Our apologies for the lack of blogging lately.  Things. got. crazy.

We had an action-packed December planned. There was going to be a tour of a sail loft with a “how it’s made” story about our new mainsail. I was so excited to see the sail loft and try the machines.  We were going to be reporting from the Kemah Christmas Boat Parade. We were scheduled to play our first boat band bar gig. We were even trying to schedule one last dinner cruise for the winners of our the United Way silent auction. We really were going to crank it up and end the year on a high note. We were honestly so excited for all of these plans! 

Notice I said, “were.” All of our plans changed two weeks ago on a sunny Sunday afternoon when Mary was just casually stepping off of a friend’s boat. She was wearing good shoes, the deck wasn’t wet, she had nothing in her hands, and we hadn’t had a thing to drink. She just stepped down wrong, and she heard the bones in her foot crack as she collapsed onto the dock.  I sort of stepped half on-half off the side of the step. I hadn’t even made it off the dock before I blacked out from the pain. 

A quick run to the emergency room confirmed not one, but two broken bones — one in her foot and one in her ankle. It looked like our boating was done for the year.

As they say, when it rains, it pours. Just a day later she suffered another accident that totaled her car. Ironically, I was driving to the hospital to have a follow-up done on my foot. Thankfully I did not have to go to the hospital because of the crash.

I’ve spent the past two weeks trying to keep Mary as calm as possible, which is a challenge. If I leave the room for too long I’ll catch her hopping around the house working on various projects or trying to clean instead of resting and icing her leg. I think putting your wife in bed and taking away the crutches should be illegal.  I mean, I already lost my car…

The entire incident brought up a big question. What if this had happened while we were cruising? How would we have handled this if we were hours or even days away from a hospital? What kind of medications and first aid supplies should we have on board? What kind of health insurance would we need in a foreign country? The good news is last weekend we found out that I can navigate the boat on one leg without too much trouble — albeit somewhat slowly. 

Thankfully these were simple fractures. The only treatment is to splint the ankle and ice the foot while we wait for the bones to heal. In Scouts we used to practice making splints out of magazines and other random objects, so should we ever face a simple fracture in the future, I’m ready. However, if it’s a compound fracture with jagged bones sticking out of the skin, we’re probably calling the Coast Guard.

As Mary continues to recover we’re now trying to decide what kind of car to buy. Saying that our taste in vehicles differs greatly would be a mild understatement. Honestly we’re both making bad choices, but in different directions.

We want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year. The 2016 GBCA Icicle Series begins January 2, so we’ll be kicking off the new year with lots of activity.

Have a safe holiday, and watch that last step in 2015, it’s a doozy!