Accidents – Act III

Ah, almost welcome this one, as now that we have three, things will be fine again (superstitious – who me?).

Now we know that all accidents are dumb, if only one could figure out what dumb things were going to lead to accidents, the world would be a safer place.

And they always hinge on a series of decisions, those famous “what if?”; “if only I had/hadn’t”.  In this case a call to a friend to see if I could have lunch with her as I was returning from the mountains. The original answer was “oh, I wish I could, but I already have another friend coming for lunch”, which a day later changed to “my friend just called to cancel, are you still free?”, which led to my going around via the freeway instead of through France, which led to…

We had a lovely lunch, getting caught up on various and sundry in both of our lives (we enjoy meeting with our other friends as well, but sometimes just two allows one to delve further into the small problems and joys, those that might not concern anyone else).

Being on that side meant that I could also stop first at Ikea to see if there was anything interesting in the “bon fillon” (read rejects, unpacked objects, things that have been returned, etc.) – no.

The real goal was to look into the Nike outlet mall and see if I couldn’t replace my walking shoes. Hate to name names, but sometimes it’s just appropriate (Nike Outlet in Aubonne in case anyone needs to know). Interesting – everything is white and fluo pink, green, yellow or weird shades of lavender, blue, orange. Guess they don’t expect persons of my generation to be interested in a decent coloured walking shoe. Nevertheless did try on a couple whereupon a salesman rushed over to see if he could be of use. I duly inquired as to why they didn’t have anything in beige/black etc. as the lavender and hot pink weren’t going to work with my khaki walking clothes (didn’t bother to explain that they also weren’t going to work with my black trousers and sky-blue shirt), never mind that white gets dirty so quickly when I am walking in the mud! I jokingly asked if there were any more less in-your-eye ones in the men’s section, then actually thought hmmm… maybe not a bad idea since the women’s section also was missing anything at all in size 9 - the ideal size for me.  He disappeared (and must have been collared by another client as I didn’t see him again until after the accident when I went looking for him to report the incident) and I, with one new shoe on my left foot and my normal shoe on the right foot, two cartoons in my arms and my purse, toddled over to the men’s sector. OUCH, right foot came down on something sharp and in a reflex motion in order to not stick whatever it was in further I lifted up that foot and tried to look at the sole (fairly thick let it be noted): not a good idea as since the left shoe was untied and not my normal one, I slightly lost my center of gravity; started to put the right foot down again, but that was too painful so re-balance and down I went.

almost actual size!

Turns out it was the tack part of those huge security tags (the next time they take one off of something you buy, take a look at the size of those things – at least 1 centimetre long if not more!). No one in sight in that isle… took off shoe, pinched to get a drop of blood then looked for the salesman and explained. Got some antiseptic and a bandage: didn’t buy any shoes.

Fortunately nothing else hurt and – as predicted after my last loss in a restaurant – the price was right – i. e. O. Just mad that it ruined my perfect record for the year of no falls (o.k. slightly bruised inside of the left elbow – must have been the boxes in that arm). Going to be entertaining to explain this one on my osteoporosis study report (have to turn in a monthly report for a year about any falls  - one would have thought that at least it could have been a “genuine” one on a mountain trail or something).

So I should be mishap free for at least a bit.

Here’s hoping that none of you ever have any either.