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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Bridgetown, Barbados, Barbados
    Posts
    118

    Default When do you quit?

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    I work trouble,we work in pairs.I am 48 and still climb.Had a lights flickering and it stayed with the dispatcher until I got to work.Complaint came in the night before,I started at 2pm.Pole off the road,truck had no access.Shift before me say they were told not to climb,one guy is 58.How do you guy determine when you had enough,do you decide on your own,do you have an age that you stop at that management determines?I do not feel good climbing a pole in the back and a guy on the ground with some clean work boots on.Your thoughts.

  2. #2

    Default

    It sounds like your working with some of the guys Ive worked with....I was going to start a thread on that.....Ill assume we all had to Carry another lineman in the past...could have been cause he was too lazy,out of shape....tired...worried about climbing a rotten pole when it wasnt that bad.....that stuff happens,but Im pretty much safe...in this nice retirement home Ive found

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    ireland/ Dublin
    Posts
    2,119

    Default Never quit

    I'm 51 this year. Still climb " if I have to " but the younger guys do most of the spike work. I work the bucket mostly , but to take umbrage with Reppy I ain't being carried, we all have different strengths , I can see problems before they arise ( with 30 plus ) years in the trade. Experience can save the day at times... Ain't much I ain't done in linework .. I mightn't get up the pole as quick, but when im up there I can sometimes be a lot quicker. ( I've learned a few short cuts and can see problems before they arise ).

    So I'm not ready to Quit just yet.
    IF IT WASN'T FOR BAD LUCK WE WOULD HAVE NO LUCK AT ALL. !

  4. #4

    Default

    The way I see it is this is kinda a management issue. Managers/ suppervison should be pairing younger blood with the seniors. I'm 26 and will not let an older lineman hook if I'm on the job. Most guys in my department have the same mind set.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    1,012

    Default

    Around here most ( not all) of the young lads are quite content to let the older fellas do every thing for them. Don't get me wrong, we have a couple of really good young lineman, but they are the minority.

  6. #6

    Default I can work in my hooks better than most.

    I worked backlot most of my life due to the heavy crews always got layed off too much. I spent five years every day in my tools for so long that when I was nervous running a pistol grip. I am the same age, 48. But I still school people in working the hooks. What I notice is new journeyman rig.like they are out of the bucket all the time and you can see they dont know how to work with a handline and short rig themselves.to death. You can tell if a lineman works the tools a lot by his hammer. If he has a 24 inch claw hammer, he works the tools. If he has a 3 pound maul, he is a bucket guy. With a long hammer you take off and slide out your rigging. I noticed that over the years. When I work with apprentices in my hooks, I see that they will have those short mauls. After a day with me they buy a claw a next day. Just a heavy ass tool you can do nothing with but drive lags.

  7. #7

    Default

    Hammers..............what if he has a pink handled hammer ....bobbo?

  8. #8

    Default what a panty waist

    You guys make me feel weak or better yet you give me the strength to go on.

    I climbed after my first hip replacement a couple of times just for fun. Now

    with both hips replaced, a torn rotation cuff left and rights been dislocated.Dented on all four corners old enough
    I've got damage in my eyes from sunlight and or flashes. Still don't need glasses though.
    My hooks and belt went on eBay November last year.I still carry the tools

    Born in 1965 Started aprentiship in 1979 jumped off the tail boards of more trucks up ladders etc, better part of 34 years? Why stop now, I'm just getting good at it, got my journeyman ticket and PE liciance it,s who I am. Can't stop and I won't stop. Always been taught we as a band of brothers don't leave our wounded by the side of the road.

  9. #9

    Default Williamson

    This thread kinda went south but it reminded me of some post in the Tricks of the Trade" forum. Mr.Swamprat's (Old Line Dog) posts aren't there any more but Mr. Williamsons' still are.

    Enjoy.



    get a bigger hammer...

    hey sometime ya got to...

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    well **** Swimpy... maybe I should paint a picture...

    your right us old cats get it...

    seen young bucks framing up a pole with a ground one boy had an 8oz ball peen and the other a 3 pound flat faced maul... the boy with the ball peen worked the **** outa himself and only got half the work done... the other kid? work done and busy getting a shovel to clean the auger...

    same kids...

    one driving a hard head with the toy hammer takes a min and a half and is sweatin... the other a quick tap to set it... 3 or 4 solid hits and he's off to the next gig...

    I reckon the "trick" is to get the tools for the job learn them and what they are good for... but most importantly watch how others use them...

    you can work the **** outa your self...

    or you can get a bigger hammer...

    Edge



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    ahhh hell Swimpy it prolly was a fuggin 32 oz... still a toy imo... I use a 4 pound double flat face one side for steel and crete waffled on the other for wood...

    I reckon there is a point though...

    I once told JB that while he has Koga as his Zen master I had my old man...

    heres some zen from my old man...

    I was working out a turn around... the wire had been sagged and we were laying up the jumpers for clippin on some bundle 230... the old 60 ton had jammed up (was low on fluid)... so me being the young badass that I thought I was at the time... whipped out my hawkbill cut the fuggin hoses and airmailed that ***** from 80 ft or so.... well my foreman flew hot.... cuz it was the only hypress on the job and it was gonna be a day to get new hoses...
    I gave him the its a piece of **** line and he gave me the if ya don't like my job you know where the highway is line...

    so I gave him the finger and bailed... (another trick of the trade always quit them in a bind boys! that way they know the NEED ya!)

    well I got home wife told me they had called wanted me back .... whatever... the old man had called me need a hand doing some **** at his place....

    so instead of calling Meyers back I called the old man he was home so I said I'd be there in an hour or so... turn out he had some fence down... needed to get it back up... so I went out to the garage got some gloves a few grips a comealong and then jumped in the old powerwagon and off I went...

    got to my old man's he's jabbering about how I should be at work I'm jabbering about how he should be at work... he comes back with I'm management I work when I want to... yada yada...

    finally we get the ****ed fence row back up...

    and he looks at me as asks point blank..."so why ain't you at work boy?"
    so I tell him the story...

    he looks at me and says "Boy your my son... and a hell of a good lineman... but your only as good as your tools..."
    I say "ohhh really?"
    he looked back at me and said "yeah... hand my those sidecutters..." I tossed him my Kliens.
    He unrolled some more barbed wire and cut it of then started twisting it around the gate post.
    "take that end to the next post and twist it around and cut off whats left"
    so I took it over and started twisting it up then asked him for my kliens to cut off the tail..

    he promptly threw my sidecutters as far as he could out into the field...

    "Pop WTF man thats the only pair of cutters we got!"

    he looked at me and grinned...

    "Exactly!"

    for what it's worth

    Edge



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    Work Safely,
    L. A. Martin
    Journeyman
    Div III CVEC
    There's no such thing as "The End Of The Line!"

    If you think you are worth what you know, you are very wrong. Your knowledge today does not have much value beyond a couple of years. Your value is what you can learn and how easily you can adapt to the changes this profession brings so often. -- Jose M. Aguilar

  10. #10

    Default back on topic

    Featured Sponsorr

    I've had my knee's, back, right elbow all cut on and just got home 30 mins ago from having my left shoulder operated on (blew it out at work laying up 4/0 to a transformer on a 40c5) I plan on getting back up the stick as soon as they release me.

    I will say though after 20+ years it's starting to hurt a little however I can't imagine anything better than the view from pole top!

    Work safely,

    L.A. Martin
    Journeyman Div III
    CVEC
    There's no such thing as "The End Of The Line!"

    If you think you are worth what you know, you are very wrong. Your knowledge today does not have much value beyond a couple of years. Your value is what you can learn and how easily you can adapt to the changes this profession brings so often. -- Jose M. Aguilar

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