Off the Wall

[Dave Dow]

The Friday after Thanksgiving I went into work early so I could get some snow removal done early( that is 4:00 am Eastern Time ). That night we got our typical 7" snow fall. I started to plow the snow into a big pile so I could get into my loader( 1956 model with a little heater and cab ) and carry the snow across the street and dump the snow over the hill. I own the property across the street it was a old gas station. The back side of the property has a great view of the portage canal with a 130 foot drop to the next street on the back side and about 70 feet on the side of the property. I had one of my wrecker drivers with me when I was plowing, he jumped into the loader and started to haul the snow across the street. He was making a big pile over there. When we hauled most of the snow he got out and started to wash one of the wreckers while I jumped into the loader to haul more snow across the street. Here is when the fun begins. I grabed the first bucket to bring across the street and started to dump the snow over the hill on the shorter side when I hit hte brakes and they went to the floor!!?? I droped the bucket down so it would stop me but I was too far over the hill to make any difference. The machine will go into neutral when applying the brakes also. While I was starting down the bank I tried to pull on the door so I could jump out but all the information everyone told me was always stay with the equipment. Haveway down the inbankment I only thought of the son my daughter just had and how sad it was going to be when he would only have one grandpa. The hill by the way has a 80 degree desent. When I was riding down it seemed like it was in slow motion when it accualy wasen't. I got down to the bottom the machine did't roll over and it stalled out. I started it back up to see if it was gioing to run and it did. I shut all the lights off and started to climb back up the hill it took me about 20 min. I looked like a snow man when I got to the top after falling several times. When it got light out I had to get a 80 ton crane to get the loader out from where it was. We were busy at work that day so it kept my mind off the machine. When I got home that night I had one beer. Thinking about it now there are more things in this world that Dave Dow has to do . Someone was with me that morning. I held my grandchild for 3 hours on the following Saturday. It was enjoyable. I had my first Jr High game that was enjoyable. I hug my wife with a little more feeling now that is enjoyable. God is Great!!