that was the sound of my forehead hitting the asphalt on the road on saturday morning.

not the best way to start the weekend.  we’d been planning to visit kevin’s siblings in northern IL but kevin wasn’t feeling well, so when i set out for my run i started to formulate plans.  it was a little  hot and very humid, and my pace wasn’t very fast – well, it’s never fast, but usually not so slow.

i was feeling good, though, and headed over the vachel lindsay bridge.  after the halfway point i spotted the first wooly worm of the fall.  i don’t know how it got all the way out there, but it was up on the sidewalk, out of harm’s way for the moment, but i figured it didn’t really have anywhere safe to go.  i scooped it up in my baseball hat and covered it with one hand, running down to the beach house and across to the grass where i set it free.

i decided to run five miles, because i’d like to do a 10k in early november.  i got to 2 1/2 miles and headed back.

my mind was whirring, thinking about an upcoming trip i’m going to take to NYC, but then i thought about how i should to be in the present, enjoy the day, the breeze, the good run.

my fitbit said i’d reached four miles, and i was glad there was only one more mile because i was hot and tired.

and suddenly, down i went.  CRAck, my forehead hit the blacktop.  i literally tripped on nothing at all.  i frequently stumble on things, but this happened so fast.  i sat in the road, crying, my glasses had flown off, and blood was pouring out of my nose and all over my leg.  there weren’t any cars around, and i quickly called amy and asked her to come and pick me up.  a UPS truck pulled up down the road and the driver got out and asked if i was ok.  “No,” i sobbed, “i think i broke my nose.”  he helped me up and i told him that someone was coming to get me and he apologized that he had to keep going on his route.  i said i was fine and hobbled over to a safe spot across the road.

when amy roared up, i’m sure it must have been alarming because i was crying and very bloody.  when we got home she and kevin debated about whether i needed to to to the ER because they couldn’t tell if my nose was broken, so amy took a picture and sent it to jim.  jim was at home, on crutches because he has tiny fractures in his femur and has to be off his leg for a month.  yes, we’re all kind of falling apart around here.

jim said i should go to the ER, so mom and amy took me after amy had fixed me a snack.  jim warned amy that the urgent care people would probably grill me about domestic violence, and i said that’s a good thing.  but nobody at the doctor mentioned it, probably because i was there with mom and amy and was clearly being taken good care of.

i guess my nose isn’t broken because it’s not horribly bent (no more than usual), and they were supposed to call with the results but haven’t yet.  i’m just scraped up and my right hand doesn’t have much strength in it, but i’m lucky i didn’t break my leg or my wrists or anything.

it makes me think of poor dad, who slipped on the ice and broke both his wrists.  that must have been so difficult, and i wish i’d helped him more.

now that i can’t do much of anything, i should have plenty of time to sit here and write.  typing isn’t too painful if i do it gingerly.

here we go, the start of september…i love this photo of mom getting her ears re-pierced.  because she always wore super flashy, long and heavy earrings, she finally ripped holes in them, two in each ear.  amy and jim bought her ear-mending surgery for her birthday, and mom has been gnashing her teeth, frantic to get earrings back inher ears.

the guy at the tattoo/piercing parlor wouldn’t pierce mom’s ears the first time we went there in august; he said she needed to heal longer.  but finally, sept. 2nd, the deed was done.

on a walk les found this deep hole in the ground.

chester always hangs out in the funniest way!

such a sweet and cuddly kitty.  when he’s not staking chipmunks.

the corn at the start of september – it was getting closer to picking time.  i wonder if they’ve harvested it by now?

a bee was very excited about the flowers growing in the front.

this is the kind of thing that would make bev shriek in terror, but i thought this was a cool spider there in the middle of her giant web.

and there you have it, as we’re faced with the last part of the year and the stores are filling up with christmas stuff…

ok then,

mrs. always falling hughes.