Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Isn't That The Way It Goes ?

I've heard it said that the best laid plans often go astray, and so my daughter Linda's plans did
just that...they went astray.

The annual gyro fly-in was over, her daughter and son in law had returned home and life had settled down . The weather was good. The time was right she thought ,to get back to work on her bead shop.

Linda makes beads by what is called the , Lampwork , method. She uses a torch fueled by propane and oxygen and heats glass rods over a mandrel . When the glass is in a molten state it melts onto the mandrel which is being rolled by Linda's fingers . The glass builds up into whatever kind or shape of bead she has in mind. She can put flowers , leaves, swirls, and any kind of image or color of glass she chooses into the hot bead. Her beads are beautiful !
This is the barest thumbnail description of her craft as I am only an observer of her work, not a bead artist as she is . I don't mess with propane torches and the like. My passion is flying gyrocopters.

All that is by way of telling you about Linda's broken ankle ...broken in two places, no less.

She and her brother Dave, are building her a bead shop on her property where she will be able to do her bead work. She planned, saved money for the shop , agonized over the size of shop, bought doors and windows and building material for the shop and then thought some more about how she wanted everything built.

Finally, her plans were finalized and the building process began. Dave is an electrical contractor so he is quite busy with his own work but whenever he had free time he helped Linda with her bead shop project.

The foundation was made, the floor and framing done, the roof was almost finished.

Then on a glorious day, weatherwise , Linda was going to do some work on the roof of her shop, just a little finishing up before the final metal roofing was put on. She, with my help, I must admit , put up the very tall ladder, she planned to use .

I was planning to go work on my gyro, and so she would be alone should she fall.... A mother is a mother for life , I'm finding out, so I protested to her , " No, Linda, please don't go up on top of the roof". You could fall and you will be here alone with no one to help you". She said that she wouldn't go on top but would just go up to the edge of the roof.

I left after telling her , "at least put your cell phone in your pocket so you can call if you need help".

Twenty minutes later I received a call that she had fallen and needed help...I rushed over, breaking a speed record for an old mama running and found her lying on her kitchen floor. She had managed to crawl on her hands and knees , a distance of about 60 feet or so and make it up four steps and into her home, no mean feat with a broken ankle !

She said that she had decided not to use the tall ladder after all and had left it standing while she used a shorter, 6 foot ladder close to it. There had been no wind at all that day until she got up on the 6 foot ladder and then, wouldn't you know, a gust of wind came out of nowhere and toppled the tall ladder over onto Linda and the shorter ladder. In the fall , her foot got tangled in a rung of the ladder and sure, enough, the ankle was broken.

We went the ER route and after waiting half a day and not getting seen by a doctor, we went to a doctor in private practice and he put a cast on her leg after X-Rays showed that it was indeed, broken in two places , just above the ankle.

She is proving to be a good patient, and is getting a little cabin fever at this point but still taking it easy and following doctor's orders.

As for me, I'm glad she lives so close so that I can look in on her and help her in any way needed.

Meanwhile, the glorious weather is fast going away and soon it will be winter-just about the time the cast comes off the leg- and probably the finishing of the bead shop will be done in the new year. But for now, Linda sits in a chair by the door , with her leg in a cast and watches her brother as he finds time , doing the wiring for her bead shop.

Yes, her best laid plans did absolutely go astray.
Marion Springer , Linda's mom

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