What? ... Where? ...

Waking in a stygian darkness didn't feel right . . . how did I get here? . . . who? . . . ohh . . . Alison's bed . . . and I remembered ...

Trudging the Colorado hills a couple miles east of the Sweet Home mine one hot July day looking for Rhodochrosite crystals to facet I found a tunnel that looked fairly safe.

Scratching at the timbering thirty or forty feet in checking for rot I heard a croaking, "Oh God, help me, please." Around a bend I found a black woman with her left leg trapped under a huge rock slab.

She started thrashing trying to reach me, I kneeled and in her panic she grabbed me and I fell on her. Several yelps groans and a few swear words later, untangled, I comforted her with, "I'm here. I'll save you, it's okay, I'll move this rock but I need a lever. I'll leave the light and..."

"NO! ... Ohh god, don't leave me alone!"

"That's a big rock ..."

"Please!"

"Okay, but you're going to have to pull your leg out ... if I can lift it."

"Okay."

"Eight-hundred pounds was my max dead lift thirty-seven years ago, . . . this is gonna' kill my back . . . a long time ago . . . and that's a very long time ago, but I'll try." after many groans from me and several inches of lift she scooted out with a couple chopped off screams.

"I'm out ..." and I dropped it . . . five-fifty maybe . . .and that thought pleased me.

"My god, you're strong!"

"Let's get you taken care of."

Getting her out and cared for took two days and we've been together a year now.

. . . it's wonderful what you can find having a hobby tha ...

"ZZZZZZ"