Last minute trip to Minnesota…
Katy and I were back in Minnesota again this last weekend, a bit unexpectantly. Katy’s dad had a an accident involving gasoline + fire and suffered some second degree burns on his arms. Thanksfully, he’s OK and will make a full recovery, he’ll just have to stay off work for a couple weeks.
What happened was he was draining the gas from the tank of a truck (he’s an automechanic) into some holding containers so he could do some work on the gas lines. He was working on another car while he waited for the tank to drain, and was using a torch to heat a bolt to try to get it to come off. While he was working he noticed the tank had gotten too full, and he went to go change it to another tank. He accidently took the hot bolt with him (the torch was off) and it must have been hot enough to spark a flame from the gas that had spilled on the floor.
The flames rose to about 4 feet, and Mike quickly moved to get the gas tanks on the floor out of the shop before they went up. While this move saved the building, it forced him to be in the fire for a few seconds longer, and he burned his arms and hands. After he had moved the tanks to safey he went back and put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. Nothing was damaged in the shop, but Mike suffered 2nd degree burns on his arms and hands, and some 3rd degree burns on his face. I’ve posted some pictures with his approval (or at least Katy and Twila’s, and hey, that’s all that matters ;-)). Don’t look at them if big blisters bother you, those are biggest I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, despite the fact that Mike had hurt himself pretty bad, he felt well enough to go to Ahlmand’s Shooters Roundup, a shooting tournament in souther Minnesota. Katy and I went with him, and we all competed. I did pretty well, scoring 11 out of 15. Katy got a 10/15, which led the women’s division after the first day, and Mike ended up getting a 15/15 and winning the whole tournament. Yes, wearing gloves and having his hands burned, he still could outshoot everyone else there. Pretty impressive. Pictures are available here.