Well....
Last Sunday, I had a seemingly embarrassing, very scary, freak accident occur in the garage. While tapping a bolt through a bracket, a 4mm shard of metal shot through my contacts and cornea, embedding itself into my Iris. I ended up in surgery a few hours later with the shard removed and 7 stitches in my eye.
Normally, I am overly paranoid about safety glasses in the garage, but unfortunately I had them on my forehead this time. Needless to say, they didn't really help. Given the frequency that I use a welder, mill, belt sander, grinder, tubing bender, and other 'dangerous' tools in my garage, the simple task of tapping a bolt in a hole nearly blinded me.
A week later, I am very lucky to be recovering beyond doctors' expectations. I will have stitches in my eye for the next 3-6 months and will wear safety glasses in lieu of an eye patch. Fortunately, after all of this, I will likely have correctable vision similar to what it was before. Given that the shard was about 1mm from deflating my eye like a flat tire, and I'll come back from this with only minor vision and cosmetic issues, let this be a lesson to everyone messing with tools: SAFETY GLASSES AT ALL TIMES.
Needless to say, during my recovery over the next few weeks, I will not be able to make progress on the cage. Hopefully I can get some smaller projects done though.