Saved In A Close Call ! 11/29

[Borderstone]

Today wwas quite bizarre,for a short time. Tell me what you think here.

I'm taking an eastbound bus,to then connect with a southbound bus to head downtown. I get off the first bus about a block away from the S.-bound stop.

I'm walking East and suddenly I take a header! Seems I tripped over one of those things in a sidewalk that have the rectagular lid on it,(the cement around it was uneven! )

I'm outside a local high school fortunately and I find their nurses office. She gives me two band aids and lets me use the washroom to wash my now skinned knee (looking at me like I'm up to something the whole time! )

I leave there and head back twords the intersection and I see now that there is a fire truck there and after I get closer I see there's
been a collision between 2 cars,right alongside the crosswalk paint!

Now... this c-walk leads to a convenience store across from the S. bound bus stop and sometimes before I catch that bus i cross over,go into that store and buy a snack or a drink. I don't know if I would have done that because I tripped long before I got to the corner.

If I had though,I might have been right in the middle of all that,because one way or the other,only about 10 to 15 minutes passed between my fall and my return! Whiich leads me,finally,to my point.

Forgetting whether one believes in miracles or God or not,I believe I was meant to take that fall! I looked at how bad that crash was and realized I "might" have been crossing had I not fell! I was gone long enough to avoid that whole mess.

I honestly feel I was saved by the powers that be,because I can't just dismiss it in my mind as a mere "coincidence". I think God,Jesus,Angels or whatever kept me from that intersection.

Now,tell me what you think,without turning it into a big religious "smack-down" okay? Been a somewhat shaken but feeling better,Borderstone. Bye.

[Restless]

Divine intervention? No way to know for sure, but there's nothing wrong with believing it. Glad you're okay!

[BILLW]

Right on Border Buddy, you've got another blessing to count now. Next time you're out and about stop in a local church and meditate awhile. And as soon as that knee heals up try out the 'kneelers' in there. And try and watch where you're going dude. Glad you're still with us - wouldn't be the same without you.

Bill

[Sheryl]

My answer: It's Worth Believin'!!!

[charlene]

I can't believe a school still has a nurse!
lol
kisses for your booboo!

[Borderstone]

Hi all. A many thanks for your input. I'm on a more even kind of feeling today and having read your replies I feel even better.

In response to BillW,well,it sounds bad given my nature and all but I haven't set foot in a church since Jan. of 1995. I left because I felt I wasn't really in the spirit of it all.

Also I'd only been on my own just over a month and I realized I was just trying to do too much to fill in the void of not living with my family for the first time in my life. I agree with your advice Bill,I have to find the right church though,the one I left up the street from me.

Watchman,the nurse didn't look at my knee,she just (out of good faith I guess) gave me the band-aids and I did for myself. Still,she ad some folks were giving me weird looks,which in this day & age is understandable but it made me feel like some kind of weirdo.

Thanks for all your well wishes folks,may God bless you all as well. Bye.

[Ophelia]

I'm just glad you're OK, Borderstone.

Glad to hear you're doing well, Borderstone. I remember wiping out while running to catch a bus in Wilmington years ago. I was dressed up for work, hence the skirt and the bloody knee. I jumped up and kept running and did make the bus. My leg could have been broken and I still would have gotten on that bus - out of determination and mostly embarrassment!

[Auburn Annie]

My world and welcome to it, B. I'm the pratfall queen. I've tripped up and fallen down more stairs than I can count, sometimes spectacularly. And if there's one square inch of mud on a sidewalk, I'll find it and skid on it like Frick and Frack doing their ice routine.

My earliest encounter with stairs was as a toddler, about a year old. My mother swears she can still see the little plaid dress I was wearing when I waddled over to our stairs, just out of her reach (she was 7 months pregnant with my sister Chris and couldn't run fast enough to catch me.) I tumbled down all 15 steps. My grandmother got the hysterical phone call - Dad was out of town and Mom was supposed to pick him up at the airport. I was bloodied but unbroken, amazingly enough. In later years I'd take another slip down those same stairs and put my foot through the wooden slats of the cold air box at the bottom - again, no damage to me.

At least once a year I go flying, usually on a patch of ice but have never yet - knock wood - broken anything. I've slammed into a steam radiator on a landing, failed to break through a line playing "Red Rover" and skinned my back on the asphalt where I landed, had a milk truck run over my foot (thank goodness for saddle shoes), had the wind knocked out of me slipping on the back steps of my dorm, etc. So graceful. My family's favorite was a trip (no pun intended) to the state fair when I was about 11-12. We went to the Coliseum to watch the horse shows. The steps are concrete and narrow. My younger siblings ran all the way up to the top row, and Dad sent me up to bring them back down to where we were sitting. Well, last one up, first one down. I missed my footing as I turned, and tumbled down three-quarters of the staircase. I can still see strangers' hands reaching out to try and break my fall. No damage except to my dignity but it was almost 30 years before I set foot in that building again.

[BILLW]

Annie.

I just have to know. Please tell me what "the cold air box" is or was. Thanks.

Bill

[Auburn Annie]

Think of an oversized floor register with wooden slats (the replacement had a metal grill); they are usually situated somewhere near a door, built into the floor, and serve as a cold air return for the furnace. I doubt newer homes even have them. The one I broke was removed when they renovated the family home. We had two in our house; my husband blocked off one in the living room but the one by the front door remains. My parents' home was built in the 1860s; ours in 1920 (nice Arts & Crafts style with chestnut woodwork, pressed tin ceilings, hardwood floors.)

[joveski]

i tumbled down a staircase last year and smahed upagainst a wall...


hoever, i was very, very drunk

[Auburn Annie]

I can't claim that. My adventures have all occurred while "stone cold sober."

[BILLW]

Thanks Annie,

Now I know exactly what you're describing. Had one in California of all places. No others that I can remember. There was an actual draft when the furnace kicked on.

joveski,
you know better than to drink and climb stairs, LOL

Bill

[Borderstone]

Annie,glad to hear you survived all of those incidents! Being from back East myself by the way,i saw plenty of "cold air boxes" in homes,my hometown was founded & built in the mid-1800's,so I was raised for the first 8 & 1/2 years of my life,in an old-fashioned environment.

I never have done well with stairs Annie.
Once about 30 years ago,back in our original home in PA,I was carrying some board games back down to the basement like I'd been asked too. Not using good sense at the time (not a lot of 7 or 8 year olds do) I had stacked all three upon eachother,so I did not have a good vantage point as to where my feet were going.

I mis-calculated about two steps down,missed the third and went rolling down the "tiled w/metal lining" steps! OUCH! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Just like you though,nothing broken. Which is nothing short of miraculous because our basement floor was cement!
I think that incident was what made me fearsome of escalators for a long time,I finally conquered that but still step cautiously when going down.

I've also had 2 close calls in car accidents,one with my Dad in the winter hitting some slush and 20 years later with my brother in downtown Tempe,AZ. I wont say how because he may read this sometime,we got out of it okay though. So,sometimes I'm really amazed I'm still here..and thank God I am!
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[ December 01, 2005, 16:55: Message edited by: Borderstone ]

[Ophelia]

Several years ago, I also fell while trying to catch a bus. I blacked my eye because I hit my head on the pavement right above my right eyebrow. Had a terrific shiner for weeks, and I can't count how many people told me I needed to get rid of my boyfriend! :D

[Sheryl]

Two summers ago, I was walking my toddler down the outside stairs from the second story of our apartment. Holding his hand, I let him hold the handrail as I was showing him the "proper" and "safe" way to go down stairs. I'd just gotten new (prescription) sunglasses the day before and my eyes hadn't yet adjusted to them. Everything seemed closer than it was. Needless to say, about two steps down from the top, I miscalculated the next step and stepped off into air. I think it must have been God who had me let go of my son's hand (he was 3 1/2). My thoughts went like this: 1)This is what happened to Scarlett O'Hara and she lost her baby (I was six weeks' pregnant); 2)I'm going to break my neck and be paralyzed for the rest of my life, so I put my arms up straight on either side of my head, clasped my hands together tightly so my head/neck wouldn't break, and prayed: PLEASE GOD DON'T LET ME DIE -- I NEED TO BE THERE FOR MY KIDS. I went head first/face-side down bump-bump-bumping on my nose allllll the way down. And I was screaming. I heard a woman the next building over yell, "La Senora!" I kind of rolled off the steps at the bottom and sat up -- blood was pouring out of my nose. I looked up and saw my son still at the top of the stairs staring down at me. The gardener who had just been leaving came running back. I yelled, "SAVE MY SON!" He ran up and brought down my son. About a minute later, the paramedics arrived -- the woman next door must have called 9-1-1. As they entered the back yard, I noticed my dress was up and wrapped around my boobs -- how embarrassing!! I wiggled and pulled it down to thigh level, all while sitting on the ground still and trying to staunch the flow of blood from my nose. The cutest darned paramedics tended to me -- I said to one (after he started asking my name, etc.), "Do people tell you that you look like Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys?" He ignored that remark and kept on getting information from me. He probably thought I was in shock, LOL! Nope - just enjoying the view! I spent the ride in the ambulance to the E.R. trying to distract my son from being scared, telling him how fun it was to ride in an ambulance sitting next to a paramedic. He was so scared, poor thing. He'll be 6 next week and every now and then out of the blue, he'll say to me, "Mommy, do you remember when you fell down the stairs? I was so scared." Poor baby, he'll probably be scarred for the rest of his life from that! Here's the upshot: prayer works. I had NO bruises, NO broken nose, NO broken bones, just a sore arm and face for a few weeks. Yup, Borderstone, someone's *definitely* lookin' out for us all.

As a P.S. to this story, one month later, while pouring boiling water from a pot of pasta into the sink, it went into a bowl in the sink and sloshed right back onto me, burning my stomach through my shirt. I got 3rd degree burns. Lost the baby a few days later. But, I still considered myself lucky -- the burn marks have since almost disappeared and I have my three healthy, happy children. Blessed, indeed.

[ December 02, 2005, 02:07: Message edited by: Sheryl ]

[Auburn Annie]

We ARE a lucky bunch, aren't we. Looking outside this morning at the slush (we're expecting some lake effect snow, 3-7 inches today) and reading your car accident story, B, I have to tell you about one involving my mom and two of my siblings.

It was midwinter, snowing pretty good, and mom had just picked up her then two youngest, Mary and John (children #4 and 5), heading home in late afternoon along North Seward Ave in the family station wagon. She moved slightly to the right to let another car go by and hit a patch of black ice, sending the car into a full 360 degree spin, narrowly missing a huge maple. She managed to get out of the spin and pulled to the curb to catch her breath and check to see that the kids were okay. Whereupon from the back seat came a little voice saying, "that was fun, Mom. Do it again!" To this day she doesn't know which one of them said it (I'm guessing John) but she said she didnt know whether to smack 'em or laugh, she was so relieved. She white-knuckled it the last few blocks home and I have no doubt my Dad fixed her a nice big drink when she got there.

[joveski]

> you know better than to drink and climb stairs, LOL

i remember telling my friend i was gettin the 8.30 train home. he told me it's already midnight - 6 minutes before the last train.. so i had to make a mad dash down the stairs and to the train station a couple of minutes. i made it though... a bit bruised however!

a whole bottle of wine, 15 beers and some shots of tequila have that effect, you know

[Borderstone]

That's why I stick with simply "white wine"...Gallo to be exact. Nice taste and good for special occaisions...like living.

[Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin']

Miracles happen every day, Borderstone, and one happened to you on that day. Glad you weren't caught in the middle of that crash.

Oh, and forget the white wine, I prefer "Blackberry Wine". :D

[Borderstone]

Hey,thanks James! I "might" like blackberry wine if I tried it but it wouldn't change my rating on my "150 Lightfoot Favorites" list! :D