Dirt Nap

I've never been a graceful person. In fact, I'm notoriously clumsy. I have a definite KNACK for falling down, bumping things, getting hurt, and even breaking bones (my left foot, three times).


Cash and I have a habit of getting out of the house between 5am and 5:30 to go for a walk. He likes to sniff everything and mark it all- to make sure that other dog knows this is "his" block, and I like to get a LITTLE exercise.

This walk has been very good for me, but I've fallen many times while leading the dog around. I turn my left foot fairly often but can usually hang in there. I usually fall when it's wet or slippery, but now and then I fall for no good reason.

Last winter I feel very hard on my left knee, and just as it was getting stronger, fell on it again. It's been weakened ever since and I do my best not to overwork it.

Today, I took Cash on his walk and as we turned the corner, we saw the dog we call "Bear". He's a HUGE Golden Retriever with as silly a personality as Cash's. Bear was across the street, headed away from us. Cash saw and smelled "Bear" and started acting like a goof immediately. I got him calmed down, went around the block and into the house.

I got ready for work, got my things together and headed out the front door.

Honestly, the next thing I remember is screaming on the walk in front of our house. I absolutely lost the ability to think, to reason, to form any sort of thought. I just screamed. And screamed. And then screamed some more.

SweetPea's room is at the front of the house, right behind the front door. She was getting ready for school. Poor SweetPea was so shaken by the sound of her mom screaming, she panicked and started crying; "MOM! MOM!MOM! MOMMMMMMMMMM!".

That's all I heard for a moment. My beautiful girl was scared and I absolutely could NOT help her. I couldn't do anything. I was the reason she was scared. She was afraid for me.

Then I heard Cash, banging at the door, his tags jangling. Then I saw bare feet, and The Dude's hands, touching me and holding my hand. He'd thrown on pants (but nothing else) before he ran out to help me.

TallBoy was there, too. He was apologizing for something, but at the time, words were not making very much sense to me. Apparently TallBoy thought I'd been shot, or stabbed, based on my crying alone and had run to the kitchen to get a weapon. He was apologizing for taking so long to help me.

I had no idea of time. I only knew pain. Tearing, searing, rip me apart and sew me back together WRONG pain. I know I cried and screamed some more- fairly incoherently- for a while before The Dude could get me calmed down. TallBoy and the Dude finally got my brain back in my head and got me inside- after much back and forth of TheDude and TallBoy for shoes and coats and such.

It had been clear and dry when Cash and I went out for our walk. When I left the house, it was drizzling freezing rain and my front steps had frozen over with unseen ice.

I had slipped on our front steps. My left leg, which is weak already, had turned to the right very sharply as I fell, and all my weight landed on both my knee and ankle when I went down (and I am a big girl, let me tell you).

I spent a while in the front lawn taking a "dirt nap", but now I'm at home, on Tylenol with Codine.

I can't tell you how wonderful The Dude is being to me. I adore this man beyond all possible measure and I am so grateful to him for how well he cares for me. He's not traditionally "romantic", but any man that runs into the front yard with no shirt or shoes in sub-freezing temperatures while it's raining ice to pick me up off the yard is my knight in shining armor.