A very close call and a warning.
Friday was almost a tragic day for me and but by the grace of God am I here to tell about it. As we all know it been extremely hot with heat indexes in the 100 to 115 degrees. This is not something to put aside as we plan our activities for the day.
My plan was to go to my house down the bayou and cut grass early before it got too hot. I haven’t cut grass in 6 months due to the fact that because of the high water most of my property has had from 3 inches to a foot of water on it. The old tractor didn’t want to start, try as much as I wanted. After about 2 hours I gave up. I was working under the car port with a breeze blowing so it wasn’t hot, rather the breeze made it pleasant. When I stopped Linda asked me to go to the store down the bayou and pick us up a pizza for lunch. While at the store I found a can of ether starting fluid. I came back to the house and we ate.
After a while I went back to try to start the tractor with the help of the starting fluid. It took me a bunch of tries but finally I got it running. I got myself a good long drink before I started as I was aware that now it was a little after noon and the sun was at it hottest with no clouds in sight. I rethought my plan and decided I would only cut the grass on the drive way and call it quits and come back early one morning to cut the rest. I made a pass from the carport to the highway and back. I had the tractor in low gear low speed because of the tall grass. That was one of the factors that help save me. Each trip up the driveway took about 6 minutes, I have a very long driveway. So it took me about 24 minutes to make 4 trips. I needed to make one more trip to have the whole drive cut plus a little on each side.
Before starting my last trip, thank God it wasn’t my “last” trip, I took a long drink of some Gatoraid and was off. Once I reached the front I decided to turn left an make a pass across the front of the property. When I reached the far side which was about 80 feet, I turned left again heading down the property line for about 30 feet. I then turned left and headed back toward the driveway. When reaching the drive I decided I’d repeat that one more time and then head back to the house. I turned the tractor left and then something happened. I’m not sure what but I can guess. I slightly remember attempting to turn left but was having trouble. I was blacking out. My next moment of being awake I was slumped over to the right trying to reach the steering wheel but was to weak to do so. I remember trying to grab the wheel but it was about 4 inches away. The next thing I remembered was looking at the ground passing beneath the tractor and recognizing that I was near the highway. I was out again. My next moment of being aware was when I saw the double yellow line of the middle of the highway passing below me. I was circling towards the bayou, not a good thing.
Meanwhile Linda looked up the drive to check on me and saw me slumped over and in a panic jumped in my truck and backed up the drive to come to me. I don’t know of what help she would have been because she knows nothing about the tractor. She arrived as the same time as a truck on the highway did.
The Good Lord was looking over me as the truck happened to be the fire chief who threw on his emergency lights which stopped all traffic which was coming. He started running around the tractor trying to stop it. He finally found the throttle and shut it down. In a matter of minutes he had his crew of volunteers and rescue personnel on the scene. I started to come around again and heard someone call his name. I couldn’t see clearly as I was dazed and had lost my glasses. I call his name and he came to me I told him who I was and to call my daughter who is a very good friend of his. He then recognized me. At first it was thought I had had a heart attack but I assured them that wasn’t the case and that it must have been the heat. They gave me some water and poured some on my neck and back in an attempt to cool me down. My head was clearing and I asked them to help me off the tractor which is a chore for someone fully aware of what’s going on. It a mini Kobota tractor and there is not much room between the seat and the wheel and it’s got all the shifting levers there making it a chore to get both legs over to one side. They got it done and I felt better with both feed on the ground. I ask them to get me to the house which they did and I was able to sit in the front of an AC unit and cool off. I was alright for now.
While slumped over my right arm was dangling down in front of the rear tire and it was rubbing it pretty hard. It’s a good thing it didn’t grab me and pull me off. I ended with a real nice brush burn but no skin was torn. It looks like I got sand papered. The ambulance showed up, checked my vitals, wrapped my arm and carted me off.
At the hospital they determined that I was ok and had probably passed out due to the heat. I wasn’t dehydrated but they gave me a bag of fluid anyway.
Now all is well for me except for an arm that need to heal and grow some new skin as I lost several layers. It’s not over for Linda yet; she’s having nightmares about the incident and has been having trouble falling asleep because she keeps reliving the event. Please keep her in your prayers that she can find peace knowing we live in a dangerous world but we have a Good God watching over us.
Be careful out in this heat, it's nothing to fool with. Drink plenty, wear a hat and try to get some shade if you must be out. I did all of these and still got in trouble. A friend told me after hearing about what happened to me that he lost a neighbor a few weeks back due to the heat. Do your fishing early and late when the sun is not so high.
“gene”
