The fall

The end of the story is - the next day, today, I had no pain and no lingering issues. Not back, not knees.

Wednesday, 10:30am, walking down the sidewalk, within a block of our house, headed home, the dogs (golden retrievers) and I saw a dog in his own yard.

We had not see him all summer. And I had actually thought maybe he had died over the winter. A dark brown lab. Big. Solid.

There is a sign in the front yard and the back yard, of that house, that they have an electric fence. And while the dog charges to the front of his yard when he sees us, and barks, we had never seen him out of his yard.

Wednesday, he charged forward, to the end of his driveway, but I do not think he barked.

And we were on the opposite sidewalk, across the street.

So I did not give him a lot of thought.

We passed the house and were on our way down the block when I suddenly was knocked down, hard.

I landed full weight, hard on both knees, on the sidewalk. Sudden. Like a linebacker hit me from behind. There was no catching myself.

And I had one leash in each hand. (And a poop bag). I held on to the dogs tighter. I did not drop either leash. (Nor the poop bag.)

As soon as I hit, I rolled to sit down and grabbed for the pup. She was frantic. Going every which way. I pulled her in my lap and wrapped both arms around her, tight.

I saw out of the corner of my eye that the older dog was on her feet and still with me. I saw the brown lab was right with us, moving. Like so close he was touching all of us.

The older dog was standing still and did not look too afraid. She was not cowering. She was not barking. She was just calmly staying with me.

The pup was frantic. I think she thought - he is going to eat me.

So I sat on the sidewalk, holding her as tight as I could, eyeing the lab, and yelling for help.

An old man and a woman, from two different houses, came to help.

He chased the lab back to his own yard and pounded on their doors. Front and inside garage, the big garage door was open. Really pounded. And yelled. No one came. He was afraid to open the door, to put the dog in the house, because his hackles were raised.

Then the old man came back to us. Still yelling at the dog to stay home. And he asked if I wanted him to call and ambulance, he said - you went down really hard.

I said - Let me get up on my feet and see.

He said he would hang on to the pup. And I showed him how.

The lady said she would hang on to the older dog and I said, she will just stay with me.

And I got to my feet, watching the pup closely. She was still clearly thinking - he might come back over here and eat me. 

I was very shocked to have no pain in either knee. I could stand. I could walk.

They both said they would walk home with me. I said I thought I was okay and was almost home.

When we got home, my right knee started to hurt. Not like bone hurt. But like scrapped knee hurt. (I was wearing pants). I did not even look. I got two soft ice packs and strapped them to my knees and sat down.

When I looked later the right knee was scraped.

And my husband stopped on his way home, after work,  and knocked on their door. He said - telling point - they had to come out on the porch to talk, the dog was going nuts inside.

My husband is very nice and very diplomatic. But he can also be very clear.

He told them what happened. He told them he was as concerned for the dogs as he was for me. He told them two neighbors had to help me. One had to chase their dog home so I could even get up. And he told them they needed to fix whatever was going on so people could walk down the sidewalk with their dogs, safely.

They were an older couple who spends most of the year in Florida (who summers in Florida!?!). They have been home for about ten days.

And they were really horrified by what had happened. Aghast. They had no idea. 

So neither of their neighbors went (after my fall) and found them later. The woman (who helped me) told me the dog has left its yard four times with her. I don't know if it knocked her down. I don’t know if that is four times in the last ten days or since she has lived there. Clearly she did not tell them. 

I had told my husband that I had no idea what the dog’s intentions were. Still. It might have been friendly and just over exuberant. It might have been hostile. No idea. And I wonder if the electric fence is not working (since they got home), and they don’t know it.

I did not have my pepper spray with me. But even if I had, I could not have used it. It was all I could do to hang on to the pup. And the lab was constant motion, all around us, very close.

26,000

Middle has a Fitbit.

She has had many fitbits. On 4th, 5th or 6th one in fact. (We only paid for the first One. Best Buy with extended warranty. They die within a year for her. Best Buy replaces and starts warrantee over each time. One time they gave her a new one plus $20 because the price had gone down. They have upgraded her a couple times because the models have changed. It is the gift that keeps on giving.)

Youngest had one. BIG MISTAKE - We bought it at Target. They refer us to the manufacturer when it dies. They would only replace one. Very sad. Hers die very similar schedule to middle's. She is currently without. She does not use it as much as middle does. (She has an android phone, so that might be part of it.)

Moral of that story, only buy at Best Buy. (check to see if this is still in place before you buy, though).

Back to middle. She really uses her Fitbit. Steps. Sleep. Incoming texts and phone calls.

And on Sunday, at the home and garden tour, she says we walked 26,000 steps that day.

When we went, I was not (at all) sure I would be able to do it. So many stairs.

One thing that helped was bad weather and low turn out. So we did not stand in many lines. We could just keep walking.and it is very distracting. You want to go up and down the stairs to see everything.

And there was one stop/tour that was very far from the others and we drove to that one.

So I did fine. I did not even think about finding a chair. I did not even consider skipping any of the houses.

I painted this week

Two weeks ago, I would not have been able to do it. Paint. At the community theater.

Moving ladders, up and down ladders, standing on ladders, painting over my head.

This week, I made it just fine. (Middle went with me. Both times.)

On Tuesday, I walked the dogs early, painted (2 hours) in the late morning***, ran a couple errands, and then sat outside with the dog’s for about an hour.  Then, I worked on copying photos over to Shutterfly. (I am up to 2012.) I did not let myself take a nap.

On Wednesday the dogs went to the beauty parlor, so I had the day off.

We painted (4 hours) in the afternoon. Then ran errands. I did not let myself take a nap (again). And it was easier than it had been on Tuesday (to stay awake and then go to bed st a normal time).

I purposely did not do any arm weights all week. Painting, particularly over your head, for hours at a time, is  tough.

Sunday and Monday, I tried not to take a nap. I might have dozed a little in the evenings.

So noticeably better this week.

And this was the first week of weaning off my last steroid inhaler. One puff twice a day. Two weeks at that level and then I try to stop.

To recap - major asthma trouble most of July. Major steroids. It took me all of August and will take nearly half of September to wean myself off oral, nebulizer, and two inhalers. Goodness.

***I figured out that if I walk the dogs early, we can paint for two hours (morning volunteer shift is 10am-12pm) and then let the dogs out when we get home. I am not sure why that did not occur to me.  So I can go paint a couple times a week. Two hours of painting is more pleasant than four also.

Proactive fix - drying racks

I have four drying racks. The standing kind.

They get a lot of use. Drying big quilts, comforters, sleeping bags, mattress pad covers. I set up all four and drape the big thing over them. Often I put one or two box fans under there too.

Sometimes when everyone is home, all four are full of pool towels. Sometimes one is full of bras. Or several are full of sweaters.

But where to store them has always been an issue. Cleaning out the tool cabinet, when we got the work bench this spring, I found two bike hangers. These were intended for hanging bikes on a wall, which my husband vetoed.

They were perfect for hanging the drying racks on the laundry room wall. My husband mounted them in a stud. They are super sturdy.

A set of hooks were moved from the laundry room to the garage. The hooks, mounted in the garage, now hold dog walking supplies.

And in their place, back in the laundry room, went a pull out, wall mounted drying rack for small things. Very very handy.

This mounted upside down, so it pulls up instead of down.
We wanted to hang it higher. 

And now the rod above the washer and dryer is 100% available for extra hangers. So when I am hanging things, fresh from the dryer, the needed hanger is right there. Very much appreciated.

A fix

I ended up with piles at the bottom of the stairs that just sort of lived there. My dog walking clothes, things headed up stairs.

The fix is two sets of hangers on the back door.

So now the banister and the stairs, can look like this -

The kids needed something to set things on in the living room, that was sturdy and carefree

For $10, I was able to buy an unfinished top from the lumber yard. Round and nicely sanded. And it was pine. So I was not going to be worried about it, at all. I was okay with it being painted.

It took middle about five coats to cover the (originally) red legs. The yellow is nearly the color of the walls.

This was a $10 redo, just the price of the top. We had the paint. We had brushes and sandpaper. Youngest was able to reuse all the bolts and screws to trade out the tops.

Stool with the original top, so you can see the size difference.