CATCH A FALLING STAR

Perry Como's  golden hit, CATCH A FALLING STAR,  came to mind Monday in an unfortunate event, especially this verse.

For when your troubles start multiplyin'

An', they just might

It's easy to forget them without tryin'

With just a pocketful of starlight.

I needed "the pocket full of starlight."


After the Saga of the Solar Shades, we were in charge of re-installation of the vertical blinds. In earlier decades of our lives we tackled just about anything, but in our golden years some tasks simply become hard labor. Some involve perilous activities for an elderly person, like using stools and ladders.

A completed window with solar shades
plus verticals installed. It should be
clickable to enlarge further for details.

My husband usually leads the way and I assist, and sometimes hinder progress. My main job was removing the vertical vanes from older head rails for installation on custom cut new ones.
This task I can do easily.


Then I decided to facilitate the installation by inserting the vanes in their hangers on the new head rails. I had some spare time before I bailed Luckie out of her beauty shop appointment for the works: shampoo bath, nail trim, ear clean, considerable shedding hair removal, etc.


I used a very stable 3 step ladder for this task. It has very wide steps--so wide and stable that I can turn around on the top one. It has been in use in our household since my knee surgeries, so I am very familiar with its features.


However, no matter how safe a ladder or stool may be, it cannot compensate for a user who ignores even the most basic rules.


At some point I tired of the up-and-down the ladder, move it a foot, and up-and -down again. I had to move just one vane a little to my left, a little out of reach, without leaning. SO I violated one cardinal rule of working on a ladder: do not outreach you area of work.


Which I did... and now regret. With my weight all on my left leg, I lost my balance and fell, most ungracefully, my back hitting the very sharp corner of my husband's printer table, sending two printers flying across the room like falling stars.  I was falling star #3 sprawled across an conglomerate of printer pages, window rods and vertical vanes, and heaven only knows what else.


I lay on the floor, somewhat stunned but conscious, a few minutes to determine if anything was broken. My husband' who was eating lunch, in a nearby room came in.


He knows I have to get myself up. Prosthetic knees have some drawbacks. All he can do is hold a chair or similar item firmly as I pull myself up. After determining my bones were intact, I managed to regain a vertical position once more.


Then I began to examine the damage. I had a huge hematoma, (something more than a bruise) forming on my back side under the rib area, and another on the hip. Of course I was aching, but pain was not of broken bones.


After an exam by the nurse practitioner in our clinic, I was scheduled for a CT scan, which I 've completed, but do not yet know results.


I am under doctor's orders to take it easy until I hear from the nurse practitioner. Hope I hear something Thursday.


Mainly I am very sore., but otherwise intact... now I've got to find the pocketful of starlight. If I had any, I used it all, and have an empty pocket!!!

Here is a YOU TUBE link, to CATCH A FALLING STAR. These are children singing it for Mother's Day. Cute!