I took a trip south to the country to help my good friend, DT, put up a barn. This morning I dug holes for posts. The place the owner chose for the barn was rocky ground.
"Why did he want it here?" I asked.
"I tried to talk him into the level spot over there, but he wanted it next to this storage barn. Thanks for the help. I didn't realize we would be busting up rock like this," DT replied with an apology.
"I'm glad to help. I suppose if you knew you could have called the Knox County Sheriff and gotten some of your former students. They've had experience."
"Oh, yeah, that kid, hell, he's 31 now, pleaded guilty to killing that guy, hacking him up, and burying the body parts; so, Lee didn't have to go for jury duty," DT said.
"That was the one you had in first grade?"
"Yeah, I told the principal he was weird, needed help, and that he'd probably kill someone some day if he didn't get help. A lot of people said that while he was in school."
"Good you didn't call the Sheriff. He would've sent that kid over. He's got skills with these tools I'd rather not see."
We broke up layers of rock with a pry bar to dig the holes. Using a power augur was out of the question ... it would have gotten hung up on a rock and caused someone serious injury. I've learned over the years that the "someone" is usually me. We took turns on the hand post hole digger. We then decided to sacrifice precision, and DT dug down through the sedimentary rock with the backhoe, making for more shoveling to set the posts. We got the posts set and broke for lunch.
DT drove me to the bank to deposit a check I had. I endorsed the check. The signature, though, was not mine. I mean, I was the one who signed my name; but the signature looked nothing like mine. It was as if another person was in my body controlling my hand -- or not controlling my hand. I tried to sign my name; but my hand went all jagged on me, making spiky letters at an odd angle. I couldn't tell if I even spelled it right.
Posted by Bill at September 20, 2006 10:40 PMHad to be all the work with the pry bar; 'course, you knew that, didn't ya'? :)
Posted by: Trace at September 21, 2006 03:53 AMIt is always nice to be reminded that I wasn't the only teacher of very young children who greatly feared that I would read about some of my students in the paper one day. Uhhh, not because they were accepted into Harvard, but rather accepted with open arms into the state prison system.
I wish more children would get help when they are young.
Posted by: moonandsun03 at September 21, 2006 12:19 PMI check the newspaper each morning for my ex pupils. Nothing yet, hopefully we did a good job on them. Has your arm stopped shaking yet?
Posted by: Anji at September 22, 2006 11:27 AM