Howdy folks,<br><br>It was another interesting week at work, and I thought I'd share some experiences that show the value of preparedness. Not that anyone here really needs that lesson reinforced....<br><br>I drive a delivery truck for a construction company in eastern KY; I deliver tools and building materials to and from job sites. The truck I drive is old (83' F700 w/ stake bed). Rural eastern Ky is famous for small twisty, hilly roads that must be shared with coal trucks. Monday this week, I met a coal truck rounding a bend on one of these small roads. He was about three feet into my lane (no choice really, the roads are SMALL, and coal trucks are BIG. On one side of the road is mountain, on the other is river). I was very lucky in that all that happened was an attempted exchange of mirrors. My mirror was destroyed. Neither of us made any attempt to stop (no point and no where to stop without blocking the road). My window was all the way down (no AC in the truck).... thank God for my glasses; as it was, I was pulling glass fragments out my hair and mustache for the next day and a half. (Does anybody know why they don't make the things out of safety glass?)<br><br>Anyway, after finding a safe place to pull over (20 minutes and 3 cigarettes down the road) I dug into the first aid kit in the truck and found that it was empty save for an alcohol pad and empty spool of tape (it has since been replaced--I should have checked it long before I needed it). Fortunately, I carry bandaids in my wallet. The alcohol pad came in handy however, and the tweezers in my SAK were used to remove a sliver or two. <br><br>Much harder and more neccessary to fix was the mirror. There was one decent sized piece of mirror left in the frame, I removed it and set it aside. The mirror frame was hanging limply by one bolt. The hanger frame was missing several screws and rattled like hell. I wired the mirror frame into place with my Leatherman and the wire from my PSK. The chunk of mirror was padded with a crushed styrofoam cup and duct-taped back in place. I carry a roll of duct tape in the truck always (it makes a good drink holder, and has other uses, too). It took me a while to figure out what to do about the hanger frame, but after several tries I finally found something that worked. I cut up a bungee cord and used it to shim/pad the hanger until it didn't rattle...much. Hey, it got me home...<br><br>I won't insult anyone's intelligence by pointing out lessons learned or anything like that.<br><br>All for now. Part II will be later.<br><br>Take care,<br><br>Andy