The Good Luck Tour

I am writing this post on my mother's computer. That is because, believe it or not, Linda's laptop stopped working yesterday. Hers was an Apple MacBook Pro, and I had been using it as my backup once my MacBook Air stopped working. Given that my Apple iPod also bit the dust in April, I am beginning to suspect that Apple may just be a subsidiary of BP.

The loss of our last laptop with two weeks to go on this trip isn't a total wipeout because LK bought an iPad two weeks ago. But given that it too is an Apple product, I now have my doubts about whether we will still be reading our e-mails in another couple of days.

Strangely, this continued failure of technology (I've also lost a GPS, a mobile phone and a Kindle e-book reader since February) hasn't even been the worst part of this week. No, with two weeks remaining before we return to Oz, the Don & Linda Good Luck Tour is starting to run out of - well - good luck.

It got really bad Wednesday when my Dad scared us by falling in the kitchen. The bad news was that he fractured three ribs, but the good news is he didn't break anything else. So life is extremely sore and painful for him right now, and getting out of bed is proving to be one of the toughest parts of his day. But ribs do heal over four or five weeks, and he will improve. And maybe there is an upside as he will now start to do some PT to strengthen his legs and keep him from taking another tumble.

Then this morning I was able to prove that my head is harder than a window pane. I was raising one of the windows at Bob and Deb's where we are staying, when it slipped a track and fell on my head. Little damage to me except for a slice across the brow, but I was sitting there holding the frame so it wouldn't slide down further, and I was covered with slivers of glass with big, jagged pieces lying on the floor around my feet.

Fortunately LK was across the table and she took charge. I am sure she was a little freaked out since blood was running down my face, and it was impossible to tell how bad the damage was. But first she had to figure out how to get me away from all the broken glass so she could assess what was going on. I certainly couldn't do it since whatever happened was on top of my head and out of sight.

It turns out that General Linda is pretty good at organizing in a crisis. She got my flipflops (actually my new more fashionable flipflops) so I could walk without slicing my feet. She brought me outside and, with Bob's help, set up a blanket and a lawn chair so she could try to get the glass slivers out of my hair without leaving them around for someone else to step on.

All was going well. She picked the glass out of my few cuts with tweezers, and then proceeded to get the rest out of my hair. She decided to flush out any she had missed by using the garden hose. That's the hose with the ice water in it. She was incredibly efficient in getting me to the point where I could shower and finish the job, but she has a lot to learn about spraying very cold water on someone.

It turns out that I only have a slice on the forehead and a couple of little jabs on my legs. Like a kid who needs to show you my booboo, here's a picture of it after it's all been tidied and cleaned. And as a bonus, it is the first official blog picture of my new beard.

So there you have it - more broken PCs, broken ribs and a broken window. I am beginning to think it's time to end the Good Luck Tour.