Don't Get Hurt

It was one of the last nice days before the cold was to set in, so I was outside Wednesday morning doing some various chores in the yard, in preparation for the upcoming cold weather. The brown leaves are hanging on the Hickory trees, and if like other years they will slowly fall off after the yard is all cleaned up well into the winter.  One Locust and a Maple still had leaves, with the Maple having just changed to a vibrant yellow a few days earlier. I was not doing anything major in the yard, just those small chores that are easy to overlook. The wife was going to go grocery shopping, and before departing she says to me: "Don't get hurt."  

Don't Get Hurt? I don't know why that tends to come up, like she must think I am accident prone. I am not sure what she expected me to do, get up on the roof and fall off? Come to think of it, that may not be the best example. Why? Because I had been known for going up on the roof while she has been away from the house. Generally, to clean gutters, or branches off the roof from storms. For years she has told me to not go on the roof when she is not home. I still think, now many years ago, a former neighbor tattled on me. Now we have gutter guards so my forays to the roof are lessened. It has been years since I have been on the roof of the two story part, as even I know that it is not safe to put a ladder on the peak and balance it while climbing to the upper roof from the lower, since I don't have long extension ladder. 

I guess there are ways I could get hurt in the yard, perhaps trying to haul to much. Even though I have a compost area (two actually) I sometimes take garden waste to the drop off site, and haul it down to the driveway by hand. She is often concerned that it becomes too heavy. The main way to get hurt would be falling down the hill I have to carry, or pull it down. I also haul brush down from our storage pile by the large compost area, to the street or sometimes to the drop off site.

I did not plan on biking that day, since it was a swim day, although I biked to swim. Speaking of biking, I got an earful, actually much more, from the wife after she read my blog post of 22 Oct titled Just Plain Stupid since I did not go into the fact that bike accidents area major cause of injury to seasoned citizens. I responded that I well knew that additional information could have gone in the post, but as the writer I made conscious choice to not place it in the post. It made me wonder if she used that tone of voice with her patients when they may have gotten out of line. I could see that voice being used in a classroom. 

Maple Tree Leaves blown over the backyard

I seem to get injured more doing something plain, like some simple exercises I have been doing for months, and then all of a sudden a tear sound is heard and felt in my foot, as happened Sunday evening. 

Her other go to phrase, particularly when I am going to bike, is "Be careful." Sometimes she says it and sometimes not. The thing is, it is not like a person looks to get hurt, it just happens. Elton Jenkins of the Packers broke is ankle Monday night, when a player on his team ran into a pile and his ankle got bent in a weird sort of way. Or, me pulling whatever I did in my foot. This week, we will need to clean up the leaves blown off the maple and the locust tree in the backyard. That maple tree color did not last long with the cold and snow that arrived Saturday night. Anyway, she can be happy because that Wednesday, I took her advice to heart and did not get hurt.