[Dyre Straits]

I took a nasty spill the other night at work making a pizza delivery. This happened New Year's Eve night. What happened was I did not see a 5-inch step up onto a walkway because a van was backed into the driveway with its headlights on. The headlights prevented me from seeing that small step. I hit it pretty hard with my foot and took a tumble forward.


Fortunately, the athletic experience from my younger years kicked into high gear and I simply rolled with the fall. Just got a few very slight scratches and my right wrist is just very mildly sore from using it to break my initial contact with the concrete.


Anyway, the actual worst outcome was that my brand new smartphone took a bit of a hit, too. The brand new back case got cracked and, initially, I couldn't even get the phone to turn on. I popped off the back case when I got back into my car to see what was wrong. It was a simple matter of the battery having gotten jarred loose. So, I pushed that back into place and the phone was working again. I wanted to get a photo of the step so I could explain to my boss what happened. But, the camera on my phone wouldn't work and I kept getting an onscreen message to “Insert Memory Card to Use Camera.”


Somehow the memory card had also gotten dislodged and was nowhere to be found. I did ask the residents of the house to keep an eye out for it and to call the store if they found it.


Well, Monday afternoon my boss got a call and was informed that they HAD found my memory card in their driveway. Apparently, while in my car, when I took the back off the phone to put the battery back into place, the memory card has fallen onto my lap. Then, when I got out of the car, it fell onto their driveway....not anywhere near where I had actually taken the tumble. So, during my shift that night, I was able to drop by and pick up the memory card. (SO VERY THANKFUL!!!)


While there, I told the family that I had just turned 63 on Christmas Day and, pointing toward the walkway, I really didn't want to be doing those kind of acrobatics at my age. They all laughed. The whole family was there, mom, dad, and three girls.


I then told them that the whole ordeal reminded me of something that had happened about 20 years ago and would they want to know what that was? They were all ears!


I told them about the time that my younger sister had contacted me and asked if I'd like to go on a picnic with her, her two kids, and two of their friends to Laurel Park in West Marietta. I thought that was very nice of her to ask and was glad to accept the invitation. So, we all went together in her Dodge Caravan and had a great time. We shot some basketball, the kids did some skating, and the meal was delicious! As we finished eating, she suggested that we go over to McDonald's and get an ice cream sundae. That was agreed upon unanimously!


As she was sorting things out in the back of her van the kids were all in the grass doing a little horsing around. I asked them if they could do the “Alligator Crawl.” They looked at me with puzzled eyes, so I then demonstrated for them what my Grandpa had taught me when I was just a small boy in Indiana. I laid flat on the ground on my stomach, kept my body straight, pushed up on my hands and toes and commenced to crawl like an alligator.


All four of them got on the ground to try it. But, my nephew, when he would raise up off the ground, his rump would shoot up and he'd create an upside down “V”. I said, “You need to keep your body straight.”


He tried again a time or two with the same result and I finally said, “You're doing it wrong.”


He got a bit frustrated and got up and said to me, “Well, let me see YOU do THIS!” and proceeded to do a cart wheel.


I replied, “Well, let me see YOU do THIS!” and proceeded to do a forward hand spring and landed on my feet.


All four of the kids went, “WOW!!!”


My sister turned around and asked, “What did I miss?”


I said, “This!” and did another hand spring and landed on my feet.


To say they were all impressed would be an understatement.



We got into the van and headed for McDonald's.


Suddenly, my sister started laughing. I looked over at her a bit puzzled.


She then told me, “I know you didn't hear him, but Eddie just told his friend.....


'I've never seen an old man move like that before!'”

[Callandor]

Hahahahahahaha!!!!

[IvanV]

"Old man..." Recently, after a party, a friend made a comment how what that "old guy" did was awesome and me and another friend first assumed that he meant our salsa instructor who's around 40. It eventually turned out that by "old guy" he meant a buddy of mine who's just turned 30. Damn 20 year olds!

BTW, I'm glad you landed so well, I had a similar fall recently (I haven't noticed the step up between the hall and the stairwell) and hit one knee pretty badly. Fortunately, I was saved additional embarrassment as none of the occupants saw.

[blibbax]

I was expecting you to say that the residents of the house were the friends that had come along for your trip all those years ago, and that you'd inspired them to become the great people they are today :P

[mkk]

Ninja knows no fear.

[steves6403]

I used to like you running jumping and doing the croc untill i took an arrow to the knee.Dam that arrow

[IvanV]

For a second, I was this close to reporting your post.

[blibbax]

You didn't even get it right Steve. That said, at least you remembered that there's a "like you" component, unlike 95% of YouTube comment makers.

[steves6403]

Here in australia we do the croc..To do the Alligator would just be silly