Long time no post....

Hey all! I know, i know....it's been ages since my last post. I have had good reason though.

The last time I posted I told you about my son having tubes put in his ears. Since then, oh...let's see. He has had his tonsils out, DH has had hernia surgery and....well, ummm...I kind of strayed from knitting and not wanting much to do with knitting for a bit.

Let me explain.
I have deleted alot of my old posts, so for those of you who don't know, I work in the auto industry. I am an industrial electrician actually. Playing with robots and such. Pretty cool in a way. I actually started knitting as a result of being bored at work and looking for something portable to do during the slow times.
My very first knitted gift that I gave was to a girl that my DH works with. (We both work at the same place.)
I knit her a baby blanket for her daughter that was due just a few months after my son was born. This was in 2003. Fast forward to July 23, 2008. I had just come to dayshift (had been working afternoons since my son was born) about 1 month previously. I was working in my usual area with this girl's DH (Fred), who also works with us. He is what you call a diesetter. We talked about kids, spouses. The usual catch up with someone you know. It was a really heartfelt conversation. He had told me how much he loved her and the kids and wished he worked closer to home. He walked away to do his part of the job we are on together and literally 1 minute later I hear my other partner (a machine repair) yell and I look and Fred...........ummmm. Fred has been crushed between two bolsters. My partner and I work frantically to get him out but it was too late. The weight of these things is in the thousands of tons and he was crushed between the two. The one that he was moving moved the opposite way it was supposed to, you see, and there was no where for him to escape. Our work knew that the danger was there and had never done anything to make the job safer.
I will never forget that image of turning around and seeing him. He was only about 20 feet from me and yet there was nothing I could do to save him. I remember after we got him out from being pinned and the EMS team took over doing CPR on him. Watching them do the chest compressions, not finding a heartbeat, trying again........
I walked away at that point, telling myself that that is not the last image I want of Fred in my head and yet I still see him. Everyday. I think of that little girl I knit that very first blankie for, who had a 6-week old little brother when her daddy died. I think of his wife alot. I have talked to her a few times, although I still don't know what to say.
One's whole being is changed by something like this. I never understood the tremendous impact something like this could have on one person. On hundreds of people. He was such a wonderful person. He touched everyone's lives. There is so much more to say but I have run out of words for the moment.