Falling Down

You know that moment of utter terror, when something goes so suddenly and terribly wrong? Yeah. Me too.
 Thursday afternoon about 4:00, I took myself on a stroll through the woods. The creek is dry again, and I got off the trail and followed the creek bed back to the cliff face. (I am on the bottom side of the cliff, not the top.) I was admiring how different the creek's path is after the recent rains.

 I got to the place where I keep a wee fairy statue tucked into an overhang of a shelf , like her own little cave. (The fairy is about the size of a golf ball.) She wasn't there, so I began poking carefully around (with a stick, lest I disturb nesting snakes or other critters). I didn't find her near the shelf, so I turned carefully to look over the ledge I was standing on... and the ledge snapped off.
I fell about three and a half or four feet, turning my left ankle. The broken off rock ledge landed on my inner (right) thigh. It was about the size of a five gallon bucket, cut in half from top to bottom. If it hadn't been adrenaline, I doubt I could of moved a rock that size. I shoved it off my leg, and assessed. I could stand on the ankle, and the leg supported my weight, so I hobbled my way back to the house. I was quite shaken up, though not SERIOUSLY hurt.
  All I could think of in the nano seconds of the fall was: I am alone back here. No cell phone. I am off the path. It is hours before anyone gets home. I didn't leave a note saying I was going to walk in the woods, and even if I had, I probably would of said I was going to walk our trails. Yikes.

I got up and went to work the next morning, fueled by large amounts of ibuprofen. I try to avoid taking any drugs, but sometimes they are necessary. By Friday night, some 24 hours later... I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Or been trampled by a pod of hippopotumi. Or fallen off a cliff into a ravine...
During the night, my right wrist asserted itself in the mix of body parts screeching. I was convinced it was broken and I should go for Xrays in the morning. I finally fell back to sleep, and by the time I awakened Saturday, I could tell my wrist is NOT broken. It does, however feel much better in a brace, and I have one. So I am hobbling about on a cloudy Sunday morning, ankle braced, wrist braced, bruised... but feeling much better than yesterday.

I have developed an action plan for future walks. First of all, ALWAYS leave a note if I am leaving the yard. It should state my time of departure and be left in a prominent spot. I need to always carry a "daypack"/ fanny pack and not JUST my camera. The pack shall have water, and probably a small air horn. IF a cell phone is available, I will take it along. As a matter of fact, I may even have one that I can charge, and use if I need to call 911. Did you know your cell phone can be out of time/ data and is still supposed to be able to dial 911?

 Sam went for a walk back to the face of the cliff. He went a bit further, and found my wee fairy where I had moved it, to a more accessible and  sheltered place along the walls of the ravine. That had been my next destination once I had searched the first location. I sometimes move my gnomes and fairies to different locations along the trails, fun little things for people walking or riding the trails to perhaps discover. As soon as I am up to it, I am going back to where I fell to take a few pictures... from the  creek bed, not the wall!

I have been "feeling my age"... something I haven't done in years. Last time I acknowledged I am not as young as I used to be was when I sprained my arm trying to do a cartwheel a number of years ago.
This getting older business is for the birds!