Fall

 

Linden trees along a street in my neighbourhood.

How quickly things can change from "normal" (cf. previous post) to - not quite normal!

There is a reason why I chose the title "Fall" for this post - and is has little to do with all the leaves falling to the ground.

Yesterday afternoon (as so often on a Friday) I went to dispose of some "recyclables" in the bins at the end of the linden-lined street above. Having finished that job, I decided to extend my walk a bit further. As the photo shows, it was a sunny day. 

Between the street I was on and a pedestrian crossing over another road, there is a small grassy patch. One second I was happily walking across that grassy patch (only a few steps), while keeping my eyes on the traffic situation on the bigger road... 

... and the next second, I found myself sprawled on the ground, with no idea how that had happened, or which parts of me might or might not still be in working order...

I must have slipped on a patch still muddy from the rain the day before. But there is still a complete blank in my brain as to exactly how I fell, or in what position I landed. (Checking my clothes later, there was not a trace of dirt on my white (!) jacket, neither front nor back - while my trousers were dirty both back and front!)

It felt like I lay there quite a while trying to work out which parts of me I might be able to move at all; and if there might be a position from which it would feel safe to try and get up to standing position...

Two very young girls (around 9-10?) on the sidewalk along the major road were the first to notice my predicament, and ask if I was all right - looking rather scared. It did not look to me like they'd be able to actually help me get back up on my feet, though... Luckily, a more grown-up Angel also appeared - a young woman who had seen me from her car, and stopped to come to my rescue. She was quite small and thin as well, but she seemed to know what she was doing, and after a few attempts did manage to get me up to standing positon. Although I felt generally bruised - and feared for my left knee in particular, as that has a tendency to play up for less! - to my amazement, nothing seemed to be broken or even "seriously" sprained. Once upright, I felt that I could stand on my legs, and also take a few steps without too much pain. 

The Angel decided it was probably best that she drove me home though (and I did not protest!) As I wasn't far from home that only took a few minutes. The car she was driving had the logo of the council housing company that I rent from. It turned out that she works for them as inspector, and was on her way to such a job nearby. I forgot to ask her name, but I'll be forever grateful. She let me off at my entrance - as there's a lift (elevator), no need to worry about my ability to manage the stairs. 

Taking off my trousers to assess the damage, I was shocked at the size of my left knee, which was also obviously going to turn into an enormous bruise... Instinct told me to make a priority of getting some ice on that, and also a compression bandage. Luckily I did have a variety of bandages already. There was also a small scrape wound on the knee, but very superficial, so nothing to worry about. I had some ice cubes in the freezer and made a first provisorical compress with those. Later on, it struck me that it made more sense to use one of those plastic cooling thingys that you put in cooler bags (not sure of the English word for them), as those don't make everything wet when they thaw... 

 The other place where I felt a bit sore and had a bruise arising was on the outer side of my left foot, below the ankle. It's still a mystery to me how I came to be bruised in those two places - left knee + right ankle - but nowhere else. I also have some pain in my left shoulcer/arm, but no visible bruises there, so I think that's probably from my attempts to get up rather than from the fall as such. (In my right shoulder/arm+ neck I have chronic problems since many years, but that seems not to have got much worse by this incident.) 

I've been taking a series of photos of the development of my bruises, but I think I'll spare you those (for now, anyway), and just give you this neatly bandaged version from Friday afternoon... (My summer jeans with very wide legs came in handy to wear at home - I can just roll up the trouser leg when I need to check on the knee...) 

Apart from the colour of my bruises I don't think anything has been getting "worse". I've been resting with my knee and foot "high" quite a bit, and I've not been out; but I can get around in the flat, and I can sit down and get up again, and do what I need to do at home (like getting food, and washing the dishes). I suppose I'd better take a take a taxi to my doctor's appointment (for other things!!) on Monday morning... But that's not the end of the world...

P.S. There is an emergency clinic at my primary health care centre on weekday evenings (including Friday), and daytime on Saturday and Sunday. So had I felt things getting worse and needed advice, I could have contacted them. But it has not felt necessary.

...

A similar fall happened to me once before. My blog tells me it was as long ago as in the spring of 2017. (8+ years ago!) That time, I stumbled on a kerb of cobble stones separating a walk path from a bicycle path (a very unusual arrangement). But I recall the same feeling of suddeny finding myself on the ground, with no idea what happened, or how much damage... That time, I got a rather deep cut on my elbow. But then, too, "Angels" appeared to help (and that time, gave me a lift to my health care centre to have the cut professionally looked after). 

Re-reading my post from back then, I note that I then also listed a number of "things" not damaged in my fall. It was the same now: Glasses and sunglasses undamaged, phone safe in my handbag, trousers not torn (in spite of scratch wound underneath).

"Sometimes, the greatest angels 
are not found in the heavens, 
but walking beside us on this earth."  
~ Shannon L. Alder

All Normal (?)

 

Mostly grey skies here today, but I managed a turn around the old cemetery in the early afternoon before it started to rain. In the trees, various shades of yellow keep taking over  more and more every day... (Pretty much following the normal pattern for this time of year, I think!)

When I got back home, the post had been delivered, and brought an unexpected letter from my health care centre - just to inform me that the blood tests they took last week for an upcoming doctor's appointment on Monday next week were... "normal"!

That's a relief, of course. But a surprise in the sense that it's the first time in 35+ years of annual (or almost annual) checkups that I've been sent such a letter in advance, rather than just being told the results by the doctor when we meet! Whether that's to do with new routines for the whole clinic or just this new doctor (whom I've never yet met), I don't know!  

Now I just keep my fingers crossed that the knowledge that I probably at least have no need to fear a sudden new diagnosis of diabetes or high cholesterol (or whatever) will also have a general positive effect on my blood pressure at the actual appoinment... 

Not long after opening that letter, my phone rang. It turned out to be a nurse from the same health care centre, wanting to change my booked vaccination appointment from next Friday to 1½ week later. I actually did not mind that at all, as I had been wondering myself (looking at my calendar) if perhaps I had managed to get next week a bit too full... An extra day of "nothing special planned" felt rather welcome!

 

Keeping Up with Modern Technology

Yesterday was rainy, and I did not go out - it was also Laundry Day for me anyway, and I had enough to do indoors. Today the sun made an appearance again, and in the afternon I decided to go for a walk to the supermarket for a few items. 

Above: I stopped on the bridge across the river to snap a photo of yellow leaves dropping to the ground now (and into the water as well)... 
Below: Some very red Rowan trees next to a tall building.

 

For over ten years now I've been doing most of my grocery shopping online with home delivery (from the same supermarket that I walked to now); but once in a while I like to go myself for some speical item, or just to try to keep up with changes in the store. When I do go in person, I always self-scan the few items I bought (with a hand-held scanner), so don't have to stand in line to check out. I've been doing that for even longer than I've been using their home delivery service, and it's routine procedure for me. ... 

 

However, recently they have also made some changes to their self-checkout area; and for the second time this year, I found myself bewildered when getting there. I blipped my card at one of the stations and then clicked on what I thought was the right button that came up - but my self-scanned items did not appear on the screen. So I had to ask for help from a young girl (member of staff), who patiently took me through the explanations of how these check-out points were for customers not carrying a scanner with them through the store, but doing the scanning at the check-out; whereas those ones (pointing) are for customers who used a scanner along the way... 

It all suddenly gave me a feeling of being old and confused and out-of-date... (And in this particular case, I suppose that's exactly what I was!) ...  I'm not normally very chatty in stores, but it also made me want to explain, "in my defense", that the reason that the two different ways of "self scanning" had escaped me was that I do most of my shopping online these days! (Hoping somewhere at the back of my head, I suppose, that this might restore her opinion of me as perhaps not totally out of touch with the modern world after all...) 

After I got back home, I learned that there's also a third scanning method now - downloading their special app to my phone, and then scan a QR code at the exit to pay. However much they claim that to be "simple", I don't think I'll complicate my life further by adding that to my personal mix of options. I just hope that they'll continue their home delivery service!!

Autumn Colours

Storm Amy has gone away, whereever storms go when they're "done"... I was able to go  for a rain-free walk around the old cemetery this afternoon; and everything looked pretty much normal for the time of year - not much evidence of a storm having passed. But Autumn keeps making steady progress now, changing the general colour scheme; and no doubt an increasing number of leaves dropping to the ground will be keeping the cemetery workers very busy over the next month or two... 

 

 

Linking to Through My Lens

 

Weekend Reflections, and Storm Amy

 The Calm Before the Storm 

Wednesday, 1 October 2025

Friday, 3 October 2025

October is Breast Cancer Awareness (and fundraising) month here in Sweden - and if memory serves me right, I think in a number of other countries as well (?) Anyway, when walking into town on Friday, I found these temporary pink decorations added on one of the bridges across the river... Reminding me both of the friends I have lost to breast cancer over the years - and those who survived. (Note to self: Make an extra donation to cancer research.)

The Storm 

With sunny and calm autumn weather all week so far, it was almost hard to believe the forecasts about the storm expected to blow in over us on Saturday, and likely to wreak havoc here and there. I decided to take the warnings seriously, though, so spent Friday afternoon taking in some things from my balcony.  I took my foldable "sun chair" down to winter storage in the basement, made room for my geraniums on the window sill in the living room, and even tied my wooden bench to the balcony railing. Felt a bit silly doing that with the sun shining from a perfect blue sky - but...

... when Storm Amy arrived on Saturday, she did prove to be quite capricious. I can't say I noticed her wreaking any serious havoc just around my street (and we stayed connected to electricity and internet all day) - but I followed her adventures on my local newspaper app during the day, and it seems she behaved quite badly elsewhere in town, uprooting and throwing big trees around (blocking roads, and damaging buildings), and even managed to tear an old steamboat loose from its jetty in the lake north of town...  
 

My own photo of the steamboat on a calmer day...

Photo from our local newspaper

The photo above, copied from the local newspaper's website, shows how a tree fell on an apartment building (not in my street, but another part of town). Luckily it did not break any windows, but it caused some damage to a couple of balconies. 

Today it still kept raining all day; but in the afternoon the wind had died down, and I went for a short walk around a few of the neighbouring buildings in connection with taking out some rubbish to the bins at the corner. (Only about 10 minutes or so, though, and in spite of both umbrella and raincoat I also felt need to change my trousers when I got back in...) 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections