October 18, 2014

It has been some time since any blogs have been recorded, so this will bring us up to date with two close calls/adventures.  It must have been in the summer of 2002 that I had built a playhouse about ten feet up the big apple tree in the southeast corner of our back yard.  Then I noticed that the limbs on the west side of the playhouse formed an opening to the west of the yard.  Then I thought how fun it would be if we had a zip line across the yard from the playhouse.  I was able to get about 65 feet of heavy cable from Scott for the zip line.  The next thing was to secure it in the apple tree and find a place on the other side to anchor it at a lower height, thus allowing enough descent for a fun ride.

I thought it could be anchored to the apricot tree; but the rider would crash into the tree trunk.  So I bought two metal poles that were buried into the ground and connected at the top with a steel rod that I had used for pullups.  The steel line was anchored to the steel rod, so that the rider would be stopped from crashing into the wood fence.  I found that the steel rod needed to be braced strongly, as the rider would be coming rapidly with considerable momentum.  The zip line was secured at both ends.  Then I purchased a canvas seat that was hung from the zip line from a pulley.  Then the zipline was adjusted many times to find the best tightness for a successful ride.

Then I tried the ride a few times until the best speed was achieved, WOW, what a ride.  My neighbor, Wynston Sumpter, also enjoyed it too.  Under close supervision it was also enjoyed by the Willis boys and Madelyn.  Ellen even tried it after much coaxing.

Then a near disaster occurred.  I rode it on a thrilling ride that ended with me flat on my back with the steel rod across my chest and head.  The force of the crash could have seriously injured both head and body.  I am sure that my guarding angels protected me.  But later improvements were added to allow many fun rides.  When the Johnson kids allowed a hefty baby sitter to try with it--- a slight accident, I retired the zip line to our garage for installation in another yard some day.


Another close call  occurred  when Ellen and I were returning from shopping.  As I started to turn left off  Orem  Blvd,  Ellen suddenly urged me to go straight for some other shopping.  So I quickly turned right to continue on Orem Blvd, but a heavy duty pickup truck hit our front right fender, knocking our Tiburon to the left.  I drove it to the right side and parked it, while I hurried up the street where the woman in the pickup had stopped.  We looked at her pickup chassis and could not see that it had been damaged.  But our Tiburon right front fender was smashed.  If the pickup had been a second slower in passing us, Ellen and the right side of our car would have  been crushed.  Guarding angels again.