What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

Ahh, so no need to purchase special ballasts, it is a simple bulb swap then.

 

Yes.

The last LED bulbs I was supposed to cut out ballasts and wire them hot on one side and negative on the other. So that's what I did with these.. and that's what led me all back to where I started from , a Florescent fixture that just can take those special bulbs.

 

Will you spend enough time in there to make the LED bulbs ever pay for themselves?
This is a bit of a peeve for me...they have been having me replace perfectly good working fluorescent light fixtures with LED at work...just for the sake of "being green"...I mean I get it if the lights run at least a few hours per day, and have at least a chance of paying for themselves, but most of these literally operate less than 5 minutes per day on average! Will. Never. Pay. Off.
I've tried til I was blue in the face to talk them into just having LED replacements in stock and replace them as they "go bad" (lose a ballast...or something more than just a bulb...which we have plenty of spares from all the lights that have already been taken out) And the icing on the cake is that they had to pay to dispose of the ballasts, and any of the bulbs that we didn't decide to keep!

 

brenndatomu just accept common sense IS not common!!

 

No. And that's probably why I won't put LED in there actually. I didn't want them to be green I wanted them for better light.

I had the very same thought that you made.

I have some stick up LED low voltage rope type LED lights that I had left over from doing our pantry in the kitchen I will put directly over the bench so that I can see better.

 

Man.. This is a long read, crack open a cold one.
I'll start off by saying that i am doing fine today and all is mostly well.


Im feeling quite a bit better.
Had a bit of a scare yesterday. I had an accident about an hour from home.
Im into ATV's.. I like sport quads, 2wd ATV's with decent amount of power. Ive been riding ATV's in general
for about 15-16 years.. Ive had accidents before, ive wrecked, ive hit things, ive hit other riders, ive been hit by
other riders.. It happends. Im your typical adrenaline junkie that owns an ATV. If i have room to go fast, im
going to go fast. I'll whip the rear end around and slide around turns or hit a jump with a decent amount of
speed to catch some air time. Thats just how i ride..

Anyways..
I dont get much of this free time anymore,i dont get much time to go out and ride.
Well, the last 2 weekends i have had this precious time to ride.
Last weekend was uneventful, i put probably 6 hours on my quad on saturday.
I go to a park designated for ATV type vehicles also by the way, 800+ acres of trails, hills, sand
dunes and what not. This past saturday, i arrived at the park around 930, ended up talking to a salesmen
who is a good friend of mine about buying a new Polaris RZR side by side machine. Got done with that, got
parked and unloaded, i headed out. About 45-50 minutes later i had a decently bad accident.
Im running probably 35-40mph down a trail, nothing out of the ordinary at all for me. having fun and what not..
I notice a partially burried railroad tie up ahead, i had rounded a corner and crested a small hill before i could even
see this thing. I immediately had a gut feeling that this wasnt going to be good, i slowed down a bit but did not lock
up my brakes, i was trying to maintain control. I hit this railroad tie going atleast 30-35 mph.
ATV got squirrely and i ended up getting tossed off, i couldnt save it, i tried. I got tossed off the right side and ended
up basically pile driving my right hip into a log or a tree stump.
I was in immediate pain, easily to worst pain i have ever felt, ever.

I laid on the ground, kind of up on my knees with my helmet down towards the ground, moaning and repeatedly
talking to my self and saying things like oh man, oph my god, what the heck, oh man oh man, owwie, oh man
on and on.. At this point im hoping another rider comes by and sees me and can lend me a hand or some aid. I dont
know what ive hurt or what ive done, i just know that my right leg and hip region has experienced some trauma.
I suck up some energy and literally crawl back to my quad and crawl onto it, there is no visible damage to it at all, it didnt
roll or flip or anything, it came up on its 2 right side wheels and thats when i got tossed off. I headed back to my trailer,
i drove into my trailer and sat on my quad and just moaned and moaned because of the pain. I was able to get off my quad
and i plopped down onto my reclining lawn chair. I laid there for what seemed like 4 days. I texted my wife, told her i wasnt
feeling well and that i had gotten into an accident. At this point im dizzy, light headed, im starting to vomit, my right side
is on fire, im in so much pain, my abdomen and mid section, mostly just my right side is just in an extreme amount of pain.

I ended up calling the office for the park i was at, told them i had been in an accident and asked if an employee could come
by and give me a once over. The lady said yes, not a problem, this happends often. So a guy comes by within a few minutes,
he walks into my trailer and literally immediately calls 911. From the time he got parked, saw me and called 911, it must
of been 40 seconds. So he hangs with me, local fire dept shows up, first responder guys. They tend to me, get my info and
what happened. Ambulance shows up, I dont know how many more emergency vehicles show up but i remember about 9
people inside my trailer. Immediately... its broken hip, broken pelvis, trauma trauma trauma... I start crying... I break down
and i start crying. I hear broken pelvis and... Im scared man. Im really scared. Im scared for my future, im scared for the healing
process, im scared... im simply scared. Im in alot of pain, i dont know what is all damaged, but im scared.

So the emergency crew cut off my riding gear, i tell them to please not cut my boots but they can cut my pants.
They figured out a way to lift me out of the lawn chair and into the stretcher and away i went basically.

My friend at the park, the salesmen, he locks my stuff up and secures all my stuff for me.
I get loaded up and they get my heart rate under control and shoot me up with 2 doses of fentanyl.
They kept asking me questions, kept asking what my pain was on a scale of 1 to 10, i kept telling them it hurts it hurts
im a 19, it hurts it hurts. Withing maybe 5 minutes, maybe even 3 minutes.. My pain scale is down to a 2 or a 3. They gave me a total of 4 doses from the time i entered the ambulance to the time i left the ambulance.
I call my wife, i call my dad, My wife is at work, I get my Dad on his way to the trauma center.

I get some xrays done... I have a bad bone contusion! Pretty much a horrible bone bruise! THATS IT!!!


plan is to sell the quad..

Im sore today, yesterday i was only able to get around on crutches after getting home from the hospital.
Today i am walking and getting around just fine.
Ive got my trailer cleaned out, quad is washed, just finished eating pot roast that my wife cooked for dinner.

God is good...
I dont know how i didnt break a bone from the accident i had. I really dont know..
Im fortunate for sure.
Planned on riding next weekend, i just dont know about that.

 

If you still feel this way, My 2 cents is to find another hobby, if not for yourself, for your family. If you were single, then throwing caution to the wind might be somewhat OK, but with a family, not so much. I wish you a good recovery. And thank you Lord for looking out for this young man.

 

Sorry to hear you got a boo boo / bruise!

Seriously though, sorry to hear about the accident. Sounds like you hot real lucky.

There definitely comes a time when you need to give up some of the fun toys because of lifes responsibilities. I used to love my Raptor, but I just dont heal like I used to, and cant afford to be down for the count with a major injury.

 

Glad to hear everything sound fine LinkedXJ. I know you don't want to be told what to do , esp if your wife is telling you to stop riding and sell it. But think about your kid and family. You. Ant leave them without a father or provider, even if it's just from some broken bones.

You can sell it like you said, you can always buy another one. Of if you keep it, just ride more responsibility, ride slowly on well done roads, not on random tight woods trails.

I have an ATV. But I don't ride it through my woods on small trials at 35mph. I use it for work. Spraying, seeding food plots. Will move stuff in the woods, haul corn to feeders. Ride my son around on it going slowly and in control. We both have fun on it. I will go fast just by myself sometimes, but it's usually on larger roads where it's not tightly constricted.

Glad your going to be ok.

 

I’m glad you're going to be okay but like others have said, let this be a wake up call. It’s good you want to sell the quad. Feel better soon!

 

These replace the fluorescent bulbs. They aren't a bulb at all, just a strip. When they go bad, you replace the whole unit. Cheap enough when you consider how long they last. I have two and can't say enough good about them. These are from Sam's club. you can order the twin pack online and save even more.

 

LinkedXJ , so glad to hear that you just ended up with a bad bruise.

Now you just need to make sure that you don't have any issues from 4 doses of fentanyl.

Heal up, take it easy.

 

They have the same thing at Walmart for $16 basically. But do $9 I can have two 4 foot bulbs. But as said before. I may not do anything. The payoff would be years for a saving money scenario. I am considering it for more light and that I am running off a long run of extension cord and was trying to reduce the load I am trying to pull this distance as well.

 

LinkedXJ I may catch some guff, I may not.

But.. I don't see any reason you should give up something you enjoy.

You've been riding a long time, with minor skirmishes here and there. But nothing compared to your recent accident.

Chazsbetterhalf was in an ATV accident back in 2011 while my sister was driving. She got tossed at low speed, landed poorly and busted her collar bone, cracked 4 ribs and punctured her lung (minor puncture).

She still rides her "chariot', but as far as I know my sister has not ridden since.

Being scared isn't a terrible thing, it helps to put things in perspective at times. It's our greatest survival mechanism.

But giving up something you enjoy won't guarantee safety.

I was out with our previous dog back in 2010 or early 2011 before she had to be put down.
Slipped on ice and buggered my knee up, freaked out because we were already in a tough spot after purchasing the new place.

Popped things back into place and could walk, said my many prayers of thanks that I was still mobile.

If I couldn't have worked, we'd have lost everything.

If you choose to ride, be a bit over cautious, don't go full bore maybe 3/4 throttle.

I hope the job front has calmed for you as well.
Be safe, enjoy your family, and live well.

 

I agree with everything everyone has said but you don’t want to precipitate getting in one of these. When my daughter was born I sold my Valkyrie because I didn’t want to foster my kids. You got a wake up call no matter what you decide. I believe our morning prayer from T Jeff helps keep us all safe.

 

LinkedXJ I have 3 plates and 27 screws in my right hip. I know what you were feeling. Be very thankful it’s just a bone bruise, I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on it for 3 1/2 months, lost all muscle in that leg and had to basically learn how to walk again. No fun. Give it some time and it will heal and be back to normal. As the Dr told me, it beats the alternative.