Day after tomorrow and it will be a week since I slipped on the ice in the backyard and fell right smack onto the back of my head. It was a hell of a hit, and hurt my upper shoulders too, but mostly my head. Although I will say this; my upper back has not been this free of knots, nor has it felt this good in years! It happened so suddenly that I never got an arm or an elbow or anything onto the ground before my head hit the ice under me. I can still feel the pin in my head and shoulders, though it is almost gone. When I lay there on the ice, I thought of all the people I know who have died or nearly died because of such head injuries. To be honest, it was a bit frightening. But now, five days on, I am inclined to think all will come out okay.
This winter’s weather has been way off to the usual. Winters in this valley are normally fairly cold. The first full winter we spent up here we had a six week stretch where the temps were between 0 and 20 BELOW. Last winter was the snowiest yet, leaving many trees broken in the mountains and flooding half our yard. And then there is this winter, where the daily temperatures get above freezing every day, and the snow and ice melt just a bit, then freeze over nice and slick at night. It has even then rained on top of it all in some of the mornings, leaving it extra slippery. But it has not melted everything into outright puddles, so the footprints and such leave uneven surfaces, like the one I stepped onto when my right heal blasted out from under me when I fell.
This past week has been a bit restful since my accident, but I hope that the morning will see me off well, and that I can get to work on some of the things that need doing here. I have to call the electrician back to do some finish work on a wire that I need to install tomorrow morning, connecting to the circuit that has gone out. We know where the last plug finds the wire to the breaker, so once that is unhooked, we can route in from another location that is much easier to put in. I am suspicious that there might be an electric line that goes into an old oil heater in the old root cellar, and maybe that is what finally corroded away enough to be the cause of our troubles. Failing that, no idea!
I once watched an interview with Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson, and during it, he asked her how old she was. She said, and he said, “Oh, you’re still young. You’ll get to an age where it hurts just lying in bed.” Never a truer thing have I ever heard a man say. Waking up in the mornings and the first thing it is is pain. Some mornings it wins too. Other mornings it motivates me to get up and go for the win. I bring that up because it is the other news here at this point in my life. I mean, I could bag on Trump or something like that, but it is far less interesting, and far more obvious.
I got a book recently that I am determined to read through before too long. It has a collection of the founders writings in it, from the Mayflower Compact to the Constitution and all of the other primary ones, and documents all the way up to President Obama announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden. I have just finished The Silence Dogood Letters by Ben Franklin. One of the more favorable bits to those was the importance placed in one on freedom of speech, and how a tyrant will first cut off the tongue of the oppressed. It has certainly bore relevance to today.
I am going to take my further ponderings to bed with me and wake up to call the electrician and the propane dealer, and get some appointments arranged to spend money! I hope there is only a few things to do before barreling through this house to finish up the long needed decorating and floors. Sure tired of it all.