Re: Circuitously Related

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 8/4/2020 5:51 AM, ABLE1 wrote:
 > On 8/3/2020 9:18 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
 >> On Saturday, August 1, 2020 at 4:04:28 PM UTC-4, ABLE1 wrote:
 >>
 >>>>
 >>>>
 >>>> My worst one (the reason I own the 1" spline drive rotary hammer)
was a
 >>>> vertical through a floor in an old post office building.  Almost 3
feet
 >>>> of structural concrete that was well aged.  (Built around 1920 I
think.)
 >>>> We found a smaller 3/8 or 1/2 (I forget) that was long enough to drill
 >>>> all the way through, (just barely) with the Makita SDS+ drive, but
 >>>> nothing big enough for SDS so we went to the 1" spline drive and
punched
 >>>> 1-1/2" holes.  We would use the SDS to punch a pilot all the way
 >>>> through, then drill from both sides with the spline drive to make the
 >>>> holes big enough for our wire bundles.  Took 3 days to make 4 holes.
 >>>>
 >>>> I remember that job very well.  F-ing electrician stole all my
conduit.
 >>>
 >>>
 >>> Shoot the electrician!!!  Not that bad here.  Had a electrician use my
 >>> holes for his romex runs in a new construction job a number of years
 >>> back.  Said my piece with the GC.  Electrician pulled and re-ran his
 >>> wires.  The sad part was that I had a couple of Low Voltage wires
 >>> already in those holes.  Fortunately there were no wire burns on the
 >>> sheath.   It really is sad when you think about the extra work that
 >>> is needed to get the the job done right!!
 >>
 >> Jeeeze. You guys are a lot nicer than I am.
 >>
 >> Just as a precursor to these stories, I must say that I am always
aware of how my work may interfere with other contractors and go out of
my way to contact them before proceeding if I don't see a workaround to
a conflict of use of space, time or whatever. Occasionally other
contractors do not reciprocate.
 >>
 >> Through the years I've had various occasions to have inconsiderate
or downright nasty contractors invade my space. Most memorable ......
 >>
 >> A doctor that had been my customer for many years was moving to a
new building and wanted me to install a new alarm system. Since he was
moving some of his equipment in while renovations were going on he
wanted the alarm system in early and he would come and arm and disarm
the system for contractors as they appeared on the job. There was a
space downstairs beside the basement stairway where I mounted a piece of
plywood for the alarm panel. The alarm system worked well until after
they moved in. A few months later they had a problem and called me for a
service call to change the entry and exit doors so employees could come
and go through the back door instead of having to walk through the
waiting room. Had to run new wire so I go down to the basement and where
my alarm panel had been mounted now was the telephone system KSU. MY
alarm panel had been removed from the board and was hanging by a nail
from a ceiling rafter. Still working, of course.
 >>
 >> Hmmmmmm!............... Aghhhhhhhh!
 >>
 >> So, ........
 >> I had another piece of plywood in the van and was able to manipulate
the cable from the alarm panel so that it looked  pretty ok but not the
way I would usually find acceptable. But certainly not the way it was
originally. My first impulse was to go up and report what had happened
to the doctor but  I realized that the event would have very little
significance to him. I ran the new wire for the new entry exit door and
got the system working the way he wanted it.
 >>
 >> THEN :
 >> I went out to the van got a piece of scrap metal and my hacksaw. I
put a rag on the ground and proceeded to cut a number of cuts in the
scrap metal. I gathered up the cuttings and the very last thing I did
before I quickly left the building was to go down to the KSU and
sprinkle the iron filings liberally over the PCB's.
 >>
 >> BOY THESE ELECTRONIC SYSTEM --- YA JUS NEVER KNOW WHAT KIND OF
PROBLEMS YER GONNA HAVE WITH THEM ...... RIGHT?
 >>
 >> I didn't have to go back for a long time so I don't know what happened.
 >>
 >> Another time had to do with a plumber who burned the insulation off
of all the wires in a sizable cable run when he was sweating a copper
pipe in the basement. Again, I didn't say anything to the GC for what
could he have done about it? The result was me drilling a series of 1/16
inch holes drilled randomly in the main PVC waste pipes and in the
second floor PVC from the shower and toilet. I drilled in the top sides
and bottom so that it didn't appear to be vandalism / intentional. And
not a lot of holes but some strategically so they were aimed at the
drywall ceilings and walls.
 >> i GUESS IT MUSTA BEEN A DEFECT IN THE PIPE FROM THE MANUFACTURER
that caused him to have to open the sheet rock and replace all the PVC
because he had no idea which pipe was good or bad. Other than his
transgression to my wires he must have been a good plumber because he
had the foresight to test the system before the construction was totally
completed. Lucky him.  It was really, really sad to see all the extra
work he had to do. Tsk, tsk. But it was MUCH MUCH longer than it took me
to cut and splice all the burnt wires.
 >>
 >> There have been others events but those are the two most memorable.
 >>
 >> I'm sure they never knew their misfortune was because of their
inconsiderateness or carelessness
 >>
 >> But I did.
 >>
 >> Don't f&8# with the alarm guy.
 >>
 >
 > That is very nasty!!
 >
 > I have added my time spent to either a change order
 > or a future service call to offset the extra time
 > spent if I couldn't get those that screwed up my work
 > make it right.
 >
 > I may have consider or dreamed about your method
 > but would never have gone that far.
 >
 > I assume that the Statute of Limitations have expired??
 >
 > Lee


Back in the late 1980s I ran a trap line while I was in transition
between working for the phone company and going back to college.  The
hardest I ever worked in my life, and perhaps the one job I loved more
than any other.

A few years ago one of my farmer buddies found out I used to run traps,
and asked me about doing some paid control work on the farms they own
and some of the land they lease.  I figured I could run a short line or
three in just an hour or two in the morning to help him out and get paid
to do something I used to enjoy doing.

In the effort to always be a legal and ethical outdoors person I called
the region supervisor for Arizona Game & Fish to get up to date on the
regulations.  Much has changed.  We sat in the back of their big
conference hall while they state commission was doing some sentencing
via teleconference of a guy who had done some unethical harvesting.
During our conversation we discussed many things about trapping.  At one
point we mentioned rabbits that are just hopping along winding their own
business and step in a trap.  As it turns out its illegal to trap
rabbits and if you trap one by accident you have to let it go.  I did
not know that and it didn't make any sense to me anyway.  A rabbit with
one bad foot isn't going to live out the day anyway.  A coyote will eat
it for sure, and even a kit fox could take down an injured cotton tail.
I laughed and said, "Well I'm sure the glad the statute of limitations
has expired by now, because," and that's when he held up his hand and
stopped me.

"Be careful what you say Bob.  The statute of limitations doesn't start
when an act is committed.  It starts when it has been discovered that an
act has been committed."

Now I don't know if that is accurate exactly how it was said.  I haven't
gone to the local law library and read up on it, but there have been
some court cases on that subject, and I have run across a couple
references that seem to indicate its mostly true.

If it was just discovered today that a crime had been committed...