It’s been a busy couple of weeks. My grandfather, Garth Frost, recently passed away at the age of 90. He was a kind man, with a calm, cool demeanor and a great sense of humor. It was great to have the support of friends and family during the funeral. In fact, I heard a great story about my grandfather, at the funeral, which I had never heard before.
Garth had operated his own independent lumber mill most of his adult life (in fact he had continued operations up until his passing). For several years he lived up in Ashland, WI, sawing old ore docks of an abandoned mine. He would go out before sunrise to start sawing, and would continue until past sundown. One day, after sunset, hoping to get home to the wife and kids, he began packing up for the day, when he was approached by a man. The man asked “Garth, would you mind sawing these three logs for me? I need them for a project I’m working on.”. Grandpa politely asked the man “Would you be able to come back tomorrow or sometime later this week, as I would like to get home to my family?”. The man insisted and pleaded that he needed them sawed that night, if at all possible. Grandfather, being the kind, compassionate man he was, agreed to help the man.
As he began cutting into the first log, the blade got stuck on a metal spike about half-way into the log. Grandpa turned off the saw, and went to inspect the stoppage. Upon inspection, one of the teeth in the saw blade had chipped on the metal spike in the log. Eager to finish the project as soon as possible, and get home, he took his file and began to file down the chipped tooth. As he hastily filed away the tooth snapped right of the blade. Now he would have to replace the entire blade to continue sawing, and the mill blades are quite expensive. Though not one to lose his temper, Grandpa, frustrated at his luck and haste, flung the file to the ground. Still angry with himself, he reached over and grabbed a nearby hammer flinging the hammer as well. The hammer flew straight into the file, snapping the file in half.
Embarrassed at letting his anger get the best of him, Grandpa decided to call it a night. Upon arriving at home, Grandma asked how Garth’s day had been. He replied “I learned two valuable lessons today: Mind my temper (which is a relative joke as Grandpa almost never lost his cool), and next time throw the hammer first”.
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