Bloody Lip, Skinned Knees, and Broken Legs?

I woke with a mild headache in the middle of the night, but it was totally gone once I got up for good just before 9am. With everyone up so late, I expected the house to remain quiet for a while. I started coffee then played on the PC. It was Sunday, the one day each week that I skip calisthenics. Once again, I was very surprised to find a clear sky. As late as last night, they were still calling for rain and possibly even a mix of sleet and snow. It was only 37 degrees, although the high was projected to reach 66. Nice – another lovely spring day. Mindy joined me downstairs earlier than I thought she might. It was before 10am. The kids, however, remained asleep. Not wanting to wait too long, I readied for my run by 1030am. I was disciplined enough to stretch just before throwing on my running shoes. I ran along Trabue and Hague for the first time in quite a while. Unless I’m mistaken, not since before all that February snow. My lower right calf was absolutely killing me – cramping up like knot. I tried rubbing it out about a mile into the run, but that proved pointless. It tightened up again as soon as I dashed off. I continued my run, albeit at a slower pace. I worked up one heck of a sweat by the run’s end. Over the last mile I did my best to divert my attention away from the pain and instead on other things. That helped some. Boy was I happy to be back home. I complained about my calf to Mindy. I was walking with a painful, obvious limp. Again, I tried rubbing it out but with very limited results. I was determined to take advantage of the lovely weather. I hurried to gather my things and run off to Lowe’s. I wanted to get the Thule carrier stowed in the shed. To complete the project, I needed to buy some beefy eye-hooks. In addition, I thought I might pick-up some Scott’s fertilizer with Halts and quite possibly, the supplies I need to complete the kitchen wall tile project that’s been hold since before the holidays. At Lowe’s I fetched a cart then threw in a 15K sq ft bag of fertilizer. I checked out lighting fixtures next. Mindy & I want to replace the white track lighting in our familyroom with something more fitting to our current decor. I found one I liked, and would’ve bought it had it been in stock. Figures. Next, I sought out the eye-hooks I wanted. I needed four but bought a package of six. They come in handy. Lastly, I checked out the wall tile. I decided not to buy the supplies because they didn’t have everything I needed in stock, not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t be getting on it today anyway. I headed for the check out. I took the back way home down Old Dublin Rd just west of the river. I was home in a jiffy. I was surprised to find Mindy still in her PJ’s. I made a quick sandwich (starving) then headed out to the garage to gather the tools necessary to complete the Thule storage task. I mounted the eye-hooks about 28 inches apart side-to-side and 48 inches apart front-to-back. It didn’t take long. Not much to it. I hung the trailer straps from the eye-hooks with plenty of slack then went to fetch the Thule. I removed the Thule by myself. It’s light but bulky. Before stowing it, I replaced the broken cleat with one of the four replacements Thule sent me back in January. My make-shift repair held up all winter. I knew it would. I noticed Jacob outback moping around without a friend to play with. I asked for his help carrying the Thule to the shed and ultimately stowing it. He willingly agreed. We stowed it in minutes. It slid right into place. All I had to do was tighten the straps. The task went even easier than I had hoped. Before securing the shed, I pulled out the hose caddy and reattached it to the front water spigot. All ready for spring! After getting my tools put away, I asked Jacob if he wanted to hit some golf balls. He did. He doesn’t know it, but I want to find him a set of used clubs for his birthday. Hopefully, he & I can get out a few times this spring/summer. We grabbed a bucket of balls then headed over to Dave & Becky’s yard. Beyond a few casual swings, Jacob’s never swung a club with any instruction before. I gave him a few pointers then let him have at it. After a few misguided shots I offered a couple more tips keeping in mind the greater objective, which hopefully was to inspire a love of the game. I know from my own experience that it takes practice, practice, practice to hit solid golf shots. He must’ve hit 50-60 balls before he started getting the hang of it, and even then only about 50% went where he planned. Not bad at all. Bella came out while we were hitting balls, but she eventually left us alone and pushed herself from the tree swing. Not wanting to leave her out, I slid over between buckets and gave her a good push a time or two. We hit golf balls for almost an hour. It was good fun, and I think Jacob really liked it. I hollered over and asked Bella if she wanted another push. Yes! OK. I pulled her back high and tight and let her rip. Somehow her hands broke free from the rope causing her to fall while her butt/legs were still on the disc seat. Her knees, face, and hands scuffed across the coarse ground while she screamed. Then, as the swing headed back up she fell off completely from about three feet above the ground landing with a thud. Now, let me tell ya, when Bella gets hurt there’s no one anywhere that screams louder. No one! She screamed bloody murder. I was already scared, but with her blood curdling screams I was rattled to my core. She looked up with a bloody mouth. Once she realized her mouth was bleeding she screamed even louder. Oh dear! Jacob came running over to help. She yelled that her legs were broke, which caused me to laugh a little because she was walking. She didn’t appreciate the laughter. I picked her up and carried her towards the house asking Jacob to run ahead before me to fetch her momma. She screamed even louder when she caught site of Mindy. I expected that. That’s what kids do. In the end, she had nothing more than a few scrapes on her knee and foot and a bloody lip. Mindy assured me she had it under control. Jacob and I headed back out side. We hit golf balls for another 10-15 minutes before I went inside to check on Bella. She was on the sofa under a blanket. Told me she couldn’t walk. Mindy assured me that she was OK. Bella told me that she hated the swing and would never ride it again. I tried to lighten her mood but she would have nothing of it. After a brief break I headed back outside to do a couple more chores. My next task was to straighten our severely leaning mailbox. I wasn’t sure why or what happened. All I knew was that it needed corrected. First, I cut the tie-wrap helping hold the iron trellis against the mailbox used to support the Purple Clematis. The mailbox pulled up and out rather easily, in fact, maybe too easily. It wasn’t broken per se, but instead rotting away beneath ground level. It’s been there for about 15 years. Originally a 4X4", it wasn't much more than a 2X2" now. Unprepared to replace it right then, I decided to try and straighten and salvage what was left of it. For that I had to fetch my post hole digger and spud bar. I was careful not to damage the Clematis, which was already sporting some new growth. And because the mailbox post and Clematis interfere slightly with the arc of the nearest sprinkler head, I decided to move the post a little closer to the curb by a couple inches. That went well. To finish it off, I went to the compost pile to fetch a pail of top soil to tamp around the renovated post. The last thing I did was tie the Clematis vine a little tighter at its base to further help the arc of the nearby sprinkler head. Done! I thought seriously about washing Mindy’s Honda, or at a minimum vacuuming the inside before calling it a day. However, last second I chose to forego any more manual labor and instead headed in for a well-deserved shower and some rest. A shower felt terrific. I asked Mindy if the washer was free so I could wash my stinky running clothes. It was. So, after a shower I washed my running clothes. I decided to wear flannel PJ’s for the rest of the day. For the next hour or more I snuggled up with my book, Excuses Be Gone, in the living room recliner. I read some and napped some. It felt terrific! Mindy already had dinner started when I moseyed into the kitchen after my latest nap. She was baking pork chops with plans to grill them for the last 5-10 minutes. We were also having baked potatoes. Bella was a pill all afternoon/evening, milking her traumatic tree swing experience for all it was worth. She offered that she was bored, but also declined any idea we conjured up to help thwart it. It was getting under Mindy’s skin, and she let her know it. Dinner was ready around 530pm. Everybody ate chops except Bella. She had a grilled burger. Peobina and Isha stopped over to invite us to a birthday party sometime in early April (Isha’s 2nd). We were in the middle of dinner clean-up. Mindy started baking cookies and offered some to Isha when they were done. They were getting ready to head out on a walk. I asked Bella to walk Isha over to Emily & Evan’s where she could play with all the other kids. She agreed. Peobina, Isha, and Bella headed out back towards the O’Connell’s. As promised, when the cookies were done Mindy walked a plateful down for all the kids to enjoy. I finished cleaning up the kitchen. Next, I wrote in my blog and read about the Buckeyes big NCAA tournament victory from earlier in the afternoon. I didn’t watch the game – didn’t need the stress. I was, however, looking forward to watching the new series starting tonight on The Discovery Channel called, Life, an 11-part series sharing all sorts of fascinating stories about our world’s most fascinating creatures. I was reminded of it by an embedded Yahoo trailer. Mindy had Bella get a shower first. She didn’t take one Saturday when Jacob did. But Jacob still had to pass a sniff test to get a free skip. He didn’t pass. Mindy told him to shower too. He wasn’t pleased but ultimately complied. At 8pm I called the family down to watch the Discovery Channel program. This was such a big deal that each of the big four (Discovery, Learning, Science, and Animal Planet) were carrying the first episode. We weren’t disappointed. I would liken it to the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and Jacque Cousteau underwater adventures from my childhood except on steroids. I wasn’t sure how long the first episode would last – apparently two hours. The kids got to watch almost 1.5 hours worth. They were into it too. As much as I was enjoying it, I still managed to dose off a time or two. Never fails. But after the kids were tucked in I watched until the end. We headed to bed promptly at 10pm.