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This has been discussed many times, but this past week it seems the illness of Head Up Butt disease hit me several times. Most of it was based just on not paying attention at the time and some proving Mr. Murphy and his descendant are still alive and well. The boss would have me in a headlock and I hate to think of the looks or comments. He has no problem giving an opinion on things like this.

Routing the top and back flush, felt something bite me on the leg and instead of stopping, for some reason I looked away at what it was and routed a nice gash in the back. I can eventually fix it, but darn. Found what bit me was a brown recluse spider, so that is another issue dealing with after 2 night of feeling like crap.


When routing binding and purf channels, and talking to a neighbor at the same time was doing well. Until I realized I was routing purf channel herringbone width like the top. Can fix it, but again a pain in the butt. At the same time I forgot to put a end graft in so of course I have some design and decor fix on the back and end graft area.

Along with other nitwit things and knowing that building is a "in order and sequence" thing twice on one of them, I got sequence F before sequence B. Fixable things always, but way more work and hassle than need be.

So now it is poster on shop door, "working and easily distracted, stay away" and to myself be prepared to go to work and have my mind on that, and not other things. Not to go in tired or not feeling it at the time. Lucky I didn't do stupid things when working with the joiner, table saw, band saw, and other machines that cause more than a bad cosmetic problem.

You went to the Doctor Right!!! BRS are not to be F'd with! Already the tissue is necrotizing .... dying. If your not on heavy antibiotics they will have to cut out the dead tissue depending damage. You will do nothing but get worse. I know of 2 people that were bit by them and they waited for things to turn black before they went to the doctors. Very BAD thing! Go to the hospital immediately!!!!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

if i looked down and saw a big spider biting me, the router would have flung my guitar thru the concrete wall, and i would have followed screaming like a girl!
i got a couple of (what i believe is) spider bites on my bicep back in july, and they still itch and bother me, they left little hard scars. i hate and fear all spiders.

+1 on getting to a doctor about the spider! I just smashed a whopper brown recluse in the kitchen the other day. And last year I had a medium sized one crawl up my side in bed, and swiped it off thinking it was just a hair... mangled it, and thankfully didn't get bit. Hate spiders, and we've been getting more and more of those monster recluses these past few years.

I've been all grumpy for the past week because I've had too many distractions keeping me out of the shop, but it's certainly better to get nothing done than to muck things up and spend more time fixing it than you would have if you'd just waited. Although when it's a spider sneaking up on you, there's not really anything you could have done about it. At least you had the nerves not to totally panic and send the router and/or guitar flying.

Stay safe, everyone.

Get that spider bite looked at. The venom will cause the skin in the area surrounding the bite to die. Putting nitro paste like the stuff they use for heart attack patients on the tissue surrounding the bite can mitigate the amount of tissue loss and keep it to a minimum. Don't waste any more time in getting that treated! Oh, sorry about the guitar disasters.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

My son is in his residency for emergency medicine and he precscribed some meds. He was a little hacked I waited and told me they have had a rash of this with the warm winter and dampness. He was concerned it caused a fever and other things, but said should be OK. One of my friends I golf and fly fish with is also an ER guy (was Chief of Emergency Med and Cook in Chicago) so he is keeping an eye on it also. Said I might get some dead tissue and need it cleaned on occasion which he can do at the house.

One can never be too safe. We all get lucky now and then. When tools are running you must keep your mind on what you are doing. I know how easy you can get distracted and the consequences.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Got that right. Hey John, thanks for the help yesterday. I found a good 1/4-20 piece of all thread and a knob that worked well. Trimmer sitting tight on the rig and did three guitars today.

glad I could help out

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Wow. We don't have brown recluse spiders around here, but plenty of black widows. They aren't nearly has dangerous as the recluse, and are very shy. But you do learn to look under nearly anything before putting your hand under it. Glad you're doing ok.

One interesting tidbit. I bug bombed my shop but I misread the label and didn't use enough for the cubic feet of the shop. It didn't seem to affect the daddy longlegs at all but the black widows were all pretty much goners.

Darrin