Tuesday, Aug. 30—A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the Sun City Ukulele session today. I had the golf cart packed with my uke and song book, started to leave the garage. I stopped at the door to pick up some trash which I would drop in the big garbage container out front. Stupidly, I left the cart in reverse, failed to put the brake on, and started walking the two little bit of trash to curbside. The cart got moving, quietly, picked up momentum on our slanted driveway—and crashed into me. Next thing I knew I was lying on my back in the street, bleeding quite profusely. I was stunned, thought I might have a broken leg. As calmly as I could, I phoned Gretchen on my cell phone. She came out, helped me to my feet and got me into the house.

I dripped blood in places we did not want blood, like the bedroom carpet. I ached all over, but managed to take a shower and get the street dirt off my right-leg wounds. We decided I should go to Kaiser to get the wounds cleaned up. I was able to drive, so I went alone; Gretch went to work.

X-rays at Kaiser indicated I had some sort of fracture in the right foot. They scheduled me to return Friday to see a podiatrist. Meanwhile, they cleaned me up, did some stitches, and put a walking boot of some sort on my bum foot. Gretchen left work to come get me.

Since Gretch’s vacation starts Sunday, we were distressed about having to cancel our trip to Cardiff by the Sea. Gutsily, we decided we would go—no matter what—Gretchen doing the driving. It will be a long trip. It’s getting through LA that has Gretchen challenged, but she will do it—can do it. And I will be better off sitting around at a vacation rental than I would be lolly-gagging at home.

By the way, the golf cart is not damaged, and there are no gory photos to share.

Wednesday, Aug. 31—Everyone told me the pain would be worse on second day. Right. Good night sleeping on back, got up three times to pee. No food at night, and that was good.
It’s going to be a long day dealing with pain and immobility.

Friday, Sept.2—I saw a podiatrist at Kaiser. He recommended I weat the ”boot” as much as possible. Gretchen should do most of the driving.

Sunday, Sept. 4—We were headed for Cardiff by 8 a.m. Gretch was driving. After a couple of hours, I decided I could drive on I-5, especially by using cruise control. We traded driving duty back and forth, my taking it through LA, Santa Ana, etc., where traffic was heaviest. We got to Cardiff by 5 o’clock–9-hour drive.
We met landlord Josie. While getting ready to open a bottle of wine, I tripped on the deck, fell, broke the bottle, cut my right hand in two places, not far from the wrist. It was a bloody mess, not to mention loss of some good red wine. Dr. Gretchen taped me up, but we would go to Kaiser next morning.

Monday, Sept. 5—SD Kaiser was 20 minutes from our rental. We got great service, were out of there in just an hour. My hand was not seriously injured. X-rays showed no glass under the skin. However, because of bandages over my hand, I was unable to do much to help with cooking, dishes, etc.

Tuesday, Sept 6—We met Danny and Sheila at Beach House, sat outside for dinner. Beautiful sunset. It was fun to talk over old times, families. We went to our patio and did some talking and ukulele playing later.

Wed., Sept. 7—Lesley McClelland came for lunch, at Swami’s. Good to see her.

Thursday, Sept. 8—We finally got to Dog Beach so Maggie could run freely. At 3:38, I was at a thrift shop near our rental when electric power went out. So I went home. It turned out to be a massive blackout. SDG&E said 1.4 million of its customers in San Diego and Orange counties were affected, as well as residents east into Arizona and south into Baja California. The power failure led to school and business closures, suspended water service in some areas, flight cancellations, blacked-out traffic lights, silent radio stations and trapped elevator passengers. Public schools throughout the county and several higher-education institutions closed Friday.

Not knowing how serous it was, we drove to downtown Cardiff to an Italian restaurant. It was closed. So was everything else. Traffic signals blinked. We returned to rental, Gretch made pancakes for dinner. We found some candles and made it through the evening. Power came on about 15 hours after start of blackout. We were part of historic biggest blackout in California history. Power outage caused sewage to overflow into Pacific and Doggy Beach was closed next day.

Friday, Sept 9—Nice dinner at Miyami’s, Japanese eatery where chefs cooked before your eyes at your table. Good show!

Sunday, Sept. 11—G did magnificent job of cleaning, doing floors on her knees. We got to San Clemente by 12:30. Host Kathy Brown threw leis around our necks. She had invited some friends to join us and we went to Hulaville, a dive of a cafe where the ukulele was king for a night. I got on open mic and did “Chickery Chick” and “Titanic.” Fun evening.

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