This Could Only Happen to Me.............

This would only happen to me……..




Last Saturday night Joe had made plans to go spend some time with his brother. He was going to have the car and I was going to spend some alone time at home watching movies. I was actually looking forward to it because I almost never get to be alone in our apartment since Joe is always home (being unemployed and all). And I mean Al. Ways. Home. I mean, I love the man but sometimes you just need some space!

So I was looking forward to spending some time alone.

Around 7:00 I decided to go on my daily walk. I have been really good about walking every day and I thought about skipping it but I always feel better afterwards so I decided to go.

I don't normally take my dog on my walks. I walk for about an hour and it is too much for her. Plus, she is a complete and total spaz out in public and I spend most of my walk coaxing her past people and other dogs and big green scary electrical boxes that seem to be on every corner where I live.

So I usually walk alone. Well on Saturday since I was going to be walking alone and Joe wouldn't be home waiting for me I decided it would be better to take her with me.

I was already carrying my water bottle, and my IPhone which I use as an Ipod, and now her leash so I decided to tie the key to the house onto the leash with a disposable poop bag. Genius, right? Yeah. Not so much.

So we set out on our walk.

My usual walk is about 3 miles long and it takes me about an hour (which is not that great but I lost all of that fitness I had last year when I was walking up to 5 miles a day and I am trying to get it back).

The first 30 minutes of my walk is at an incline. Not exactly a hill per say, but definitely an incline. I am usually sweating and slightly(ha!) out of breath by the time I reach the halfway point and start back home.

So I reach the halfway point, which is our local supermarket and I am starting my way back home. Gizmo has been a pain in the ass the entire walk. There were a lot of people out on Saturday night and she was skittish and pulling on the leash the entire time. I had pretty much had it by the time I hit the half way point.

On the way back I walk on a busy street. I feel safer that way walking alone, than on one of the quieter side streets. Gizmo was terrified of everything we encountered on our way back and I was having to keep her on a pretty tight leash on my right side (the street side).

I get 1/4 of the way home (3/4 of the way through my walk) and I realize the house key has fallen off the leash. Craaaaaap.

I turn around to see if I can see it anywhere along the route. Nope. I am going to have to turn around and backtrack. There may have been some choice words uttered, directed at Gizmo for being such a spaz and causing me to jerk the leash, making the key fall off. See how I blame my own stupidity on a tiny little defenseless dog? Nice.

As I start walking back the way I came (uphill again-Argh), Gizmo spazzes out over another green electrical box and starts to pull on the leash harder. We have one of those retractable leashes and I had it clipped very short. Well the locking mechanism must have failed because the next thing I know the leash has let go and she is running into the middle of a very busy street. Right into the path of an oncoming car.

It was like in slow motion. I screamed Gizmoooooooo…………..Nooooooooooo! At the same time I stepped off the curb and grabbed the extension part of the leash, yanking her back to safety just in the nick of time. I'm pretty sure she saw her little life flash before her eyes.

But as I go to step back up onto the curb…………Owwwwwww…………pain in my lower right calf. So bad I had to sit down on the curb (on the side of a very busy road). Turns out I had pulled a muscle in my calf saving Gizmo's life.

Oh my word the pain. So I'm sitting on the side of the road, in tears, with my spaz of a dog wondering what the heck I am going to do now. Oh did I mention I had no money and no cell phone to call anyone to come rescue me? Like I said before, I am a genius.

Joe isn't due home for another hour and a half so I know I had to find the key to the house. I start limping back the way I came scouring the sidewalk and bushes for the key. Luckily I found it half a block from where I was, laying in the middle of the sidewalk, although it seemed like much farther because of the limping. So now I have a decision to make. Continue on the way I was going and loop back around the way I came (much of which was uphill), or backtrack and continue on my original route back home.

I decided to backtrack again and go with my original route because I just wasn't sure I could deal with the incline on a bum leg. So I start limping back the way I already

walked for the third time (once the first time, twice on the way back to look for the key, a third time to make my way home).

It takes me about an hour to limp my way home, putting my walk at about 2 hours and 20 minutes total, including the backtracking.

And that was my Saturday night.

Welcome to my life.

And now I have a bum leg and I can't go on my nightly walks at all until it heals. Hmph.

I did learn some valuable lessons though.

#1. My dog needs some serious training.

#2. Never go on a a walk without A). a cell phone and B). Some money.


Spring Fling Day 28.  I can't believe I am almost finished (and that I did it!)