After the insanity of the past few days…the load of meetings and my computer croaking out on me…I was looking forward to a somewhat quiet Friday. I had an appointment at the Apple Store to hopefully get squared away with a new laptop, and had some work to get through in the morning before that, but frankly without a fully operational laptop, I was a little limited in what I could do.
But I did my best, getting through emails and making sure my backup was in good shape. I went down to the basement to take my morning run on the treadmill, and that’s where things took a bit of a turn.
I’ve been running on treadmills for like 20 years, and yeah, sometimes I’d have a stumble or drop my phone or something, but generally without incident. Until this day. Yup, I actually fell off the treadmill.
It was all a very fast-moving cacophony of insanity, so it’s hard to describe exactly what happened, but the just is that I drifted a little to the left, and must have planted my foot squarely on the non-moving edge, then having my right foot fly back and losing my balance. I do remember it was kind of a two step disaster, where step one I was still hanging on for dear life, trying to figure out how to recover, and step two was slamming down to the surface and being thrown off the back and onto the concrete floor.
So that hurt a little.
The initial pain was in my upper left rib cage, which is where I made impact. After I picked myself up off the floor, Erin came down. She had heard a noise and first assumed it was the kids upstairs and then realized it was me downstairs. I told her I was OK, and she pointed out my knees were bleeding, and boy howdy were they. Either from the treadmill track or the concrete, I had pretty much ripped the skin off both knees and in that moment hadn’t even realized it yet.
Of course, in the next few hours that would be what hurt the most. but the good news is that other than a few bruises and dings, I was OK. Most comical to me now was that my first inclination was to get back on the treadmill and finish my run. Yeah, I might need to take a day or two.
Who says excercise is good for you?
By the time I got myself cleaned up and dressed my wounds, it was pretty much time to head to my apple store appointment. So off I went. I got there right when the store opened, waited in line, had my temperature checked and then was in to meet with my salesperson.
I came in thinking I wanted a MacBook Air, but did eventually take a little step up to the Pro, which has a bit more of the capabilities I need for work. Plus I saw this sign coming into the mall, and I figured I should go for a little extra.
There is something equal parts funny and spooky seeing that sign in a nearly empty mall.
I know it’s a little corny, but I was really excited to get this laptop. It was the first time in quite a while that I’ve actually invested in something like this for myself. I’ve always kind of made do with a work issued computer or something old, which has been fine, but as I’m working on taking my writing and professional efforts more seriously, this felt like a good step in giving myself the tools to succeed.
This is like the right wand was to Harry Potter or the right lightsaber is to a Jedi. I bet Luke, while bummed to lose his hand and his dad’s lightsaber, was pretty stoked to finally get his own and pick the color he wanted.
Likewise, this is mine, just as I want, and I look forward to doing good things with it.
When I got all that worked out, I got back home in time to see Erin and Amelia off. Amelia had a densit’s appointment, so I got to my office and started the fun process of restoring my laptop.
A little later, I walked to the school to pick Henry up from Pre-K. He had a good day and was all excited to tell me about it. He was also having lots of fun stepping in the snow and running ahead to show me how fast he is.
It was a beautiful Colorado winter afternoon. By rights it should have felt cold, but the sun made it feel really comfortable. By the end, Henry had shed his hat and coat.
A little later, Amelia and Erin got home after a successful trip to the dentist. We ordered some pizza and had a nice, relaxing evening. Looking forward to a weekend, hopefully free of further technology challenges or excericse-related injuries.
