Saturday, September 12, 2009

Falling on cows

I wrote this last week but didn't get a chance to post it:

It turns out that when most people fall they put their palms out flat as they try and break their fall. This usually results in a clean break across the wrist. If you are smart, you don't put your hands out at all, rather you aim to fall on to the side of your body not breaking anything. If you are my dad, you fall from a twelve foot ladder while picking apples, not by any fault of his own (except for the fact that he picking apples in a field on a ladder with cows). The cows, in their eagerness to have Dad's apples, knocked over his ladder which caused him to land on a cow, bounce to the ground, fracturing his wrist with the palm side up leading to surgery, pins and metal plates. My Dad doesn't do well with hospitals and doctors so he is likely harassing nurses while he overnights in the hospital. Fortunatley his wife is also a nurse so he has plenty of at-home care if she can chain him inside while there are more apples to pick, juice to be made and things to preserve. On the up side, Dad was quite talkative last night owing to the shock so we had a great conversation that he probably doesn't remember.

I had a close encounter with the four-wheeled kind on my way home from work yesterday. I was side swiped by a car doing a sleepy California stop at the intersection between the Galloping Goose trail and a busy downtown cross-street. The car had the stop sign and I had the right of way but he was too 'something' to see me. He was visibly shaken, pulled over to see if I was alright, which I was, and I was too sympathetic to his shakeness to tell him what I thought of his driving skills. I was just glad to be upright and owing to his shocked look I don't imagine he will make the same mistake while stopped at the Goose trail anytime soon.

So what can I say? Be careful picking apples around cows, don't challenge a car while on a bike as the cars usually win and keep your fork, there's pie for dessert.

No comments:

Post a Comment