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choco_froshYesterday was not a good day for parking.
This was the case all over New Haven, where Sunday's storm (which delivered the classic shoreline two inches of sleet, before turning to rain and then freezing over) turned onstreet parking into a nightmare of snowplowed ridge-and-furrow, over ice with zero traction.* I helped some poor lady out of the snow a block from our house, then patted myself on the back and reflected on all the great karma I was accumulating.
Apparently it doesn't work like that.
Ten minutes later, I was pushing Grace out of a similar snowbank situation. Then, on our way back from a friend's house this evening, she got herself stuck in yet another snowpile/no traction combo.
“Didn’t our landlady say something about letting us use the garage while she was gone, anyway?” I remarked.
“Oh yeah…”
I went and tried to open the garage—to no avail.
“She said something about a garage-door-opener up on the landing,” my spouse informed me.
Cursing under my breath, I unlocked the back door and went up to the landing. No opener. I searched some more. Still no opener. Even more annoyed, I moved to head back down the stairs to try to get the car either into or out of the parking space it was stuck on, when my feet, thoroughly wet from all the snow, gave way under me. I landed on my butt, of course, but in the interim I had hit my arm on something, and I felt something go very wrong.
I managed to find my cell phone with my other hand. “Grace? I’ve slipped on the stairs and I think I’ve dislocated my shoulder.”
She groaned. Grace does not deal well with parking problems. “What do you want me to do?”
“Get the @£$%^&* in here!”
She hurried in. “OK, now what?” “Pull on my elbow. No, not that way…”
More cursing followed, but I eventually managed to be articulate enough to explain how to pull tension on the injured limb. Miraculously, it actually worked: their was a creepy shift of muscle, and my arm switched from feeling wrong to just hurting and feeling unreliable. That done, I called the health center, to ask if I should come in. To Grace’s surprise (though not to mine) they eventually decided no: there wasn’t a lot they could do, aside from X-ray it to confirm what we already knew, give my some anti-inflammatories (which I could take myself), and tell me to ice it and keep it rested, which I could figure out for myself.
So we didn’t have to drive to the health center. Problem solved—sort of. Meantime, the car was still stuck in the snow.
[@£$%&^ typing with this arm is hard. time for a rest & more drugs.]
After several hours, some errands and a trip to the Health Center…
Right, where were we? Car stuck in the snow. right.
After several more attempts to get the car to move (digging out the snow, putting cardboard under the tires, etc.), I called our neighbors. No answer. So I called my boss, who came by, and then recruited some passers-by: “Hey, this guy’s got a busted arm, and she’s in her third trimester. If you’re not in either of these positions, can you give us a hand?”
So the four (or 3.5) of us pushed, and we got the car moving. Car problem solved; shoulder problem ongoing.
The arm is now in a sling, and is due to be x-rayed. More usefully, Physical therapy is supposed to call me later in the week. Maybe we can even prevent a THIRD dislocated shoulder!
*Also not a good day for us at work, where we had to expend considerable time and energy getting Little Truck out of its iced-in parking space, and then still more getting it back in after the battery (inevitably) died. But that’s another story.
This was the case all over New Haven, where Sunday's storm (which delivered the classic shoreline two inches of sleet, before turning to rain and then freezing over) turned onstreet parking into a nightmare of snowplowed ridge-and-furrow, over ice with zero traction.* I helped some poor lady out of the snow a block from our house, then patted myself on the back and reflected on all the great karma I was accumulating.
Apparently it doesn't work like that.
Ten minutes later, I was pushing Grace out of a similar snowbank situation. Then, on our way back from a friend's house this evening, she got herself stuck in yet another snowpile/no traction combo.
“Didn’t our landlady say something about letting us use the garage while she was gone, anyway?” I remarked.
“Oh yeah…”
I went and tried to open the garage—to no avail.
“She said something about a garage-door-opener up on the landing,” my spouse informed me.
Cursing under my breath, I unlocked the back door and went up to the landing. No opener. I searched some more. Still no opener. Even more annoyed, I moved to head back down the stairs to try to get the car either into or out of the parking space it was stuck on, when my feet, thoroughly wet from all the snow, gave way under me. I landed on my butt, of course, but in the interim I had hit my arm on something, and I felt something go very wrong.
I managed to find my cell phone with my other hand. “Grace? I’ve slipped on the stairs and I think I’ve dislocated my shoulder.”
She groaned. Grace does not deal well with parking problems. “What do you want me to do?”
“Get the @£$%^&* in here!”
She hurried in. “OK, now what?” “Pull on my elbow. No, not that way…”
More cursing followed, but I eventually managed to be articulate enough to explain how to pull tension on the injured limb. Miraculously, it actually worked: their was a creepy shift of muscle, and my arm switched from feeling wrong to just hurting and feeling unreliable. That done, I called the health center, to ask if I should come in. To Grace’s surprise (though not to mine) they eventually decided no: there wasn’t a lot they could do, aside from X-ray it to confirm what we already knew, give my some anti-inflammatories (which I could take myself), and tell me to ice it and keep it rested, which I could figure out for myself.
So we didn’t have to drive to the health center. Problem solved—sort of. Meantime, the car was still stuck in the snow.
[@£$%&^ typing with this arm is hard. time for a rest & more drugs.]
After several hours, some errands and a trip to the Health Center…
Right, where were we? Car stuck in the snow. right.
After several more attempts to get the car to move (digging out the snow, putting cardboard under the tires, etc.), I called our neighbors. No answer. So I called my boss, who came by, and then recruited some passers-by: “Hey, this guy’s got a busted arm, and she’s in her third trimester. If you’re not in either of these positions, can you give us a hand?”
So the four (or 3.5) of us pushed, and we got the car moving. Car problem solved; shoulder problem ongoing.
The arm is now in a sling, and is due to be x-rayed. More usefully, Physical therapy is supposed to call me later in the week. Maybe we can even prevent a THIRD dislocated shoulder!
*Also not a good day for us at work, where we had to expend considerable time and energy getting Little Truck out of its iced-in parking space, and then still more getting it back in after the battery (inevitably) died. But that’s another story.
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-18 11:15 pm (UTC);_;
;_;
Let's have some beer when I get back, mmmkay?
no subject
Date: 2007-12-19 12:24 pm (UTC)-dad-
no subject
Date: 2007-12-19 04:44 pm (UTC)But yes, we are glad to have comprehensive insurance ...
-g
no subject
Date: 2007-12-19 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-20 05:47 pm (UTC)Hope the pain's subsided, and that the X-ray came back clear.
Your boss sounds wicked cool, btw. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-21 02:24 pm (UTC)Relocating the shoulder was a lot easier than getting the damn car off the snowbank.
-g