O/T -- about those missing utah coal miners
~~~~~~~~~~~~
finally -- a reason to hope:
five minutes of "noises" heard in
the seam -- not the three thuds,
then three measures of silence,
that is the universal miners' distress
signal [like s.o.s., on the
seas], but a glimmer of hope,
at least -- and, at last. . .
so -- keep a good thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
there are reasons why this
particular tradegy is striking
a deep chord, for me. . . wow.
i urge one and all to go read
leftist moon on this topic.
well-written, comprehensive,
minute-by-minute coverage. . .
do go see that blog. [just
click on the small brass,
at your left. . .]
/s/ brass no. 4733, to
fellow surviving miners -- and
the ones who love them -- everywhere. . .
p e a c e
i'll keep a life-affirming intention,
before the Universe, this evening -- as
but for the grace of the Universe, there go i. . .
~~~~~~~~~~~~
much later: here is a schematic, so
that it will be easier to under-
stand what experienced people are
talking about [click to enlarge]. . .
4 comments:
that's exactly right isn't it; there, but for the intervention of all that is good, go I.
LM aka Wordsmith -
indeed it is, LM.
and still -- we wait.
and we hope.
for it could have been one
of my brothers, my father,
my grandfather, or any of
my numerous cousins, or the
hundreds of close friends of
our family, or me -- trapped
down there, 1800 feet deep,
in the earth's heat, in
the choking dust, and
in that crushingly
inky darkness,
tonight. . .
so i wait.
1800 feet deep,
in the earth's heat, in
the choking dust, and
in that crushingly
inky darkness,
tonight. . .
I've been off and this afternoon I was lying on my bed looking out the window. There's a Japanese cherry tree outside it. The sunlight on the tree, it was beautiful and it struck me how these 6 miners would be in an absolute black darkness.
Wally answered your comment; he's says he's a gold mine owner. That's interesting. Today my daugther was telling of a friend of hers who came from Kellogg, Idaho - her dad was a miner at the silver mine there. It closed in '82? There was a hellified accident there a year after I graduated high school - 1972.
thanks, LM/WS --
there is really nothing
that compares to how dark
it is underground, when you
turn off your cap lamp [except,
i'm told, in space -- but i
wouldn't know about that].
it is that -- the darkness -- which haunts me most, about every one of these
mine accidents -- that, and
the heat from the rock at
those depths, once the vent-
illation is cut off -- as it
is, in any cave-in. . . truly
a hellish environment. . .
i'll go look at wally's now.
for the record, i did my time
in the high mountains of colorado,
mining a metal used as an alloy
to make industrial steel -- the
surface was at about 13,200 feet,
and production was at about 7,500
feet, so we were over a mile under
the surface. hot, sulfur-laden,
water gushed from the fissures in
the ribs, at that depth -- so
when the air was off -- right
before blast-time -- the temperature
at the face rose to about 95 degrees,
and the drift filled about thigh-
deep with hot, pungent, sulfur water.
we carried the primer-explosives
in large plastic-lined crates, high upon
on our shoulders, to keep it dry. . .
even so, at the end of each shift,
we would get a hot shower, clean
clothes, and later, a big omelette, in
the cool, clear, rocky mountain
morning air, out on the wrap-around
porch, at a road-house on the
way back down the mountain. . .
and, usually with a shot (or
three!) of whiskey, to chase it, and "help us sleep". . .
that was my summer of 1978. . .
and, so -- life was good -- it did
pay for all of college, and most
of law school. . .
p e a c e
-- brass no. 4733
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