Bookseller down

I had several choices on Friday night, none of which involved the emergency room.  Unfortunately, life intervened while I was busy making plans, and I ended up sitting in a nearly empty room, every breath resulting in a sharp pain, waiting to be admitted at the local hospital.

An hour earlier, I had made the decision to clean the front porch.  Friday is usually my free night, no reason to pack or list.  I dutifully moved all the furniture off the porch except the deck bench, a large plastic box designed to hold seat cushions, etc.  Since we had been seeing snakes in the yard, I cautiously opened the box.  The rest is sort of a blur.  As I was opening the box, I noticed a wasp stinging my foot, which drew my attention away from the huge wasp nest inside the box.  When my attention finally returned to the wasps swarming out of the box, fight or flight kicked in, and I chose the latter.  Unfortunately, my feet must have gotten tangled up, and I fell off the porch, which is about three feet off the ground.

Normally, a three-foot drop wouldn’t have been a big deal; however, I landed squarely, chest first, on one of Ella’s garden statues.  I knew I was hurt, but had no idea how badly.  Ella came running up, offering to call an ambulance.  Trying to man up, I said no, then walked to the side porch step to sit down.  I gradually worked myself inside the house, then finally to bed.  Nothing I could do, however, would alleviate the pain in my chest.  I finally made the decision to have Ella drive me to the emergency room.

I was admitted, X-rayed, and diagnosed with three broken ribs, plus a small blood spot on a lung.  There was nothing they could do about the ribs, but the doctor was afraid the lung could collapse, so they admitted me for overnight observation, and dosed me liberally, I think, with morphine.  Well, long story short, I’m still breathing, painfully at times, and have several weeks of recuperation ahead of me.

On the bright side, I got out of cleaning the porch, and probably won’t be doing yard work for a bit.  On the not so bright side, I have to be careful about lifting inventory for a while, which I learned the hard way on Sunday.

Since I was incapacitated on Saturday, we missed a sale featuring western décor, something that sells pretty well in our booth.  Thankfully, the sale rolled to Sunday, and despite my soreness and pain, I decided that I could handle a drive to look at some inventory.   When we arrived at the address, it was in a downtown building on the third floor, with steps being the only access to the living area.  I walked slowly up the stairs, and into a beautiful lofted apartment, with vaulted ceilings, skylights, and lots of potential inventory for sale.

I was winded from the climb, but Ella and I found $100 worth of stuff, including Harley Davidson items, western decorations, and books.   I was not looking forward to going back down the steps, though, carrying all that stuff.  I carried one small bag down, and Ella stepped up to the plate, so to speak, and brought the rest of our purchases down, making several trips.

Today, I was sorely tempted, pun intended, to skip work to recover from the weekend, but decided that I could be miserable at work just as easy as at home, plus I don’t burn up my leave.

And how was your weekend?