Thank you for the reminder John. It is all too easy to get complacent about safety.

I hate using my table saw. It scares me every time the blade starts up. If I could cut my strips reasonably with a Japanese pull saw, I would do so gladly. I have one time tagged my finger with the table saw and it still gives me the willies. I intend never to get comfortable using it. I figure as long as I'm scared of the thing I will take the extra time to be extra careful and hopefully my digits will remain intact.

I have a power feed and I try to use it when ever I am cutting something with the fence even if this means 10 minutes of set up to make one short rip cut. Unfortunately, the stock blade guard on most saws just gets in the way for many operations. It is probably worth getting a good aftermarket blade guard and using featherboards of some sort whenever it is practical. Use push sticks, don't stand directly in front of the stock so you don't get inpaled if it kicks back, don't put your hand on the out feed side of the blade so it won't be pulled into the blade if it kicks back.