I Have A Hero!

I decided to work in my garage a little while since I was waiting for the temps to go down enough that I could go outside again. My friend Scottie is coming on Saturday with his pick up to take all the bottles and cans of unknown substances in the garage to the HazMat collection center. My husband would know what they are, but I don't so they will all go to be inspected and safely disposed of or recycled.

So in the garage, I was taking all these mystery containers off the shelves and boxing them. With those done, I moved to the work bench which has a number of gallon paint cans to be taken as well. The door would not quite open because I have a table set up to sort things on. I decided to move it about 3 inches, It's one of those huge, heavy banquet tables with folding legs. You know, the kind that takes a couple men to set up. So I went to the opposite end and pulled. It moved an inch or so, then stopped. I bent to look under to see if the other legs were caught on something, and they weren't, so I gave another tug, and it moved. Yeah, it REALLY moved.

Next thing I knew I was sitting on metal tool boxes that had been about 18 inches behind me. The legs at the opposite end of the table had collapsed (why didn't I realize they might?? duh!!) and had pushed the set of legs on my end as far as was possible, resulting in my ankles being caught between the crossbar of the table and 2 metal toolboxes. I couldn't move. And it hurt like hell! I knew nothing was broken, just incredibly tightly pinned in place. I tentatively tried to move the table. Well, of course, I couldn't! (again, duh!!) I also realized that if I did move it, it might shift farther and do serious damage. I tried to move a tool box, but from my position (sitting on a larger tool box with the small one under my thighs, and of course, it is pinned between the one I'm sitting on and my ankle!!) I couldn't move it. I was completely trapped.

I hope you understand that all of that above happened in just 2 minutes, at most. And now I'm sitting there with the pain increasing and my brain is churning. I live alone. Shih Tzus are wonderful companions, but as rescue dogs, they suck. So now what? Fortunately, since I locked myself out of the house a few weeks ago, I've been good about carrying my phone with me. The cordless phone is a bit big and awkward, so if I'm going out for any period of time, I forward the house phone to the cell phone and clip it to my pants. If you're guessing that I forgot it this time . . . nope! I had it. So I dialed Laura next door. When she answered, I'm sure I sounded awful. All I said is "Laura, can you come over here?" and she said, "Yes." I told her I was in the garage, and she asked no more questions. What seemed like a really long time (the pain was increasing), but which was less than 2 minutes, she came in the back door. After a couple attempts to free me in the obvious ways which didn't work at all, I managed to shift my bum to another place, and she was able to move out the tool box that I sat on, then she could free the one that was pinning me in. What a relief!

I'm going to be bruised, and I'll probably hurt tomorrow. I'm already feeling the muscles in my shoulders and neck beginning to ache and scream at me. I'm pretty sure I wrenched my back in all that, too. But considering the possibilities that DIDN'T happen, I'm very lucky, and . . .

LAURA IS MY HERO!!!