Re: Up in An Attic In August in Yuma Arizona

[ABLE1 <somewhere@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/18/2018 2:58 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
> On Friday, August 17, 2018 at 6:18:42 PM UTC-4, ABLE1 wrote:
>> On 8/17/2018 12:49 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
>>> Hey, that's not fair.
>>>
>>> I can't think of any "nice" stories.
>>>
>>> But, â?¦.. then again,.... I live in New York.
>>
>>
>> Come on Jim, New Yorkers have gotta have a nice story
>> somewhere...............
>>
>> Maybe a customer that paid for the whole job up front in cash??
>>
>> Or how about, I went to a house that had a 36" crawl space that had
>> concrete from wall to wall easily 40' x 30'.  With a very smooth finish.
>> Even had a center drain that the concrete was sloped towards.
>> Had to go in to spice some wires up between the floor joist.
>> Right there beside the hatch was a new Mechanics Floor Creeper.
>>
>> Yee haw!!!!  Well that made my day!!
>>
>> Les
>
> Damn!
>
> Jealousy is a cruel affliction. I never have such luck.
>
> Generally speaking, most New Yorkers are pretty nice â?¦. particularly in the suburban areas. It's just that we don't take any crap from anyone and likely have a short fuse.
>
> My son describes me as:
>
> You're a nice guy
> You're a nice guy
> You;re a nice guy
> You're a nice guy
>
> Then you're not.
> .
> But anyway, speaking of crawl spaces â?¦.
> Reminds me â?¦.. Years (and years)  ago, one of my customers mother, (who was not my customer), and who had an unmonitored alarm system had a problem with her system. My customer asked if I could take a look at it. Her house was on a canal and had a crawl space because of the proximity to the canal. When I got there I noticed that the house had a "smell" to it that I just attributed to cooking or whatever but it didn't have significance to me until later.
> .
> Trouble shooting indicated that there was an open in one zone. After checking all the contacts I concluded that it was probably from a rodent chewing on the wires in the crawl space. After searching for the key to the lock on the outside Bilko crawl space doors, I opened it, probably for the first time in years. The crawl was about 4 feet high, (more than enough room ) but ��. the dirt floor was a complete solid sheet of jelly like fungus (I guess ?) about an inch or two thick.
> .
> Being pretty young at the time I got my knee pads on and "waded" in. Found and repaired the chewed wire. I had to hose my self off and clean myself up with rags before I left and then had to go home to shower.
> .
> I gotta tell ya, I could smell that S*@%t for WEEKS afterwards. I told her son about the problem but I don't know if they ever did anything about it.
> .
> Probably made a fortune selling it to a laboratory to make penicillin or something.
>

Now you see Jim, you are a nice guy.  You crawled into that muck and
slop and did a nice thing for a little old lady.  :-)

BTW this is fun!!

Reminds me of a crawl space where I was installing stereo speakers in
walls.  The customer wanted the speakers about receptacle height through
out in a very old house. On the East Wing I cut out plaster and wire
mesh for the speaker and drilled my 3/4" hole down to the crawl space.
Inserted the wire enough that it was just dangling.  Went down to the
basement and went to the hatch.  Used my flashlight and looked back
about 25' or so and could see the wire hanging there. Yea!!

I got into the crawl space (just dirt) and started to crawl my way back
to the wire.  After about 15' or so I noticed that the bottom of the
floor joist were rubbing my back.  I had to lay down and slither like a
snake.  Another 6'-7' I could barely move.  I was in wedge.  The dirt
was rising.  I had a another 2' or 3' to go in order to just touch
the wire.  I reached my arm out as much as I could and continued to
slither.  Finally got the tip of my finger on the wire.  Just a little
more.............. Had to take a breather.  That is when I realized that
if I got wedged that tight and could not get out, nobody would know
where I was since I was the only one in the house at the time. And
that they would not find me until I started to STINK!!  Oh, and cell
phones did not exist as yet, so calling for help would never happen.

I considered stopping at point and maybe come up with a plan "B".
But, I was soooooo close.  I wiggled a little more and finally got my
finger and thumb on the wire.  I then inched (1/4") at a time pulling
the wire down until I had enough that I could grab hold in my hand.
Then I had to reverse inch myself back out and pulling the wire.  It
took me all but an hour from then time I went in until I got back out.
I was a very happy guy at that time!!!  Sat on the basement steps for a
while trying to relax.  It was T&M job so all was good.

Today, if I had to do it again I would use my R/C Truck to retrieve the
wire with a hook.  Would be done in about 3 minutes.

Thanks Bob for starting this thread.  Good job!!  I guess it was good
you sweated you ass off in your attic and decided to share.  :-)

Looking forward to the next installment to this thread.

Les