The things we rush to blog about!

I've been compelled to paint the exterior of the house. It's one of the stipulations required by the underwriter so we can get the financing we need to redo our bathrooms. This is the reason I've been away from blog lately. The painting is actually going really well, I'm almost done; yesterday we got the highest peak painted, on top of 21 feet of scaffolding. I did not like being up there on the top, but I was really careful. And I got the whole peak done! SQUEE. I thought I might finish everything yesterday but didn't, a stiff wind came up and it's hard to paint in the wind because the paint dries too fast. So I got out there early today. Had Christian come out with me to help me move the heavy ladder around.

Had painted a first coat on about 1/3 of what needed doing, and we had just repositioned the ladder and refilled my Cool Whip tub with paint. I climbed up.

And the ladder slipped. Not down a wall, because I have it positioned against the roof of the porch. So it slid a few inches down the roof, then fell through the air to the porch, with me and the paint on it.

My shins took the brunt of the fall. First I was shaking so hard I couldn't control it, then I was nauseated—I didn't throw up, probably because I mercifully hadn't had breakfast first, I'd gone right out to take advantage of the cool morning. I was covered with paint but needed to rest because of the nausea, so I lay my head down on my painty arms. The hair afterward was a nice, semi-gloss white. In the midst of the nausea and pain I called Blaine at work. He called neighbors to check on me.

The kids found me old towels and I lay my painty body down on them, and the first neighbor that came over brought her neighbor an EMT with her. They looked me over, said I didn't need to go to the hospital, and washed my wounds—gashes on my shins, bloodied knees, one bloody elbow.

It had been about an hour. Emma had made me toast, and I'd taken ibuprofen. Emma helped me pick a lot of the paint out of my hair. I was feeling well enough to go take a shower and try to clean up.

At first the hot water stung my shins, but a few minutes later all was well. The EMT left me some bandaging supplies she'd gotten from the ambulance garage for me.

So now it's 4 hours later. I feel pretty well. The arch of my foot hurts most, actually—wondering if maybe I broke one of my metatarsals and didn't feel it at first because I was just a little bit shocky. My knees and shins mostly don't hurt and they're nicely bandaged. I actually feel really lucky that a 7-foot fall on the ladder only banged up my shins.

Christian was there with me and saw the whole thing. I worried him, he said. Christian and Emma have taken good care of me today, and now Blaine's come home from work to continue taking care of me.

All is well.

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