Just Call Me Grace

Friday afternoon when I got home from work, I used what little daylight was left and then some to pull my outdoor Christmas lights out of the shed and decorate the outside of the house. It took me about an hour or so to put up the lights and the two wreaths and get the storage bins back in the shed. I wanted to get the outside stuff up before the rains came this weekend, which as I type it still hasn’t started raining.

Christmas lights are up and shining!

After putting everything away, I went to the spare bedroom to gather up some Christmas presents to wrap and as I was walking back I noticed that there was a cave cricket in my return air vent. I get cave crickets in my house all the time. I don’t know if that’s the correct term for them or not, but that’s what I call them as does Jackie. They are the brown crickets with long spider legs.

A little background - my return air vent is in the middle of my “hallway”; actually, it pretty much is the whole hallway. It was once the furnace for my house but back in the late 80s or early 90s when my grandparents had central air put in the house for my great-grandmother, the furnace became the return air vent.

Back to the story, I pulled up the grate to get the cave cricket out and instead of me being quick enough to pick the little critter up, it jumped out. After attempting to stomp it a few times, I finally managed to get it under the paper towel I had in hand and stomp him and scoop him up. I turned to go to the kitchen to dispose of the critter in the garbage and clearly didn’t remember that the grate was not down and I stepped and fell into the return air vent; probably a three foot drop. I managed to pull myself out and wallowed in pain on the kitchen floor for a few minutes before I managed to get myself up.

Needless to say, I was in a lot of pain. I’m still hobbling around today, but not quite as badly. I’m pretty sure I pulled a muscle in my left leg as it is in an immense amount of pain especially when I turn my leg certain ways. So, if you hear me cry out like I’m in pain, it’s because my leg went in some direction that I didn’t need it to go. I also have a big bruise on my left thigh and my right knee is bruised in three places, once from my tumble in Tuscaloosa on Thursday and two from falling into the return air vent.

So, here’s to hoping I don’t take any more falls over the coming days because I’m not sure my beaten and bruised body can take much more.

Front Door Decoration