Hero Of the Day

Today, the Powers That Be decided that several of us needed to move. We've sort of been existing between where we lived for the last 8 months, and where we'll live for the next year, and most of us have been transferring stuff a backpack-load at a time, with the understanding that we need to be done with this sometime next week.

Or, y'know, a week early, that's cool, too.

Grouse grouse grouse. I have about four more backpack-loads - and we refer to my backpack as "The SUV of all backpacks." It would look appropriate if I were, say, in full battle rattle and headed somewhere Very Important in one of the 'stans. Here, when filled, it looks like I'm walking home from work with a little black Mini Cooper strapped to my back. Four of these, I had expected to get home over the next 4-5 days.

Also tempting is the urge to feel sorry for myself for not having the use of my left arm. Home is about a 20-25 minute walk, so it's not THAT bad to have to make multiple trips, but there's this Really Big Hill. Most of the time, I am quite fond of the Really Big Hill. It's pretty, and affords me a beautiful view of Rainier, and a pretty walk through the trees with holly and ivy and big pines, and is really a very relaxing way to transition from work to whatever one is doing after work.

That's when one is carrying a backpack or less.

I am at this point rather frazzled and frustrated. And in deep need of a shower. The Gentleman gets off work a little earlier than I do this week, and shot me a text - I basically wailed my despair (fortunately contained in the dignity of text).

His first response, "What can I do to help?"

Oh.

Well, that puts a different light on it.

And then along the way in my mad digging, I come across my "garment bag." It was originally designed to hold dress clothes, but I've been known to stuff just about anything into it.

And someone points out that I don't need another backpack - I could probably fit two backpack loads in a really big trash bag.

And the Gentleman quietly waits at Red Robin (not only do they have bottomless fries, they also have a bottomless root beer float), studying the section of Proverbs we're on tonight, waiting for The Powers That Be to inspect my work and allow that perhaps I can go home now.

And then he waits as close as he can to the gate (and gets reprimanded by a police officer for his troubles.)

And immediately lifts my SUV-backpack off me as soon as I'm in range, and carries it easily to his trunk (I'd been laboring under the thing.)



And waits for me to make a second trip so I can get everything out.

And has country music playing for me when I get in the car.

And makes the pretty drive up the hill, not the speedy one, all the while talking of happy things and his family (he knows I like his family...and I definitely like that his family likes me :P ).

And parks and hugs me, even though we both know I am filthy from work and need a shower - he's just happy to see me.

Then we get out into the bright sunshiny day, and he goes around to the trunk, throws my giant backpack on his back, grabs the trash bag (I had to set this thing down every 200 feet. It's kind of heavy.) in one hand, and the garment bag in the other, and RUNS up the dirt/gravel hill.

I got to carry his waterbottle. He said he can't run with it in his jeans pocket like that.

Then he slowed and waited to walk up the stairs with me.

And talked some sense and perspective into me, so that I realized I didn't have to unpack and put everything away RIGHT THEN - that had been one of the major stress points.

Then before I did anything with unpacking, he helped me find Viking's keys (I'd forgotten to bring them back to her Monday, and had work all day Tuesday - she wasn't able to find them in the room, either. Of course, silly us, we never once thought to look inside my running shoes.)



And talked with me while I unpacked one bag, just hanging out and discussing happy matters.

Viking came over, and we all went for Subway (since I'm in serious need of groceries).

Then we all stayed up, studied Proverbs, and sat about swapping work stories and legends.

And at the end, it was a really, really good day.

I wonder if it's just because he always decides to see them that way.

Well, I was about due for something like this.

The Ranger is a sort of rumpled red. It was less rumpled when Hammer owned it, but when Hammer transferred to a little island in the Pacific, he sold it to my dear friend, Viking. Viking maybe wasn't quite ready for her first vehicle to be something as big as the Ranger, but in time she learned how to take corners without taking them OUT, and it really does suit her personality.

That was about a year ago. This summer, we came back to hauling the rumpled red Ranger everywhere. We like it. This weekend, Viking had to work, and permitted me the use of her truck so that I could get a couple of the girls to Bible Study Friday night, and generally tool about with it all weekend.

Saturday afternoon, went to go see Oz the Magnificent (the message of which I actually really needed then, so, beautifully timed), and was lounging in the back of the truck, waiting for a friend, and observed a candy bar wrapper skittering across the parking lot.

The Gentleman's mentor, MedDad, has a saying about convictions - that a conviction is a belief you're willing to die for, or at least it's something you live out. You can argue about a belief without it ever showing up in your life - conviction does. I suppose that means I have a conviction about litter - it falls under, "If you see a problem, and you're able to FIX the problem, why wouldn't you?"

So, the plan was to hop out of the truck, capture the errant wrapper, stuff it in my pocket, and return to the truck.

The plan did not figure in one foot being slightly less committed to that hop than the other.
So I fell sideways about 8 feet to the pavement. Fortunately, training kicked in and I rolled, taking off a lot of the force of impact from my right shoulder. Unfortunately, situational awareness ALSO kicked in, and while I rolled facedown and could have continued to my left, I was also aware of that being the traffic lane, and I used my left arm to stop progress.

That may have been a mistake. Had there been traffic, would have been the right move, but there was not, and my arm wasn't strong enough to stop that much force without some serious damage. (And the Gentleman's appreciation for building physical strength to prevent injury suddenly makes much more sense now.)

What followed was pretty graceless, but I made it back to the truck.

Later that night, the Gentleman and I were joining friends for a cookout (read: throw a dead tree on a fire ring. Stuff some branches underneath. Set fire to it. Let hot dogs and marshmallows commence.), and while helping to clean up, I made the disastrous decision to lift a bag of marshmallows with my left hand.

That was about a 7 on the pain scale. (My pain scale has 8 as "curled up on the floor in the fetal position.") Hrm.

Monday morning, take my beautifully bruised (y'gotta see this one - it's a piece of work) arm down to medical. Our medical is a little goofy - just about anything but sheer stupidity is all covered under our work insurance, but if something isn't life-threatening, there are only specific hours when you can get it checked out. Weekend is not part of this.

X-rays say nothing is fractured. The nice friendly medic and I were both, "Yes, we already know THAT," owing to how it was performing. I can use the hand fine, I just can't rotate my arm or lift anything over two pounds (I tried lifting a filled waterbottle out of the Gentleman's sink the day before. It was a little humbling.).

The theory is that I have bruised/strained the tendons in and around my forearm, and managed one BEAUT of a bruise (this is probably my new record for bruising. As far as I can tell, that's not from the pavement at all - it's from the bones and everything else hitting the INSIDE of the skin really hard.) inside my left arm. The rest of me's got minor bruises and scrapes, but an unusable left arm has me a little queasy about the upcoming Tough Mudder on the 15th. We'll see what develops.