Part III: It's All Fun and Games, Until It Involves a Nail Gun

Note: This is a gross story. You’ve been warned.


A group of my family and friends gathered, while my brother-in-law finished up the rough-framing of a room in a basement.

We were all making up for lost time, eating pizza and laughing so loudly that our voices boomed in the bare, underground room. My brother-in-law tried to join in the fun, but had to concentrate on quickly finishing up his work so that he could join us. As he measured, cut and nailed, we reminisced.

Suddenly, we heard a groan. It was one of those sounds that one instantly recognizes.

It wasn’t a scream. It wasn’t a cry. It was subtle and quiet, but as loud to the human ear as a jackhammer. The groan was common and instinctually we all knew what it meant.

Pain – absolute and deep – pain.

Never have heads turned so quickly in one direction.

Standing there, leaning against the last board that he’d nailed in place, my brother-in-law’s normally deep-olive-complexioned face was ghastly empty and pale. Glancing over, we could see that his pinky finger was stuck to the same board, by a nail from the pneumatic nail gun that hung in his other hand. A little trickle of blood slowly spilt down over his knuckle and made its way to his elbow, falling off onto the concrete floor before it reached its destination.

Most amazingly, the nail didn’t go through his finger. It actually ricocheted off a knot in the board and came out the side to find his fingernail. Punching a hole the size of a rough nail through the cuticle and flesh of his pinky finger, the nail did little more than hang his finger on the board, not actually holding it with any permanence.

It was within the same hour that he returned to work, finishing what he had started. The basement framing was completed with that same afternoon. His finger, though it remained sore and bled for quite a while, has already begun to heal quite well, though the fingernail will be forever damaged.




Check Out Wednesday’s Post for…
Part IV: What A Wreck

Check Out Thursday’s Post for…
Part V: It’s All Relative (How These Events Really Relate to Education)