Isn't it Ironic?

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn't it ironic... don't you think
....
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up in your face
....
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out

- ALANIS MORISSETTE


Doesn't it figure that no sooner do I write a post about good things that something bad happens? B, SY and I met GP at the breakfast place early Saturday morning and we were anxious to get out on the trials in the fresh snow. We snowmobiled all morning in prime conditions. Almost two feet of newly fallen snow was groomed flat and the trails were in better shape than I've seen in years.


We rode from the state park in Groton and stopped for lunch in a little store about 75 miles north in Greensboro. After lunch we were cruising down the trails when we noticed B wasn't behind us. GP was the first to turn back and SY and I followed. We found B off trail, sprawled in the snow with the sled beside him. He got sucked into a field just off trail and hit a 5 foot culvert and smashed the other side and got thrown in the air. He thinks he and the sled went head over heels a few times and landed about 20 feet away with his sled landing a few feet from him facing the opposite direction. It took him over 30 minutes to get up with assistance.


Thankfully he always wears a helmet but he wasn't wearing the helmet cam I gave him for his birthday (he hasn't figured out how to use it yet) and B was last in line so we're not positive of the exact details of the crash but we could see the track marks of where he launched, the other side of the ditch he hit, how far he was in the air, where he initially came down and where he eventually landed. GP tried calling 911 but we had no service in the woods. We had to limp back to the store where we had lunch about 2 miles away. I thought the ride back was going to kill him, I could see tears in his eyes riding over every little bump and turn. B's snowmobile was barely drivable so SY drove B's and B rode less than 5 mph in serious pain. We called a friend to pick us up at the store but B had to sit and wait on a bench in excruciating pain for an hour and then another hour drive back to the camp.


I'm so glad the other guys were there because I would have been freaking out if it were just the two of us snowmobiling that day. GP and SY rode the trails back to the truck and drove the truck back to Greensboro with the trailer to pick up our sleds. It was a very long day that started off great and ended horribly.


B is a hurting unit and really messed up his back. He has an appointment with a back specialist but they can't see him 'til Thursday. He went to his old chiropractor just for an evaluation today; he doesn't think anything is broken and said he is lucky there was so much snow to cushion his fall or he probably would have broken his back.


Needless to say, we didn't get to ride the rest of the weekend. SY helped me plow out the camp, shovel the roof off and close down the water before heading back home yesterday. The 3 hour drive home was hard for him but he is more comfortable here at home and I really wanted him to go to the hospital here in the city instead of in the back woods of Vermont.


So the long weekend I was so excited about didn't turn out very good. I'm probably going to have to take a few additional days off of work to take care of him because I don't think he can be alone yet. He can't even get out of bed without assistance.

I really hope he is just bruised and doesn't need surgery. He paid $40 to the chiropractor today; it will be $300 to walk in the door of the back specialist, additional $ for any x-rays and $2,000+ if he needs an MRI. It wouldn't be so bad if he had health insurance but it could be a bumpy road if we have to pay any crazy hospital bills. Let's be sure our next president is someone who is serious about universal health coverage.

I think there is some old Yiddish saying about not admitting you are happy or life is good because you are tempting the fates or something like that. I was having such a blast riding and looking forward to getting lots of miles in over my long weekend. Looks like our snowmobile season is over and not because of lack of snow.

I guess I'll go back to bitching and moaning.