Sunday, August 24, 2008

Entry for March 25, 2008 ~ A Way of Life for Me...

I was sitting here, writing to a friend of mine...and while telling her about my leg, it occurred to me that falling down must be a way of life.
For me, at least...
When I was in the hospital, a nurse asked me if I fell often. I had to admit that I do. Ouch!
I have been falling down all my life. I have blogged about it here before, so anyone who reads my Blog regularly will remember that. But here I am again, living proof for anyone else who might not yet believe it!
I grew up with trick knees, have arthritis now ~ and even tho' my knees were fixed when I was young that does NOT mean that they have been perfect ever since.
Granted, they have not 'gone out' nearly as much as they used to, but there have been the occasional times when I was still laid up for days at a time because they did. Countless times.
And then, of course, there have also been the other times when I have taken a fall ~ down the stairs when I missed the step, slipped on apple peels on dry sidewalks (yes, I really did that), gone down on the ice, and lost my balance, simply put.
There was one time, while working in one of the gardens in the front yard, when I was backing up from a plant, stepping up to the retaining wall, and suddenly, back I went ~ down on the back of my head, right on the driveway!
Another time, I was in the shower (pregnant with my daughter Mary) and my R knee went out. I fell, right there in the shower. I was in my seventh month (I think) and thankfully, nothing went wrong with my baby! To fall down when pregnant is no laughing matter.
Another time, carrying her in her car seat (she was about a month old), I slipped on the ice right there next to the car door and fell, my legs going under the car itself. Again, happily I did not drop her!
My poor, poor children, eh?!?
Then there are the innumerable times when I have fallen on the ice, or...no ice!
There was that beautiful, sunny, dry as a bone day in early Spring, I was a student @ WSU, riding every day to school with a friend. We had just met in Old Main and were walking to his car and talking. Suddenly, I was on my back, staring up at the sun and he was about ten feet ahead of me, talking away, not even noticing that I was no longer beside him.
As he started to realize that he was alone and he turned to see where I had gone, I was just picking myself up from the sidewalk, cursing that rotten apple peel ~ the one that had mysteriously disappeared, by the way ~ and did he believe a word I said, as I insisted that there had been one?!?
Think about it......
There was another time when, years earlier, I was at the cottage with my family ~ we had a cottage on Lake St. Clair, Canadian side ~ and Winter had frozen the waters into a veritably limitless ice skating rink ~ I was gliding along on the canal, my Dad was down at the edge of the lake. I saw him down there and decided to skate over to him. When he saw me he began waving me back, calling out that the ice was too thin there and that I would fall through...but I couldn't hear a word he was saying, and I had the impression that he was actually waving me onwards! So, I continued to skate further out, until all of a sudden, I heard a crack!
Down I went, over my head, into the icy cold waters of the canal (which was about 15' deep at that point) and my Dad came skating over as fast as he could, to the rescue!
As he pulled me out, sputtering and spitting, I was able to get a grip upon the edge of the hole I had made, climbing out onto the surface. Back we went, the two of us, to the cottage ~ and my Mom got me into a warm blanket, made me some hot chocolate......and needless to say, that was the last time I skated that weekend!
I could go on here, relating story after amusing story of my exploits and foibles, my falls and near-misses...but this is getting embarrassing.
So, for now, I think I've spilled enough beans...and bodies.

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