Clumsy Part Two (He Keeps On Falling!)

On April 19 in the post “Clumsy” I wrote:

“While I have never been known for my clumsiness, it is somewhat evident in my life. Now that I have aged, it gets thrown in my face as if it just came about and is caused by some aging process, probably a brain dysfunction. As nasty as the accusation is, I need not defend myself although that’s usually the position I’m in. I feel threatened, and have to remind myself that I fell out of an amusement park ride at the age of 12 and I tripped in the garage and broke my ankle eleven years ago. All that happens now is more of a life long pattern rather than new events.


In a world where we all look at our elderly with a questioning glance (are they OK? Do they hear? Do they understand?) it is hard to have a perceived weakness. The kindness of strangers is not always appreciated, especially if we see it as their perception of our weakness. I will readily admit to a bit of paranoia, but I’m doing fine.


I’m just, as always, a bit clumsy!”

Today I went to my temporary office to pack a few things awaiting tomorrow’s movers. I was alone packing boxes and when I had finished my office, I looked next door and in the closet I had a number of items, some of which were in a very large broken box. I looked through the items and decided to move them to other boxes, and there was one small item at the bottom that was hard to reach. I leaned way over to get to the object when the box broke, I tumbled forward and landed head first into the box, into the closet and banged my head into the wall and my knees onto the ground. My arms, including the one with the damaged rotator cuff were splayed out to save me and ended up hurting lots!

I stayed very still and surveyed the damage to me. Nothing seemed top be broken, the building was still. Only one person knew where I was and she didn’t necessarily expect me to return. I guessed it would be late tonight before my wife started to look for me and I would be very ill, and have peed in my pants by the time they found me. Clearly, I had to move. There were neither usable phones in the house nor any computers.

I began to crawl around a bit, trying to get to a place that was safe and would let me get out of there. My knees were hurting, and don’t work well on a good day so I was toast! I worked my way out of the box, and onto my butt! I scooted around to find a place I could get a hand hold to help me get up with my bad knees and bad arm. I worked my way over to a railing and was able to get up.

I had been scared! I needed to sit quietly (and drink) and catch my breath.

I was already on my way to physio, so I kept on going, and they understood and treated me gently.

I am sore. The situation was laughable, and the fact that I survived once again is good, and the story is funny, as long as I has no disastrous long term problems attached to it.