Bookmark Project - Astros High-Five (Astros with Kevin) / No More Shroud Line

For the first time the other day I created a category based on an event.  Back in 2008 my friend Kevin celebrated his 50th birthday by driving down from Arkansas to attend an Astros game, a gift from his wife Megan.  They graciously invited me along, and naturally I brought with me the camera I had at the time, the Fujifilm 7000.  The category is called "Astros with Kevin".

It was tough getting good pictures from a point-and-shoot, but some ended up being passable, such as this bookmark featuring the team during their ritual high-fives to start the game.

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[continued from yesterday's post; series started 10/20]

After about four days on the shroud line I could no longer ignore a growing problem associated with the job.  My wife says that I have "tofu skin", as it doesn't hold together too well.  Didn't know the truth of that at the time, but in struggling with the shroud pins there were several places on my hands where the skin literally rubbed off of my hands, so that when I took my gloves off there were patches that exposed the flesh underneath.  At first I didn't say anything, but these patches weren't healing, and grew by the day.  And the salt water that was used to soak the shrouds didn't help!

So finally I went into the floor office and showed my hands to the head foreman, Glenn,  who had no problem deciding that a change was needed.  To my great relief - and probably that of my co-workers - the next day one of the lead men escorted me into the very bowels of the floor (pun intended) to where my new job would be.  For the first time I was able to see the main floor, and looked around in fascination as we passed the skinning line, the tongue and head lines, the gut table, and the blood pit.  I remember mistaking blood - purplish, jelly-like globs on the floor - for brains.