This has not been the best winter for me. It has been a very wet season in North Georgia, particularly with rainfall. But, it has been the unusual amounts of snow that has caused me the most trouble. Living on the side of a mountain isn't the best place to be when any amount of snow has accumulated on the driving surfaces. Union County has endured at least three major events that have left me unable to enter my driveway for days at a time. I know that my Yankee friends scoff at this, but when you live in an area that may have one snow event per year that tops three inches, the local budget and equipment for snow removal is sorely lacking.
Did you know that snow can be slippery? Especially when there may be hidden objects lurking beneath the pretty white powder; maybe some pieces of lumber that were supposed to be installed last summer as a trellis for my Rasberry bush?
Around December 13 we had snow on the ground when it became my job to hike down and around a retaining wall to check the level in the liquid propane tank. The snow wasn't terribly deep, around three or four inches and it seemed harmless enough to plod on down the hill and.....
I was on the ground before I knew what had happened. The last thing I saw were my feet pointing up to where the trees limbs hung. While in the act of walking, you should never be able to look up and see the tops of your shoes. I landed flat on my back, which protested with cracking sounds that ran up my vertebrae. A split second later, my head whipped back and did not nestle gently into the snow. It made a resounding thump as it discovered the leaves and twigs that are normally exposed on the ground. The whole episode sounded like the cartoon noise we are all so familiar with when Wiley Coyote, Yogi the Bear, or Scooby and Shaggy hit the ground hard. That sound is remarkably true to life. It is the sound of flesh and cartilage and bone hitting the earth, combined with the grunt and rush of air that leaves the lungs....all at the same time.
As usual, when I fall, I try to get back up as quickly as possible. This reaction is a combination of proving to myself that the injury is not great, and to prevent anyone seeing me laid out uncontrollably prone. I got up, brushed off the wet and cold snow and spied the lumber that did me in. Before taking another step, I flung it into the treeline so as to prevent other such episodes. I continued my journey, checked the propane level (less than 5%...shit) and went on about my business.
It wasn't until the next night at bedtime, when I went to lay my large head down onto the pillow, that the sensation of damage to my neck came rushing into reality. It was like my head was too heavy for my neck muscles to support. I had to take my hands and hold the back of my neck for extra support on the way down, and the same thing in the morning as I attempt to rise up from my slumber. This went on for a few days until the pain migrated behind my left shoulder blade, up the left side of my backstrap, into my neck and up behind my left ear. Nagging, nagging, nagging pain for weeks...until I found myself on the ground again about 6 weeks later...to be continued.
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