# OH Crap, emergency meeting tomorrow.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Our friend Mike and coyote hunting partner when he isn't working was in a bad wreck this afternoon.

He has been driving this old rusted up pick up as his daily driver so his wife can have the newest, latest greatest ride every year. This afternoon on his way to his second job the pick up didn't stop at the stop sign and got slamed into by a semi with 40,000 pounds of corn on board. He was pushed almost 100 yards down the road then into a deep drainage ditch full of water. A couple of guys held his head above water till fire and rescue could get him cut out. He was then air lifted to Bay City hospital. John told me that he is still in a coma, and may loose a leg too, should know in the morning.

So if you are of the praying type please say a prayer for Mike tonight. We are not proud or biais on who hears your prayers. I sumit all mine to the Great Spirit who seems to under stand I don't ask for things lightly.

 Al


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## mmoetc (Oct 9, 2012)

Best wishes.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Sorry to hear that...Tell him to well soon....


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Prayers said.


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## coffeecassie (Aug 5, 2016)

Thinking my good thoughts for you, your friend, and everyone whose life is touched by this.


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## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

Prayers have been said for him. Prayers for his family and friends as well.


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## Solar Geek (Mar 14, 2014)

Prayers inbound.


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

Let him know we are all pulling for him..


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Thank you Great Trail Maker for this one.

All the best for every need.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Ran up to the hospital last night, most every one was there except Toms daughter, she is in Bolder at college.

Kare and I stayed for almost 2 hours and we were told they were working on him and thought it would go late into the night before they could tell us any thing.

Met at the resturant this morning, John had gotten to the seine before they loaded him in the chopper. He was the ICE contact on Mikes phone so was first person they called. John said Mike looked really bad face all cut up from glass LT arm flopping around while they were pulling him out to place on a stretcher and his right leg all twisted and flopping too.

The morning up date is he is still in a coma where they want to keep him for a while, Left arm broken 2 places and is in a cast, right leg broken in 4 places and calf muscle torn loose below the knee, Lots of glass picked out of his face neck and ear, 5 ribs broken too.
they are pretty sure after 5 hours in surgery that they have saved his leg think it wasn't as bad as first thought.

John told us that only family will be able to visit hiom for about 5 days to start.

John also had they haul what was left of Mikes truck to his place so Mike won't get hit with a big storage bill, his wife would have no idea about that.
Dean said the hospital bills were already covered as he had sold some insurance to Mike that covered that and lose of work money.

John also thinks we should start looking for a different truck and take the good stuff off Mikes wrecked truck and install on the new different one for him. Mike was only carrying PLPD on the truck.

In case ya'll haven't figured it out yet Mike is like a brother to us and his wife is the wicked witch of the west, who no one really cares for. We all tolarate her for Mike.

*THANK YOU EVERY ONE FOR THE PRAYERS AND KIND WISHES.

*
 Al


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## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

Wow, thanks for the update. Glad it looks like they saved his leg. He's a blessed guy to have friends that think of him as a brother.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Talking to John this morning since he was elected as our spokes person who will get and pass along information as to Mikes condition.

Mike was still in a coma all day Sunday, leg has color to it since they have only placed a inflatable thing so they can watch it for a bit. They also told John they expect to bring him out of the coma some time this afternoon.

John also said he lifted Mikes truck up and looked under it. Frame is bent bad so there is no fixing it. A brake line had a 2 inch split in it just before the splitter. thinks that is why Mike didn't stop at the stop sign.

John thinks he knows where there is a 91 thru 93 truck sitting behind some ones barn. He is going to look into it and if he can buy it resonable wondered if we all wanted to have a truck rebuilding session. Pull Mikes Cummins and tranny and put it in the other Chassis. Mikes home built camper seems to be OK so we would switch that over too.

I don't think we will have to many missing bodies once a body is found.


 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Mike was brought out of his coma Monday afternoon. Leg had lots of good color so they decided to put it in a perment cast. Also have his ribs bound now. May send him to a nurseing home after a bit. I think he will have to be able to get out of bed and either get around on crutches or a wheel chair. Either one is going to be a while for him to operate them. 


 Al


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Thank you for the update!


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Thanks.

For all that is needed...


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

Al, how is he doing, we need another update, thanks.....


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

John and Cheryl went up and visited him Wednesday afternoon. He is in a lot of pain, wrapped and plastered up to the hilt. 

He is mad at him self he had not replaced the brake lines on the old truck and said when the pedel went to the floor he knew that semi was going to hit him and he was going to die for sure.

Told John where there may be a doner truck for transplants when John told him what we were going to do for him.
Also told John to get his discount card so he could get his employees discount at ORlieys.

Also said to thank Dean for being a royal pain in the kister till he bought a bunch of insurance. 

John said the hospital is still restricting number of visitors and amount of time they can be with Mike. Kare and I had planed on going up on Sunday morning. Told john to tell him I was bringing a big sharpie pack so we could draw on his cast and that way he would not forget what a coyote or fish looked like. He told John to tell me to stay away from him, he had picture books thanks to John and Cheryl.

Hospital is going to keep him for a bit longer then send him off to a assisted living home till he can get around.

*Again thank you all for your prayers.*

 Al


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Best wishes!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I talked to Mike yesterday for a bit. Told me when he is well enough to get around again he is going to run over me with a truck then make me laugh like I did him, said it hurt when he laughed. I tried to not make him laugh any more. But he thought it was funny I was still trying to fill a buck tag, my one and only and the wind is howling and temptures have dropped to single digit wind chills.

He said John had called him and told him the truck he had told John about didn't seem to be for sale, was just going to rot away in the fellows yard. 

Said he is feeling some better and is working his fingers and toes a as much as he is able. Figures they will move him to a assisted living complex Friday or Monday to finish recovery.
He is off the IV and eatting solid meals now.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Met John yesterday at 11:30 to go look at a truck. Truck was a 93 Dodge 3/4 ton extended cab with a V10 that ran, auto trans not so good but would go in reverse a little, 259792 miles on it. Box pretty rusty the cab had a little bit. He wanted $3,000 for it, john offered $1500 (Split 7 ways). Guy said no so we left. Before we got back to my truck the guy had called John and said he would take the 15 for it. It had been for sale since last spring and we were only the second people to look at it.

Ran to johns and got his equipment trailer stopped at the bank and got the cash. Got back to the truck paid the guy and got the title then we backed it up on the trailer and got it back to Johns work shop.

I saw Mikes truck and it is a real twisted up mess and I think we will be useing a torch on a lot of it to get the engine and trans out., also going to change the rear end since Mikes truck is a stick shift and the doner is a auto so the rear gears would be to high.
John and I decided we would start on it Monday and the other guys would show up when they can.
Mike sure is going to be surprized when he is able to get around and finds he has a good truck to drive.
Ya we are going to put new brake lines on it.

Eric went to see Mike and said he looks blue from all the brusises. They had removed the cast earlier because his toes were real blue and they wanted to look at the skin under the cast, decided there was no problen so they put an new one on again.
Still thinks they are going to move him soon to a assisted living place till he can get around and care for him self some what.

 Al


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Good work all.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

John figures we can sell the motor, tranfer case front axel and a few other things.

We will most likely need to make or move motor mounts. Will redo the brake lines and brake pads so it will stop. figure we will be buying a lot of gas for thr cutting torch too.

So each share isn't going to be really high.


 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Mike was moved Monday to a place where a person is assisted while recovering from injurys also people who retired and want that type of place to live.
Seemed in good spirits when I talked to him Sunday, said he was ready to be moved from the hospital. Said they have been treating him really well but the night noises make it hard to sleep also said his pains are stronger at night for some reason.
Said on of thre male nurses will put him in a wheel chair at night if he asks and wheel him down the hall where he can watch TV in a waiting room for a couple hours. He even gives Mike a remote so he can change channels him self too.

Now he can have a Christmas and not at the hospital, Of course we have pretty much planed to go see him Christmas. don't know yet if it will be as a group and do a meeting or staggering in when we can.
Try to make him happy and not sad he is tied down like he is.
Kare said the girls figure on making him a bunch of sweet stuff too, cookies, brownies and candies.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Kare and I met Eric & Jill at the office, Eric drove to the place where Mike is now. We were not the first to get there Tom and his wife had that honor. funny been selling hides to Tom for a long time and never met his wife, his daughter always came to our brunch meetings. We also were not the last, John and Cheryl took that prize.
All the girls had fixed some sort of treat for Mike and knowing he couldn't eat it all at once or Christmas day they fixed some hard candy that would keep well along small pies, cakes and such.

Mike got fussed over by the girls and he seemed to enjoy it. He also enjoyed our talking to him about our deer season and other adventures.
After about a hour and a half he was nodding off so we decided to go to a common area type room and let him rest then go back in to be with him for a little longer.

We had decided we would not say a thing about the truck we were going to start on to replace his. We made the plan we would all meet at Johns New Years eve day and work on the truck till close to dark and see what we could get done. then we would all go danceing and partying for as long as old farts could handle.
Made a asignment list as all 8 of us couldn't work on one truck so some get to work to remove Mikes cummins from the wreck and the other 4 would work to remove the V10 from the other pick up.

A couple of guys would go over the new pick up and see if things other than the engine tranny swap were needed we decided right from the git go to do NEW brake lines.

Mike woke to find us all still there but we knew he would only last about an hour before he needed to take his pain meds and to sleep again so we all gave him our best wishes and said our good byes for now.

We all converged on Johns sugar shack after that, Cheryl & Jill had put a rump roast on a spit John had made over the fire pit to reduce sap to syrup. So now I knew why Kare had packed the culiflower soup I had made so well in the big cooler with some tuna casserole.
We all had Christmas supper together and talked of times when we were younger and not a bunch of old farts.
I rate it the best Christmas ever since the Kids left home.


 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Every one arrived at Johns by 9:30AM ready to go to work. John had alread did a bit of preping and we got the camper off Mikes truck and setting on some horses off in a corner. We decided the best way to attack the engine/trans removal from Mikes truck was to use the smoke/spark wrench and cut away all the sheet metal in front of where the windsheild used to be.
All that scrap crap was loaded onto Johns equipment trailer to make a trip to a scrap yard. Once that stuff was removed we paired up and attacked the draining of anti freeze, not much lefty there as the twist in the frame got thr fan in the core. another pair got after the motor mounts while two more when after the transfer case and trans.

By 3:00 Pm the engine trans and rear end was out of Mikes truck. Used Johns treactor and bale spear to push it off to thre side so a couple of guys could strip some things off that the Cummins would need.

Got the new truck in the shop and again paired up and got affter it. We had the rear end out and Mikes bolted in by 5:00PM by 5:30 we were nearly ready to pull the V10 and trans out. But we had said we would stop at 6:00 so we could clean up and get ready for the evening and celebrate the arrival of the new year.

We had voted when the girls were serving us lunch that we were not going to go dancing. Just clean up do our home chores and get back to Johns honey house. We ponied up for a couple cases of beer and some sparkling wine, and some sides we sent thre girls to figureing out who was going to run and what the girls were going to fix for the main course.

I sure am happy to be part of such a group of great people and Mike is going to be dumb founded when he is released from managed care. We figure maybe 8 more hours of the whole group working we can complete the truck.

 Al


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

Good to have good friends like you guys.....


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Despite my finger nails cracking and breaking so they are really short I have greasy dirt under what is left of them and I though I had scrubbed them good last evening.


 Al


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

Get anything done today on the truck


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Nope every one wanted today to rest up and do things with family and around the home front.

I think we are going to work on it more after next Sundays brunch, which was decided last night will be earlier than normal.

I cleaned my drive way, around the mail box real good and then brought some wood to the house. Took the recoil off my Jred since when it was cold it was not drawing back so good. I cleaned it up some wound it another turn and sprayed dri slide in to lube it.
Went back to cutting and think the muffler gasket blew.

Afternoon I watched the Winter Classic and took a nap to catch up from last night.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

It runs, still need to do some minor things like finish up the drive shaft hook up to the rear end. and some small elecrtic hook ups.

The girls did a great job with a brunch. Scrambled up a few dozen eggs fried bacon, sauage and ham. I bet 100 pancakes and made probably a couple loves of toast, a pot of oat meal, Johns maple syrup and our honey for sweetener. No one left hungry, in fact when we got back to work there was a lot of groaning and OH my belly.

Kare told me on the way home the girls had a lot of fun cooking and evewn betting on which of us guys would eat the most and what the guys would like best. she also told me that Al the meeting in two week the gerils were going to ask for a evening out at a real nice resturant and maybe some dancing even(groan).

I drew Tom as a partner for the next two weeks.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Not that any one cares but the truck was finised off today and taken on a 25 mile test drive. The 4x4 worked well on the ice skateing rink back roads.

The girls out did them selves with untidy Josephs, home made bread sliced thick, all the green beans and bacon, buttered corn you would ever want toped off with chocolate silk pie, and home made ice cream.

Mike is doing well and says he is itching some thing awful and had bent coat hangers to get in a scratch, but the girls watching over him caught him and took them away.

We are going up Next Sunday and present him with the Keys and title for his new truck. going to make it a even more special meeting than Christmas.

John said a guy called on the ad in the news paper for the V10. If it sells that will cover half the truck cost, figure the scrap from the wreck and other parts we salvaged sould cover the total cost.


 Al


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

Thank you for the update 
How have you been keeping it secret from him about his old truck ?
I am guessing he must have mentioned it and how to replace it .

You and your friends are special people


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

John just told him that he had his truck towed to his house and there is sets. That is just where it is right now minuis the engine and trans and parts we put in the new truck and every one is mum.

When I fell just after knee surgery and ripped the insistion open, those guys were quick to stop by and see if Kare needed anything done includeing takeing me out back and put out of her misery.

They also kept it to them selves gathering up stuff to make a special first box for me once I was released from house arrest and could go hunt with them again. I need to look that one up.

We are not a group of blabber mouths around people who spread things.

 Al


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## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

I've been following along. You guys are pretty special and this has been a fun read.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Dinner was late yesterday. Dean had arranged to have it catered by some people who could do 20 people. The girls got a break that way and when we split the cost each, it was less than one Coyote hide.


Most of us arrived at 12:30PM as arranged, caters arrived at 1:00. We were able to get Mike in a wheel chair so we could push him around, not that we don't always push him around, to a table where we ate, presented him with the keys and title to his new truck After we wheeled him to the window and could look out at it, since John had drove it and parked where Mike could see it. Things from that point got real emotional glad we had ate first.


We all stayed with him to watch the Jacksonville New England game which helped get the emotions under control. 


They are going to remove his leg cast this up coming week and see if maybe a walking cast will work. They had removed the cast on his arm last Wednesday but put it back in a light weight glass cast for another couple weeks.

 Al


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

You guys definately good friends, he is fortunate to have you guys as friends....


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I am very lucky to have those guys for friends. They have my back, if my legs were knocked from under me they would become my legs. As I would become theirs.

 Al


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

What is the progress report on your buddy, getting better, etc...


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Mike called me last Wednesday, Just had to blubber about us fixing him up a ride after removeing him from the partner drawings because every chance he had to work he would drop the chance to go huntiung and go to work.

We all under stood it wasn't Mikes doing because he was money hungry, but trying to keep a hoity toity wife happy.

Any way they remved the cast from his leg and expayed it. Doctor told him that the rods, pins and screws were doing what they were supposed to and healling nicely. Said they took him emersed in a tank of really hot water and some chems. Said it looked like a cess pool when they took hoim out with all the dead skin floating around in there. Put him back into a cast but let him keep the old one with all our best wishes on it. Said the doctor told him again he would probably walk with a limp once he healed. He said at least he would be walking.

His family thing is breaking up too he said, He had listed the house for sale and his wife got ticked and he told her with one kid that should be on her own they didn't need a 4000 sq. ft. brick monstrosty.

But he was in good spirits and is looking forward to going after some coyotes and ground hogs. 

found out later he is calling every one to thank them for working so hard and giving up out time working on his truck.


 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Good news, yesterday, Mike is no longer in a cast on his arm, today they were going to remove the cast off his leg and put a soft cast on so he could start some therphy and relearn to walk.

He invited us all to come and watch the super bowl with him.
Problem is most had made plans earlier. John has checked in getting Mike and watchung the game at his house and spend the night. Should know by now if that will happen.
Predicting from 3 to 10 inches of snow here by Sunday mid night. I just don't want to go any place..

. Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Mike was released from the nurseing home this morning. Has restrictions on how much he is on his feet.
He is staying with John because his home was put up for sale and people should close on it soon. His wife moved back in with her parents and wants nothing to do with Mike any more.
Guess laying in the hospital and being in the nurseing home gave Mike time to think about how hard he worked to provide a show place home, car to drive while he drove old wore out stuff that nearly got him killed.
Feeling is mutual Mike told John.

John said that maple syrup season will soon start and mike can feed the fire and stir the syrup.

I think Sunday we will hold a metting and have a party at the sugar shack way John talked.


 Al


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