The past few weeks have been a bit of a bumpy ride. Apart from having writer’s block, I experienced a couple of ‘graceful’ mishaps. One afternoon, while my son was visiting, I took him for a ride to show him some of the local scenery. Around lunchtime we stopped to grab a bite to eat and I wanted to let our dog, Lucy stretch her legs. I went to hook her leash and for whatever reason I didn’t catch it the right way, well she thought she was hooked and hopped out of the car…unleashed! I panicked as there was quite a bit of traffic and Lucy trotted off thinking she was attached. Without even thinking, I lunged at the poor dog, grabbing on to her fur. This action, of course, totally startled her and she pulled away with quite a bit of force causing me to fall down on my knees; I managed to catch myself just before my nose met the asphalt! Lucy, evidently thought it was playtime and came back to join in…thank goodness!
I can imagine how this all looked to anyone watching! My son figures if anyone had a video phone, I’ll be featured on ‘YouTube’ soon.
Then, one Saturday morning, a couple of weeks after my son left, I was taking Lucy to the groomer. We had had some freezing rain overnight that coated the vehicles but the ground just looked wet. I had put Lucy in the back seat of my car and was just about to open the front door to get my ice scraper. Next to the door there was a small patch of ice, that I hadn’t noticed and down I went! My automatic reaction was to grab the car for support; of course it was totally covered in ice so my arm just slid down the side as the rest of me slid under the car! Lying there just long enough to feel the, now, melted ice soak through my blue jeans, I crawled out from under my car, all the time being thankful that the neighbors were out of town!
When I fell the first time, it immediately felt like all my organs had been jarred and moved two inches to the left. The fall on the ice didn’t really hurt that much…at first. It wasn’t until later in the day that the pain hit…with a vengeance!
Now, slowly, I am on the mend, I am moving a little easier and can sit for longer periods of time. These ‘graceful’ moments served as a reality check, a reminder that this older body doesn’t bounce back the way it used to. Having ended up in a heap on the ground twice, I have concluded this body doesn’t bounce at all – Ha!
