Disaster Struck

Not really, but at the time it felt as if it were a major problem. Our first attempt of taking down the HUGE TENT proved to be more than we ever anticipated. We thought we understood the concept and that it would be challenging but something we could do…the owner felt the same so he made the decision that he really didn’t need to be here for the event and he was more needed elsewhere…that was the first mistake of many that was made. Now with hindsight we understand where all the other mistakes took it’s turn for the worse.

We took charge and began lifting the 30x60 tent by putting the four jacks on each corner of the tent…big misunderstanding on our part. The jacks are suppose to be put on one side of the tent at a time while lifting the tent pulling the steel poles out, then lowering the one side of the tent and doing the same thing on the other side. Thinking we had it right our way we began taking out the poles but a few of them would not come out…hindsight tells us that this was a lucky thing…if those poles would have come out the sway factor would have been out of control fast. Instead, we continued to struggle…nobody really knowing what to do and we were all hanging on as this mammoth tent began to sway…then one of the crank jacks lost it’s spring and begun to spin out of control, hitting one of our guys in the forehead…blood all over the place. At this time he let go and the sway was at an all time high and the guys were all screaming about not being able to hold on and I was only concerned with our injured guy. Simultaneously, while dialing 911, I yelled, “Just let go of the “f”ing thing, just let it go”.

Things seemed to be in slow motion...as I spoke to the operator I watched in horror as one of the guys counted down when to let go and for everyone to get out of the way. The tent began to sway in every direction, not knowing which way it was going down but then it made it’s decision and it began it’s decent, right in the direction of the Port-a-Potty…oh, no! Jerry and one of the other guys seemed as if they too were in slow motion as their hands landed on the side of it and held it in place so it did not fall. At this time the parking lot began filling up with police, fire and medical vehicles and the fire department became very concerned about safety measures being implemented and asked to speak with whomever was in charge…unfortunately, that was me and Jerry.

The end of this story is all good…the worker was not hurt badly and the tent survived without too much damage, besides a few bent poles. We are truly the luckiest folks alive and are heading straight to Vegas when we are done here…we actually decided to do just that since we need to get away from this rain and need some desert weather now…we will be skipping our sight seeing of San Francisco for now due to the prediction of the next 10 days of more rain.