This is the year for it

Greetings from Texas friends and neighbors. It seems I have lived a charmed life these last ten years here at the HomePlace. I havc had the usual scoldings about my bloodpressure, which I am taking care of. There are the cuts and scrapes that come with working outdoors but nothing that required more than a bandaid. To date both Helene and I have seen the Copperheads before they were a problem - knock on wood. I am nothing short of a Nazi on the subject of firearms safety and have no intention of changing that, no problems on there.


The worse I have delt with health wise up to this year was a really bad flu that sent me to see the doctor several times before it ran it's course. Then of course there was the nerve damage I wrote about not too long ago. I seem to be making up for lost time.


The arm is doing fine, in fact I don't even notice any problems from it these days. I made another visit to my good friend Dr. Sterling last week, who assures me I do not have a broken rib.

I will take his word for it.

Broken ribs are another of those injuries I have heard lots but had no previous experience with. I've known lots of people who have. Growing up in a farming and ranching family busted ribs were a common injury.

The most recent was suffered by an older cousin and caused by a kicking horse.

A lady in our writers group told me her husband got his broken in a karate lession.

An old cropduster I knew in the Texas Panhandle busted most of the ribs on his left side in an airplane crash. He said the part that hurt the worst was that he didn't do it on the job, but playing around in an AT-6 on a Sunday afternoon.

And what daring exploit did I recieve my injury from? Playing with the dog. I am never going to live that one down.

For anyone who has never experienced this injury, let me hit the high points. The term "knocked the breath out of me" is no exaggeration. I spent a good minute thinking I was going to die. When I was able to breath again, I didn't want to. I was afraid I wouldn't die for twice that amount of time. And of course, the dog wanted to help.

A cough is like revisiting the orginal injury and is to be avoided at all cost. Good luck with that. Sneezing, if possible, is worse. This morning it hurt like blazes, but I didn't spend a full minute not being able to breath, so I am getting better.

The first two nights sitting and standing hurt like hell. Sitting down in my recliner wasn't too bad. Getting out of it made up for it. Having said that, if you have a recliner - sleep there! Sitting down on the edge of the bed was only exceeded by lying flat, which was nothing compaired to getting back up. I spent three nights in the recliner before even trying to go back to bed.

The doctor told me both injuries hurt the same, but if the ribs aren't broken the hurting goes away faster. Thank God for that.

I am on the mend, and no lasting damage. All things being equal, I would just as soon not have any more new injuries for a while. We are getting ready for THE GREAT PUMPKIN SHOOT II in October.