Gift of Hopeful Safety

Everyone enjoyed strawberry shortcake...

There was one more Father's Day gift presented during dinner Sunday night...


But first I must begin with the backstory that I've neglected to share before now.

...and a call on speaker-phone
from Princess Bossy before
the presentation of Surprise #2

A week ago Sunday, on the 10th, Hubby decided to quickly draw the layout for the upper floor framing on the top of the framed first floor.  That first floor is 10-feet tall.  


He thought he should get the extension ladder, but decided it was too much trouble and used the step ladder instead.  First of all, that wooden step ladder is 25 years old and shows about every day of it.  I never let anyone climb it without a 'spotter' at the bottom to hold it steady.  But Hubby thinks I'm a bit of a worrier...

Well, that Sunday, not only was he alone, and on a rickety ladder, but climbed to the top... 2 steps past the recommended climbing level.  He was doing fine, but turned to do layout to the side of him, then forgot he was no longer in line with the ladder, and stepped down... Into nothingness.  The next thing he remembers was picking himself up off the concrete.


The bruises and injuries tell he had somehow fallen on his right hand and the left half of his face.  He mangled the inside of his lip, but didn't damage his teeth. His hand and wrist are bruised, and his shoulder was dislocated.  It's slipped, very painfully, out of the socket a couple times since, so he's been wearing a sling most of the time (should've been wearing it in the photos of the fire pit), and he's seeing an orthopedist this week to get fully checked out.   

Our chiropractor thinks Hubby probably has particularly strong wrists and hands because of the building he does, and that protected him.  Mostly, God watched out for him, because he could have easily been seriously injured... or worse.  (Just days after this, a man Prince Inventive works with fell off a ladder...only from 4 feet up and onto lawn.  He crushed both bones in one arm and fractured the other.)  

Watching Princes CuddleBunny and
Stoic bring in his gift

Anyway... When Prince Stoic heard this story, he decided his dad needed another gift.  












I'll not quote his more humorous, but slightly colorful message he'd attached to the sturdy new ladder, but it basically said, 'Happy Father's Day, Dad... Don't do anything dumb.'

And there are plenty of stickers to remind him!








Happy Summer!  Stay SAFE!















Hubby Update:  He broke his shoulder.  At his appointment yesterday afternoon, his doctor scheduled him for surgery today, saying "Sooner, rather than later."  Surgery will be followed by 6 weeks of no use, plus 6 more weeks of no use except for prescribed exercise. So his wings are clipped for the summer, and his 'to-do' list is limited to 

• Supervise
• Relax! 

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Proverbs 19:21