The regularity with which minutes or hours flash by has increased markedly since I retired a few weeks ago. But whole days? Well at least there's a good reason for the last few days going into a black hole.
It started on Wednesday evening about 22:30. I'd been dropping off for about an hour or so beforehand but finally decided it was time to head for the hills when I got a call on my mobile from son David. "Dad, I've got a bit of a problem, can you help? I've fallen over while taking Jazz (his Jack Russell terrier) for a walk and I might have broken something."
Now when David says he's taken Jazz for a walk you'd better believe it. They'll go cross country for miles together and doing it in the dark appears to be no problem. He said he was on a footpath somewhere behind the gravel pits half way towards Huntingdon, not somewhere I'm particularly familiar with. So off I went in the car to get near the general area. More 'phone calls and several abortive drives down narrow public footpaths later and I finally found the one he was on... as I slowly negotiated the narrow and bumpy route and rounded a corner there was Jazz peering towards me, sitting guard over David who was laid on his side.
It was pretty obvious something was seriously wrong since he was in a lot of pain and could hardly stand on his good foot. So I manoeuvre him into the front seat of the car, we dropped Jazz off at his home and headed up to casualty where he was diagnosed with a compound fracture of the fibula and a dislocated ankle. Slapped in a plaster cast and told to come back for an operation at 08:00 that day... by now it was 02:00 Thursday.
On our return we sat in the hospital from 08:00 to 14:00 before being told we'd have to come back Friday since there were no free slots in the emergency theatre list. Had the first pleasure of taking Jazz out for a walk... spent 30 minutes getting 30 metres away from his front door with Jazz's nose pointed 99% of the time in the direction David would come from if he was catching us up. Getting back to the front door took 3 seconds. Boy, does that dog love his master!
Back again Fri 08:00 and David was taken into theatre at 13:30. He was kept in over the weekend and came out this evening with his leg in plaster for at least four weeks. Jazz and I are now best friends and have managed to extend our walks to over an hour each time. Gets a bit wobbly when he sees a dog bigger than himself... he'd have a go at anything if he was off his lead. But I'm sure I can train him out of that over the next few weeks.
And the photo? It being a family trait to find humour in adversity (particularly if it's not you suffering) I was desperate to get a shot of David in his wheelchair. Not surprisingly he was a bit camera shy so I got a shot of the transport while he popped into the toilet. See below for an image of his legs... think the arrow was put there by the nurse to confirm right way up.
Sadly no squash for at least three months so I'm down the gym tomorrow for some running machine time. No pitch and putt for a while and we're going to have to see how he copes on the pool table down The Legion.
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