It's when you're: 1. In a hurry. 2. Tired and not thinking about where you are and what you're doing 3. In a strange and unfamiliar place.
I've banged my head, walked full force head on into offset chests (they will usually win the show of force), almost fallen off a perch board in a strange organ, trapped inside an Austin air chest with the wind on, and stepped backwards into an empty console pit, and broken several ribs when a tuning ladder collapsed under me.
But the worst I ever got was a bad burn from a soldering iron. Wiring up a new organ....a couple of days before the voicers arrived to start the tonal finishing....and I'm behind in my schedule. So I'm working at night, trying to get caught up. I don't remember the switch now...it's been years ago...but it was a rather complicated affair that required an assistant to wet the iron with solder, hand the iron to me, and then for me to apply the iron to the joint I was holding with the right hand. All was going so smoothly, when all of a sudden, I didn't fully look at where my hand was going to take the soldering iron out of the assistant's hand...sizzzzzz sizzzzzz sizzle! In about a tenth of a second, I had grasped the hot end of the iron, wrapping my fingers around it. Oh! Did that sting and burn and hurt!
So we stopped working immediately. I grabbed up a work rag, soaked it under cool water in the rest room, and took off for the house, which was about an hour's drive from this particular church. At home, I fortunately keep a bottle of Aloe Vera 100% Gel, with some sort of deadening agent in it. I knew from experience that the Aloe will only work if you keep it moist...if it dries, it quits working. So I completely saturated a clean wash cloth with the stuff, and coated my hand with the Aloe, then put the Aloe saturated cloth in my hand like a bandage, ensuring it also tucked between my fingers where they were burned. Then I double wrapped that with a clean bath towel. Surprisingly, it no longer hurt, and was actually feeling cool. Took four bufferin every four hours during the night, and just knew that in the morning I'd have to get to the doctor's office with such a severe burn.
When I awoke the next morning, I could still feel the cool of the Aloe, so I knew it was still wet, and working. To my complete surprise, I un-wrapped the home made Aloe bandage, and there was no blistering, or badly burned skin. I continued to "nurse" that burn with the homemade Aloe bandage during the day, and by that evening, I took off the bandage, washed off the Aloe, and had a good night's sleep without any further attention. Over the next several days, the skin was sensitive, but I was able to work with that hand with no further Aloe medication. To this day, I am amazed at how wonderfully effective Aloe is for a burn...especially after this "Death by Organs" experience I had.
....."next" is a four letter word. Jay999