SUNDAY, August 16, 2009 - VAN LIFT "1" and DEBORAH "0"

Well, not looking too bad all things considered at least yet!!

I swear to God, freaky accident and my name go hand in hand!! If it can happen it will happen to me!!

I am trying to figure out a quick and condensed version of this as the pain is excruciating just after a few hour's nap!!

This afternoon Max announced his daily trip to the Supermarket and Miprezious had just enough of these and demanded to ride along!! Mi can not go in the van unless I ride along to make sure she is secured at all times and with today's sauna hitting 85 degrees after early morning storm I had to also be assured she would be kept cool enough. Mi is jet black and just seems to soak up all heat!!

So, I have to go find my finest pair of flip flops and snap all the snaps on my finest house frock and run a comb through my hair. And, off the three of us go to the Supermarket!!

Well, we arrive and immediately it was the usual fight with Max to circle till he found a parking spot up front so Mi and I had some thing to do. I do not mind an occasional trip out just to "people watch"!! Arrgg!! Bark!! Bark!! And, those noises were not from Mi, but rather Max that he had to "jockey" for a good parking spot up front!! He finally lands the big Chevy Van and off he goes.

And, Mi starts in her usual watching and occasional comments on the people going to and from!! We see people go in after Max and come out before Max!!

It was beginning to get a bit warmish so I hit the automatic side door of the van next to Mi and I. A short time later, I noticed a very elderly woman intently watching Mi's escapades and my trying to keep her in her seat!! I was thinking I would love to have taken Mi over to this lady's window and allowed her to pet her as you could just tell she really wanted to do so. I had decided "should" Max return before this lady's driver that I would make him take Mi over to see this old woman!!

As I was watching and balancing Mi I thought I felt the seat move under me and thought "Good Grief Woman get a grip"!! Suddenly, I knew I was moving, but had no idea of what was going on!! Max had just had our van into the Service Center about ten days ago as the Lift Control had been broken the night of the Fourth of July fireworks and had to be repaired!! I mean all the wires got jerked out of the hand control and it got physically dragged about 25 miles. We had a ten year old grandson of Eunice's with us and he kept saying, "Mr. Max some thing is dragging on this van" repeatedly!! Well, what did this small boy know was Max's response to me!! Well, that small boy knew far more than Max as the hand control had gotten stuck in the automatic door for the umpteenth time since we have had it and gotten torn apart!! Dah, Max might you just even had a wee idea the boy knew what he was referring to!! So, the van and the lift and it's hand controls went into the Service Center to a standing open Service Order to Rewire and Recheck entire lift system of this van!!

Thus, today that darn thing just took off. I had not even touched the hand control and, in fact, it was laying across my thigh!! However, I was mysteriously moving rather quickly straight into the cement payment below me!! But, in this descent, my right foot got wedged under the lift seat and my left foot got wedged under the front seat!! My legs were literally doing the splits with both ankles turned the wrong way with excruciating pain shooting through my entire body!! I simply clung to Miprezious with every attempt to keep her safe and unharmed!! Well, this old lady who was watching us, began to scream for help!! Soon, two men were trying to stop that damn lift and all the while try to hold me up so my weight was not making my legs worse and in an effort to keep me level with the seat!! A lady ran over and talked Mi into letting her take her and proceeded to stand under a shade tree and try to calm her!!

These men frantically tried to free my legs one at a time. They were getting no where quickly. Finally, they just twisted my left knee all the way around in an all out effort to free my left foot!! By now, this house frock was beginning to unsnap many of it's snaps, but frankly at this point I did not give a care!! With two more additional men they were able to lift my body enough to have my foot some what free and were able to set it free and eventually the other.

I was literally seconds from that lift crashing into the cement ground!! I do not even want to think what would have happened if it had!! I already was literally hanging by my ankles from the van floor out the side of the van with both legs completely caught and unmovable.

I got several scrapes, cuts, abrasions, a few pavement burns, sprain to one ankle and one knee and I do not want to think of the bruises that will be showing by tomorrow morning!! Max's pictures did not show the injuries well at all. He will have to give it another try tomorrow morning.

I know, from too many past injuries, that it is always worse the second day!! I do not know how that could be possible!! I do not ever remember pain like I am having this evening only after a short few hours of napping!!

I swear to God WHO could get caught in their own lift device, but me!! I felt like a complete idiot until after these wonderful men got me freed and then attempted to put the lift back into the van and found there was no controlling the darn thing. The slightest movement in the cable at all set it off for a new and different surprise each time they tried.

Needless to say, Max will be waiting on that Service Center's door step first thing tomorrow morning. The owner is a friend of mine and he does not "appreciate" any "come backs" of any kind and prides himself on this fact!!

This man will literally blow the roof off that Service Center and only God will be able to help the technician who worked on this lift last week!!

Meanwhile, I truly think this is going to truly put me out for a few days or more.

My additional morphine available to me is not even touching all the pains from this little "incident"!! My dear lift chair in my Stitching Sanctuary looks better every time I have to go out to me as I know I am safe, cool and do not believe I could be hurt in it. It is going to take some where quite special for me to even want to get in that death trap of a van again any time soon.

You know, this summer has not been kind to me in the least little bit this year!!

Love and Hugs!!

Deborah