When Turning 60 Doesn't Happen the Way You Plan: Part 1

March 18, 2020

When Turning 60 Doesn't Happen the Way You Plan: Part 1

Good evening Houston! The Mad Houstonian, here! Anyone miss me?

After a gang buster month of writing on this blog in December (Inspirational Word of the Day - 31 entries) and a January essay on the topic of "City Bathing", I was planning for a vacation in March to celebrate my 60th birthday.

Late February was gonna see a return to more regular blogging as I planned to blog about walks taken while on vacation.

Well, so much for that idea, hee, hee!

As regular readers, here, know I am an avid walker and an advocate for pedestrian safety, having bought shirts on the subject, and made my own Pedestrian Alert shirts to help spread the word.

Wouldn't you know it, on a morning I was not wearing one of my shirts, Feb 19th, disaster strikes.

I had went to the nearby HEB for a few groceries and was returning home a few hours before heading to work.

I was using a crosswalk, at a T-intersection, that shares a green light with left turning vehicles...

THIS time the lead motorist was traveling too fast for me to react by raising my hand and yelling "slow down!", or move out of the way.

The driver fled the scene, and we have nothing to go on in a search for him, even though I got a brief look at him when he stopped for a second.

I was in pain, but also seriously pissed...my glasses were broke and my groceries were strewn about!

Eventually help arrived and I was carted off to the hospital for repairs.

The folks in emergency, at Memorial Hermann SW, were professional, calming, and did all they could to help me get through the process, and initial treatment.

They also showed a great sense of humor, putting up with me as I used my sense of humor to help me cope with a trying situation, something that I absolutely did not need to have happen to me.

As they carted me down corridors to different rooms for different purposes, and eventually to a room in the main hospital, I am all smiles, urging them to drive carefully, raising my arms and saying "Onward!"

They helped me reach my job to report I might not be in to work, and why.

I was worried about my cats, who I had fed before going shopping.

Later in the evening my store manager and a few co-workers came by to check on me and bring the well wishes of everyone at work....and I bawled like a baby.

It turned out, as the week went by, and I did not get home until the evening of the 24th, the leasing office at my complex did not have their own key to my apartment, something I never knew, and so the cats were alone for a week, with no food, but enough water, and I spent the whole time worrying.

So, I had surgery on a broken bone in the left leg, next to the knee cap, a bone important for weight-bearing.

Not something an avid walker like me wants to hear.

This was going to take weeks, if not a few months, of physical therapy to heal, and who knew when I'd be able to return to work.

When you live paycheck to paycheck, and have a few bills to pay every month...I was worried, still am, but....

In the short term my focus was on getting well enough to leave the hospital...what happened next I would trust that God would guide me though it.

This happened for a reason, part of God's Plan for my life...

I had to trust that He knew what the heck He was doing, hee, hee!

So, there was nothing for it but to settle in, get comfortable, and binge watch Fox News all day, in between being treated by docs and nurses, learning to safely use the potty, and use a walker on one leg, learning how to put on my shorts, socks and pants on one leg, and beginning to do the exercises they were going to send me home with.