Originally Posted by
P.L.Lenihan
Very kind of you to say so,Greg. I too miss the forum and the unpredictable madness which would ensue(often) during the course of my seemingly never ending build thread. So many of the contributions made by good folks ,like yourself, sometimes had me running off to the little boys room to avoid wetting myself from uncontrolled fits of howling bladder loosening laughter!
Several years ago, we bought a simple place, which then lead to a remarkably long list of honey-do projects. Strange how some arrive at a conclusion which goes something like this;" Well, if you can build a boat, then surely you know how to rip out a ceiling extraction fan in the bathroom,replace it with a new but larger unit and re-route the conduit up to the roof,right?" Despite my desperate attempts at explaining that building a box with a pointy nose does not a boat builder make. That is, it does not make one an electrician, plasterer, contortionist and roof climber. The tragedy is how not one bit of weepy-eyed sniveling nor rolling around on the floor frothing like madman possessed, brought even the slightest whiff of relief from the deluge of honey-do projects.
All of those little home projects just about drained the mojo right out of me. No more unfettered traipsing about my one and only favorite forum.No! No more loose and lazy times parked in front of a computer screen drooling at boat pictures.None! No more blissful days driving over to the boatyard in winter to attempt projects on the boat. Don't even dare to look out the window toward the car!
But, Nat was happy and, by close association, so too I became. And it was precisely during one of these happy as a clam, head in the clouds moments, where I found myself carrying an arm full of firewood down into the garage where my left foot located a slick bit of ice but the right foot didn't. I never heard nor felt the break, but when I looked down, my right foot had somehow managed a near 90 degree re-alignment with the rest of the leg.
This fraction of a second event translated nicely into being off work for over a year due to all sorts of wonderful medical complications and frightening in-competencies from folks who should have known better.This left me needing to be taught how to walk again after several months being rather immobilized. I did however master the use of a wheel chair before moving up a notch and graduating to an odd combo of crutches and walker.( I think the physio folks must have thought like Nat..well if you can build a boat surely you can take on these two nifty devices...simultaneously). Having been placed in the advanced class for smart students, I was well on my way to being accepted into the dashing and very British one walking cane class.
That is where things changed. The physio-therapist one day caught me off-guard. I was laying on the bed at the clinic doing my exercise "routine" and she just simply said to me,"walk over toward me for a moment, I want to show you something". And just like that, I did what she asked but forgot the crutches! After several months of constant need for auxiliary support just to safely walk, I walked for the first time entirely free of any device!
If I had believed in spirits in the sky, I would have thanked god and claimed a miracle. Had I any goodness in my little black heart, I would have hugged the therapist and given her a nice thank-you card and some flowers. Instead, all I did was suddenly freeze still for a moment, look down and around at myself, then once more at my leg for good measure before letting trickle down a tear or two on my cheeks. The light at the end of the tunnel never glowed brighter and I could almost smell the air outside the tunnel!
Then the pandemic struck.
I look forward to mastering the new normal!
Cheers!
Peter Lenihan
Re: The continuing adventures of the Laughing Polar Bear Cap....
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