gotten broken cabglass when pulling a semi................

I had left that issue alone because I knew Main Man 1 was feeling badly about it..........but time heals all wounds, so today I asked Main Man 1 and Main Man 2 just how the hell that could have happened.............the sheepish details are as follows:

Well, you know the new massive tow hook that you told us to put on the Western Star has never been put on yet...................... Oh, I thought it had been, several weeks ago...............No, just haven't taken the time.

(Semi has been on the road real early to late, so I have not seen it for several weeks.)

Well, you know there was a lot of mud where we've been dumping.......................Yes.

Well, Main Man 3 had the semi tractor half in and half out of the mud, and the trailer was jacknifed.  Well, the backhoe wouldn't pull it out, and we didn't want to put the 4wd on the front, 'cause the tow hook wasn't there, and we didn't want to pull on the steer axle.

So, we hooked the 4wd on the back axle of the trailer, on the outside of the jacknife, pulling forward.

(Do you see what's coming?)

So..........you put the backhoe on the INSIDE of the jacknife, hooked to the other side of the trailer axles???................Yes.

Well, we told Main Man 3 to stop the semi tractor when we waved, but he didn't see us...........and the semi tractor got footing, and JUMPED ahead........................(note the "jumped ahead"---- kind of like maybe it was out of their control!)

pulling the trailer straight, into the backhoe, which was too close...............and if I tried to move the hoe, it probably would have gone into the semi tractor.

(By this time I'm having a hard time keeping a straight face, since both of these guys' faces are just as red as beets.............I think they realized early on how damned foolish that had been, and how much worse it sounded when they were telling it.  I think they would have rather walked on broken glass than admit to me the whole story.  The deeper they got into the story.........the more embarrassed they got.)

(So..............in reality, it was just p.......poor management on my part, not making sure that tow hook got put on...........so it wasn't fair for me to be too hard on them.)

Frankly, sometimes these two can be pretty full of themselves when it comes to handling machinery........like maybe they wrote the book on it...................so it was worth the price of admission to see them humble themselves............the more they related, the more they realized just how "amateaurish" it sounded...................and it didn't help when I started laughing and told them I was going to tell their fathers about it.

Just another repair bill..............