Some of the best blog-writing I do ends up on other peoples' blogs, in the comments section. One person's story often lights a fire under a story of my own, and that person ends up with comments from me that range in length from short essay to mini novela.
It happened again today. Melissa, at The Inspired Room, wrote a post called DIY Mishaps: The Superglue Incident. Be sure to read it, it's a hoot. Like any good blogger who loves reader comments, she made a simple request: "do tell me your own home improvement disasters in the comments! Misery loves company!"
So I shared a story of my own and, as is often the case, realized I was hiding a perfectly good story on someone else's blog, where very few people would see it. Dumb, huh? And I made a new Blogging Resolution, which is to start posting those lengthy commments -- which are, in essence, my response to a writing prompt -- to my own blog as well. Pretty darn simple, dontcha think?
Michelle's topic: home improvement disasters ... Misery loves company!
Newton's First Law: An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This law is called the law of inertia.
My Story:
My "personal best" DIY disaster occured more than 25 years ago, when my future husband and I had a bunch of friends on the roof of our house, removing several layers of old, thin, highly flammable and very leaky shingles. We had a covered hacienda-style porch that ran the width of the front of the house, and there were ladders and scaffolding set up all along the porch for access to the roof.
I was in the front yard, about 25 feet from the porch, when I heard the phone ring inside the house. Not wanting to miss the call, I ran across the yard, seriously misjudging the height of the scaffolding. My upper body came to a dead stop when my forehead slammed into a 2″ thick scaffolding plank, but my feet kept going for another millisecond, tipping me backwards and slamming me flat on my back on the concrete walkway. A classic slipped-on-a-banana-peel type fall — minus the banana peel — performed at high speed while being smacked in the forehead with the equivalent of a baseball bat.
kinda like me ... ouch!
Just like in a car accident, the “loose” items continued their forward movement: my silver-and-turquoise stud earrings literally SHOT out of my earlobes and hit the front wall, six to eight feet from where my head stopped. Quite a lesson in Newtonian physics [an object in motion remains in motion until acted on by another force]. My earrings were discovered on the porch later in the day: I had no idea they were missing, as I’d been busy holding ice packs on the front and back of my head.
No concussion, just two big-bumps-with-bruises, and a seriously bruised ego. What should have been just a couple hours of feeling foolish grew into 25 years of “Hey, remember the time Victoria …” My foolish fall gained the stature of Myth, becoming A Story Of Great Proportion, retold with relish at family holidays, gatherings of friends-who-were-there, and — of course — at least once during any and all DIY projects I’ve done over the past 25 years.