Ms Klutzmeister, here

See the nice birdhouse atop the sturdy 4 x 4 pole? Well, I was watching an oak titmouse fly into and out of it recently and wondered if the Mr. had ever convinced the Mrs that it was a great home. The house has been there for at least 2 years and the last time I'd checked, had not been used. Curiosity got the better of me Friday afternoon so I hauled a ladder over to the post and instead of opening the ladder up so as to have four solid feet on the ground, I opted to simply lean the ladder against the post. Post wobbled a bit. "Hmm", I thought. "Must be kinda loose in the damp soil. Probably shouldn't do this." But I shinnied up the ladder anyway, opened the birdhouse, and had just removed the nest (voila!) when there was a loud CRACK!
Then the post, the ladder, the birdhouse and I all went down. Fortunately, an ancient (and not plugged in) electric line made the descent a slow motion event. However, the side of my right leg met up with an olive log and that did elicit a yelp. It took me a few seconds to get up...taking a mental inventory of what parts still worked, if anything was bleeding, if anything else was going to fall...and by then the adrenalin shakes had begun. Did manage to rise...half the brain insisting that I "go directly to the house, put ice on the leg, put the leg on a pillow, take some Ibuprofen!" while the other half of the brain said "where in the heck did the birdnest go? Pick up the bird house! Try to stand the 4 x 4 back up, put the ladder away!" Eventually, all the above were dealt with. Yesterday the leg limped into a Doc-in-A-Box. (and yes, I was still with the aforementioned leg) Note; DO use one of those emergency clinics. You will still have a long wait but the clientel seems to be more of the "injury" sort than the "hacking, coughing, barfing" sort that were at the hospital's E.R. and which made me turn around before entering. I'd rather have an untreated broken leg than be subjected to the germ warfare that was going on there! The jury is still out on my fibula. Since I have no health insurance, the nice Dr. held off on the x-ray. He did poke and prod and ask lots of questions. I especially liked the part when he told me to "stay off ladders! No gutter cleaning, no bird house checking..." IF the leg isn't feeling any better by Tuesday, I will hobble back in for the x-ray(s). I may have just bruised the heck out of the ligaments and muscles. There is no external bruising. My friend, Karen, who had just gotten out of the hospital herself the night before (having had every test known to man and been pronounced disgustingly healthy), not only played taxi for me yesterday but also bbq'd a chicken, which she brought by later..along with an avocado and some pork n beans! I am so very blessed with wonderful friends!