Hello, My name is Nick Ogden. I am a senior in high school at the moment, and I am interested in having a career working in the electricity industry(contractor, power company worker, electrician, etc.). My uncle is an Journeyman Electrician outside of Salt Lake City, Utah and gave me advice about this website. I have a random question to ask you. What do you do if you encounter the following:

1.)A HUGE spider
2.)Bee's and giant wasps
3.)Insane Animals(the kind that need to be wacked in the head, so you can do your work in peace)
4.)People who randomly approach you and are possibly nuts who have no idea what they are doing.
5.)Someone with a weapon

I hope these are not stupid questions. I need to learn now, rather than later. Any info on this would be great!
~Nick Ogden

I was in a crawl space once and was really freaked out by what I thought was a HUGE racoon. I hemmed and hawed about what to do and decided I need to catch it if I was going to finish the job. So I took a garbage can and duct taped a piece of pipe onto it as a handle. Well, anticlimaticlly, it turned out to be a chipmunk and I think it scurried out the way it came in. But my heart was pumping anyway, and I really didn't like being down there wondering what else was there.

In just about every situation you mention, I suggest the following:

1) Assess the surroundings - you're looking for distance or safety issues between you and the threat.
2) Identify your options - figure out which of the options are better for that particular moment such as Fight or Flight. Then look for escape routes for you and also for the threat's exit route since most threats are based on one or the other entity perceiving that they have limited options available to them.
3) Preparation comes BEFORE the encounter... look around the outside of an enclosure before entering, know the habitat of creatures likely to be encountered, park in well-lit areas if you're going to return to your vehicle after dark, don't irritate or engage people who are larger and/or appear unstable, etc.

Pursuing knowledge now is always preferable to learning too late... keep up the good work and think through some of the potential outcomes for the scenarios you describe and think about 'turning points' at which the opportunity comes to impact the final outcome... If I do [this], it could end [that] way but if I do [thus] it could end a [different] way.

<edited because my hands & brain function at different speeds >

[This message has been edited by BuggabooBren (edited 03-05-2004).]

Sounds like you are thinking about relocating to New York City when you graduate.

-Hal

Ogden_man:

If you have any questions that might need answering on a local level, give me an e-mail. I am in the Salt Lake area as an inspector, and will be glad to help you if I can

Code_enforcer@netzero.com

For spiders and wasps--get the wasp spray that shoots a long distance. You can open an outside panel, parking lot light, etc. carefully, then duck back quickly and knock the critters down from a distance, works great!

For everything else, carry a piece of 500MCM wire about 18" long....

(OK, not good against a gun...)