The Not So Super Bowl Sunday

Every year when Super Bowl Sunday rolls around, I can't help but think about one that I had experienced several years ago. My friends had built a brand new home, and the targeted moving date was to be on Super Bowl Sunday. We would move everything in, get it situated, then watch the game on their brand new huge theater sized tv. We would make a day out of it.

We all arrived early and loaded up the truck, and started the back and forth process, and finally at around 5:00 we had finished. The television was turned on, and we discovered that the local channels weren't coming in, as it was hooked up to a satellite, and it didn't include that. So my friend flipped a switch to get some local television. It wasn't coming in very well, so I volunteered to climb up the attic stairs in the garage to move the antenna around until we could get a clearer picture.

I pulled down the hatch in the garage, climbed up the wooden stairs and peered around up there until I found the antenna. The builders had only put a wood floor directly around the top of the stairs, and the antenna was sitting over a ways, where there was no wood flooring. I tip toed from rafter to rafter until I got to the antenna, and moved it around until I heard someone holler from inside the house that the picture was good. Satisfied that I had my mission accomplished, I gingerly started hopping from rafter to rafter until I got to the wood flooring, except, I didn't see a pipe that had boardered the planking until I had tripped over it.

Do you ever notice how when a bad thing is about to happen, things start to move in slow motion? This is one of those times. I stumbled, trying to keep my balance as I was falling, trying to keep on the rafters and then it happened. My foot slipped, and down I went between the rafters. Do you know that dry wall isn't very strong? BOOM, right through the dry wall ceiling I went catching myself with both arms resting on the rafters before I dropped clear through. There I hung, legs dangling from the ceiling, arms propped on the rafters. Once I got over the shock of the fall, the very first thought that went through my head was: Oh My God! How can I hide this?

The second thought I had, as I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to hide a 3 foot hole in the garage ceiling, and particals of dry wall, and debris, and since I was stuck, and needed help to get out of this mess was: "C" and "A" are going to kill me! They haven't even spent the first night in their brand new home, and I have ruined it. I love them both but they are perfectionists, and 2 of the most particular and controling people I know, and they are going to have a kaniption fit. So I kind of hung there for a few moments to prepare for the fireworks that were to follow. I even thought if I let go, and fell on to the cement floor, that maybe I could break an ankle or something, and with all of the calling an EMS, or going to the ER, that might buffer things, and keep them too busy to get too upset over the ceiling, but I nixed that idea pretty much right away, as I already had bruised ribs, and a scraped thigh, and was in enough pain. I didn't need any more, especially pain that would last 6 to 8 weeks, and require crutches or something.

So, I started to holler for help. First one out the garage door, was "A" and she took one look, turned around, marched into her bedroom and slammed the door. She didn't take to stress too well, and what with all of the moving, and commotion of the day, that was the straw that broke her camel's back and so she locked herself in. I think it was to protect me from being killed by her or something. The second one out the door, was "C." She is the more level headed of the two, and she stood there a minute, looking at this pair of legs dangling through the ceiling. She sprang into action, finding another ladder to pull over to where my feet were, and I could get some footing and get myself pulled up. Lordy! What an ordeal!

I was apologizing like crazy, and "C" was trying to calm me down, saying accidents happen, and it wasn't my fault. Come in, sit down and let's watch the game. "A" didn't come out of her room until half time to join the rest of us.

I don't remember much of that game, who played, who won, or anything. I was too worried about what I had just done, and the effects of it. They both were gracious after everything calmed down, and a little time had passed. I think it was a lesson for all of us. For "C" and "A," I think it was a lesson for them in that things aren't always going to be perfect, and no matter how careful or well planned things are, there will be times when things aren't so perfect and stuff happens, and things go wrong.

For me, it was a lesson in that it is okay to do something wrong, accidents happen, and I have forgiving friends that love me anyway. They never let me go up in to the attic again, though.