, thought Tom saw him, and tossed the tool to the perfect spot for Tom to catch. But as you've probably guessed, Tom wasn't looking...

When Austin yelled "Heads up!", Tom looked up just in time to catch the snips right in the mouth. He busted his lip wide open, and broke his canine right in half.

He took the rest of the day off.

Four stitches, and one temporary tooth cap later, he's still feeling pretty smoked. Hopefully as the days go on he'll feel better.

Just goes to show that you never know what each day will bring... Especially when people are throwing tin snips around all day.

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