Pharyngula::Thump

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Sunday, November 20, 2005

Thump

PZ Myers • 59 Comments (last page)

I had a scary moment today—recent storms have flung icy wet leaves everywhere, so I was up on a ladder clearing out our gutters. The ladder suddenly went flying (icy wet leaves. Everywhere. It was understandable.) I came crashing down about 10 feet, but fortunately my head partially broke my fall by smashing the glass cover on a gas meter about halfway down.

I'll live with no major injuries, but ouch, I'm feeling my age. It was a real bone-rattling fall. I've got an ugly lump rising up on my temple, my left leg is scraped up, my back is aching, and worst of all, I've really done a number on my left wrist. It's packed in ice right now, but it's stiff and throbbing…so no idea what it will be like tomorrow.

I'm going to have to work on writing using only words I can type with my right hand.

Look. Look up. Pony! Loomin', jumpin' pony. Hop, hippo, hop. Joy! Poop. Pumilio. Milk on my yo-yo. Loin, junk, Polk, pin, plink, plonk, hum. Oil, pomp, lumkin.

This better get well soon, or look what the new subject matter of the ol' blog will be.

The doctor thinks I'll be OK. Nothing major is broken (although he's going to have a specialist look closely at the X-rays—my hamate bone looks a little suspicious, I guess), and I'm just going to be wearing a splint for a while.

Meanwhile, check this out: there's a trend, or conspiracy, or a most unlikely set of coincidences going on here. I smell…design.

For those of you who have mentioned karma and justice in the comments, I will simply mention that I am now equipped with the Steel Reinforced Fist of Science, so don't cross me.

Trackback url: http://pharyngula.org/index/trackback/3396/dzZmeurs/

Comments:

#50026: — 11/21 at 08:52 AM
What IS it with you and self-inflicted injuries, anyway?!

Take care, man. And watch your back (good advice in general, really...) I had to reschedule my defense when one of my committee members went to the hospital over back pain that he earlier insisted was "no big deal."

Trackback: I smell a trend… Tracked on: I am ... unhindered by talent (216.35.197.11) at 2005 11 21 09:04:23
On the same day that I (finally) post about my biking accident, PeeZed has an unfortunate interaction with a ladder and leaves. While the casual observer might not make a connection…I smell a conspiracy! Think about it - there are just too man...

#50031: Bob Dowling — 11/21 at 09:17 AM
I second/third/etc the comments: Get X-rayed

I came off a push bike a few years ago. My left wrist was sore so I ignored the pain, iced the swelling and kept it immobilised for a while. And as a result of that brilliant bit of self-medication now I don't have full mobility in my left wrist.

Get X-rayed. By medical people.

#50042: Phi — 11/21 at 10:38 AM
Your real mistake was doing this after Saturday's marathon tenure review meeting instead of before

.

And, amusingly, the anti-spam word was "fitness"...

#50052: — 11/21 at 11:17 AM
I write merely to commend to you the word 'lollipop' for your right-handed typing. Had you injured your right hand instead, you might be able to console yourself with 'stewardesses', but as a righty you'll have to make do with candy.

#50055: Ken Cope — 11/21 at 11:23 AM
Coming up on the 5 year anniversary of the MM holidays, I joined my in-laws on the roof of the Modesto CA home to scrape another year of wet leaves away by whatever means necessary. This was such uncharacteristically vigorous exercise for me, that when I woke up with severe chest pains the next day I blamed it on work. By the third day, a doctor informed me that I was doing remarkably well for somebody whose lung had spontaneously collapsed, due to the congenital birth defect of a blep or blister popping at the apex of the lung. After two thoracic surgeries, I'm fully recovered.

Even though my spontaneous pneumo-thorax was not caused by leaf-cleaning and roof-clambering, you won't find me climbing ladders when there are perfectly healthy teens willing to do so for cash.

#50058: — 11/21 at 11:26 AM
I learned from experience to use http://www.wernerladder.com/catalog/details.php?series_id=239 when cleaning gutters atop an extension ladder.

#50060: — 11/21 at 11:29 AM
Hey, we did gutters yesterday too. Fortunately the eery coincidence stops there. LAST year though, mere days after moving into our new house, the ladder slipped on the wet deck, my husband fortunately managing to jump clear as the ladder smashed through the kitchen window. Let's just say that I was standing faithfully at the bottom of the ladder this year, holding on!

Glad you're ok(ish) PZ!

#50071: AndyS — 11/21 at 12:33 PM
Clearly this is the wheel of karma turning: You should never have killed that mouse.

When asked about Western civilization Ghandi said, ‘I think it would be a good idea.’

Trackback: For PZ, The Wounded Tracked on: Powerliberal (72.9.234.70) at 2005 11 21 12:39:14
Since PZ may have been coddling his hand too much to put it up, I submit the best part of Sunday's newspaper on his behalf.

#50074: — 11/21 at 01:02 PM
Lots of lit'ry possibilities remain:

Look, Polly Polyphony; jump up, Molly Million: join in my holy plump polo pony monopoly.

IIRC, somebody once wrote a full-length novel without using the letter E at all - oddly, the Guinness Book of Records people were more interested in this than were any of the literature-prize organizations.

#50087: — 11/21 at 02:35 PM
The splinted fist thumping Gould's "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory". Hmmm. Punctation? Ladder falls catastrophically rather than gradually sliding down the wall?

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