–Carola Mittag
I’m not a builder; however, every year before Christmas, I singlehandedly build an entire village. It’s not your traditional build as the homes are prefab, the streetscape is haphazard, and all this done under heavy snow and unlit conditions until the electrician in me adds the lighting. This project takes approximately two days.
It is my beautiful Christmas Village which I curse from the moment I dust off the boxes containing all the houses, figurines and wires for the individual lights that light up the houses. It is a chore, and this year I vowed that it would be the last time because of all the work.
Then I thought of my parents who purchased these houses over time and what joy they had in setting them up. My parents are both gone but this little village brings back wonderful memories of both, them and Christmases past so, no I will not get rid of the village. Setting it up will always be a labour of love.
But this year I made a change to the village. Because of its approximate thirty-year age the houses were still individually lit by small, incandescent bulbs with a wire running to each house and needing to be plugged in to a power bar. Because there are eleven houses, I needed two power bars end-to-end to plug into the wall outlet. This already made me uncomfortable. As I was clipping one of the lights into the Faversham Lamps and Oils House, (a little irony here I think), the little bulb exploded in my hand, leaving lots of tiny glass shards in my palm and an exposed filament (a wire filament heated until it glows) laying on the artificial, very flammable snow.
Things I did wrong:
- I didn’t check the bulbs to see if they were working before I clipped them into their respective houses.
- I was trying to skip a step to save time by not checking the bulbs first.
- I should never have used two power bars end-to-end. How many times are we warned not to overload sockets with multiple extenders?
- I was working with live wires. I should have left all the wires unplugged until the bulbs were clipped into their respective houses.
Building my small village could have had dire consequences. I learned that even my build should have had a work and safety plan in place. Lesson learned! The footnote to this story is that I purchased a string of low wattage LED lights which I “ran through the village right to the traffic stop”, (words from Frosty the Snowman). The village looks beautiful with its modern lighting, and I feel much safer knowing that I have minimized the risk of fire in my home.
Of course there is a moral to my story. My miniature Dickens’ Village could have caused a major, disastrous event in the actual village that I live in. Construction is a dangerous business in real life. It’s no wonder that without proper planning, the right tools, personal protective equipment, training and knowledge, tragic consequences can result.
It is Christmastime. I wish you dear readers a wonderful holiday and a time of reflection and joy with family and friends. I’ll leave you with this message from Dr. Seuss:
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?
Watch for next month’s Blog published in the first week of January.
Sincerely,
Carola Mittag
Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.