"I'm going to speak my mind because I have nothing to lose."--S.I. Hayakawa
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Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Any Fall Cap Can Take, I Can Take Better....



My friend Cap is traveling in Russian Siberia and I've been following his (almost) daily posts.  In today's episode, he laments about falling down a couple five inches elevation changes in the hallway and reception area of his hotel.


 Cap has traveled extensively, and does so frugally, blending in with a country's citizens.   He stays in modest accommodations and uses mass transportation.   Every day he faces situation that are--or have the potential to be--dangerous to his health.








In the photo above, which I took of the photo he showed on his blog, the transition between the white tile floor and the yellow flooring in front of the reception desk involves one of the five inch steps downs that he missed.

The photo below, again snapped from the photo of his blog, shows another five inch step down right where he exits the hallway from his room.    He missed that one, too.

In fact, he missed these two steps twice.







Now, you might ask why someone would post something like that on his blog.

Well, two years ago, Cap stumbled over his untied shoelaces after clearing the security line in the Dubai airport.   He broke his hip in the fall.   Soldiering onward, he then flew to Hong Kong, stayed a couple days, then on to Seattle and Phoenix where, finally after six days with a broken hip and a useless left leg, he had hip replacement surgery.

He was 80 then.   He is 82 years old now and back to international travel.  Hence, Russian Siberia in the winter.

There are dangers everywhere out there for senior citizens, who might not be quite as aware of their surroundings as they should be.    We are certainly not as spry, our reflexes operate in slow motion, and our healing takes much longer.

Sometimes, we are on certain meds that compound our injuries in fantastical ways.  

In my travels, I have certainly come across dangerous situations, places where I could have been hurt or killed.


I might have tripped over this broken sidewalk in Mazatlan, Mexico, and broken my neck.







 I might have fallen into the polluted Ganges River while walking on this narrow, flimsy bamboo ramp and died of some horrid infection.









This lioness in Kenya was hot on the trail of dinner.   She might not have stopped.







 This sow and her cubs might have decided I was too close.







 Or this sow coming right at me....








When I stopped to pet this  young bull on a train platform in India, I might have been gored, or crushed, or stomped.   (You'd  have thought it had already happened, the way my tour guide acted.)







This elephant in Jaipur, India, could have picked me up and splattered me on the ground.








 The driver of the vehicle I was in could have run off the road to avoid this herd crossing, and killed us all.







Who knows what gruesome end awaited me in this hotel room bathroom?







 Why, I could have died from an embolism after falling while standing still on a remote road in Mongolia.   This is where blood-thinner meds contributed to this fantastic bruise.




This bruise is on my upper thigh.   By the time it finished spreading it was all the way down to my knee.


 Hey, dangers lurk in my own home.   This is my woodstove.








 This is the door I open to put wood in it, which I attempted to do a couple nights ago when the temperatures were minus 15.






 This is what I see when I squat to fill the stove.   Except for the night in particular, when the fire was roaring with all the air it had access to with the door open.









This simple little gadget is what I use to open and close the door.






Thus:





So the other night, quite late and hardly any lights were on, I filled the roaring stove, and set a knee down on the hearth while I felt around for the innocent little gadget to close the door.

However, my knee came down on said innocent looking gadget and my leg rolled forward.   Of course, that put me off balance and my head was propelled forward--right towards the open door/roaring fire.

I caught myself in time and I am un-scorched and alive.  

Can you imagine what might have happened?   All the blubbery particles in my body would have fed that fire.    My house would have burned down, and me with it.

The Fire Marshal would be clueless, never for a moment suspecting that innocent looking gadget that  lay in the ashes of me and my home.

And the medical examiner, having removed my skull from the open woodstove, would have no option but ruling that my death was a result of self-euthanization from placing my head into a roaring fire.


I am not making fun of Cap's falls and trips and stumbles.   Dangers lurks everywhere and only The Shadow knows where they are.   But, for bruises.   Any bruise Cap can get I can get bigger!

7 comments:

  1. Jeanne, the two of you, you in your travels and Cap in his, certainly tempt fate ... simply by moving across as much of this planet as you do, and as often as you do. Then, there are the lurking dangers right in our own homes. My heart was in my mouth as I got to the, "my knee came down .. my leg rolled forwrd .. " I let out a gasp and held my breath to read the rest of the words. We never know .. the Shadow never knows either. Glad you are safe, today. Hugs. Patti and Cap

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  2. A friend I met in India once said to me : We are all hanging by threads and some force we know nothing of is snipping threads seemingly at random. The home is generally thought to be the most dangerous place we frequent. Your head hitting the cast iron stove could have killed you let alone the fire danger. And we never know do we? You can't find the little tool and then you find it and look what could have happened! I won't fill up this remarks box with other near misses I've had. Great post. Thanks for the Gift of You in our lives .. Cap and Patti

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    1. My head was heading directly towards the OPEN fire. Much more problematic that hitting the cast iron.

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  3. Adventurous people are eventually going to screw up and get hurt, it doesn't matter your age. It's true that the home is the most dangerous place because that is where you spend the most time and do the dumbest things. The older you get, the more you have to pay attention to what you are doing safety wise.

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  4. I hear you, Jeanne; I broke my arm at home--forgot there was a box of printer paper (heavy, immovable) on the floor and tripped over it in the dark. Dumb. Sending virtual protective bubbles for you and Cap. :-)

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    1. Thanks for the bubble wrap. I shall begin popping them right away!

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    2. When did that happen your falling down over a box of printer paper? Recently? Falling in the dark you could've really hurt yourself because it would have been an instant fall with no hint it was coming. I too will take all the help you send along. Smiles Cap in Tayshet Russian Siberia and Patti in Anchorage, Alaska.

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