???

I came home after just two days on the road with a story to tell. I really would like to have not had this story to tell.

I could use a little help from you. It’s a movie title that is just hanging on the end of my tongue. The movie is about a young man and some of his classmates. They are on a plane and right before the plane leaves the gate he has a premonition, bad feeling or whatever about the plane crashing. He gets off the plane with a few of his friends. The plane crashes and the rest of the movie is death catching up with them because they were fated to die on the plane. They were cheating deaths design. For the life of me I can’t think of the movie title. I wanted to use it for the title of this post. You out there Film Geek? This is right up your alley.

As most of my blogging buddies know, six months ago I had an accident. I lost most of the use of my left hand. Briefly for those unfamiliar and to tie this post together, I had an accident with a table saw. I severely cut all four fingers on my left hand. Parts of two fingers were cut completely off. With the other two receiving permanent nerve damage. My thumb escaped uninjured.

Yesterday morning there was a freak accident at work. This job was different from the job I normally do. Instead of being a construction electrician I was a destruction electrician. Instead of putting a plant together, we were disassembling one. I was in the basement and had just cut the strap holding a piece of 1 1/2″ conduit in place. The pipe was only about seven feet long and there were only two straps holding it. With the straps cut it should have fallen right to the floor. Well, it didn’t so I reach up with my right hand and try to jerk it free. Still it wouldn’t budge. I’m on a ladder and the pipe is to my left. I start looking for another brace or something holding the pipe. I reach over with my left hand basically just to reaffirm that the pipe was stuck. I don’t have any grip strength in my left hand so I knew if my right hand couldn’t get it then I couldn’t get it.

Have you ever picked up something you expect to be much heavier? It seems like your body’s muscles tense up then unwound on a paper bag you expected to be carrying bricks. It’s hard to explain. Anyway when I reach and give the pipe a little tug with my left hand it comes immediately free catching me completely off guard. Between myself and the pipe was a structural I beam. When the pipe came to me it was so unexpected that I didn’t have time to let go before it caught my thumb between the pipe and the beam. For that I have to go this morning and have pins put in my thumb. It has a compound fracture between the first and second knuckle.

When I was sitting in the ER I couldn’t help but relate my left hand to the movie mentioned earlier. It’s like my hand was fated to be rendered useless six months ago. Fate caught up with my hand yesterday, now it is useless. I’m not looking for sympathy, I’m just taking it in stride. Something else I’ve been thinking, I don’t know what it is that fate has slated for me but it’s pretty evident whatever it is, it’s only going to require one hand.

I’m not sure what, if any, effect this will have on my AT hike. As far as the hand, I’m going whether I can use it or not. It’s meeting financial criteria I have set for the hike that may be a problem. I’ll know more about that in the next day or so. I don’t know how much downtime this is going to cause. I’ve never had a broken bone.

I thought I might remember the name of the movie by the end of this post, but it still eludes me. If someone would be so kind as to name that movie then you will also name this post.

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Adding…
As I suspected, The Film Geek was right on top of the movie title… Final Destination. Since that is the name of the movie, I’ve reconsidered naming this post by the same title. Wouldn’t make any since. Maybe the question marks will stay. At any rate, thanks FG.

Update on the hand… the only thing I got accomplished this morning was x-rays and making an appointment with an Orthopedic Surgeon for Tuesday. For now I am dead in the water and living with a broken bone. The good thing, I still have one good hand to type with and one finger on that hand is becoming quite good at bouncing around the keyboard.