San Francisco, CA - What a Dumb Thing to Do

My knee is so swollen that I can hardly move it. It hurts so much that even bending it a bit sends a twinge of pain through my leg. Sometimes it takes my breath away. I probably won’t walk right for a week or so. But, you know what, I’m alive, I’m in my own warm cozy RV and life is good.
But, man, did I have an adventure that I don’t want to repeat.

We started out fine heading down to Sausalito, CA for breakfast which was pretty good. We then drove to the marina area and parked when I realized that I had left our camera at the RV (luckily, as it turned out.) We then realized that our key fobs weren’t working right so we played with them a bit and finally decided that they were OK. I put mine into my pocket, picked up my daily journal and iPad (unluckily, as it turned out) and we walked down the dock to view all the very expensive yachts.

Wow, there’s a lot of money here in Sausalito. At the end of the dock, I saw some paddle boarders out in the bay, put my arms out to lean over the wooden wall (that you can see in the picture), stepped forward and plummeted into the water. I was a bit stunned but my old Water Safety Instructor lessons kicked in, I just kept thinking that I would rise to the top and when I did, I looked up to see Gary there. In the meantime I dropped the journal and my iPad as I struggled to recover and stay on top of the water. Gary reached down and grabbed my hand to pull me up. As he held on to me, he reached for the iPad and the journal: the iPad sank like a rock but he got the journal.

When I got out, I was a bit fatigued and laid face down on the dock, just to catch my breath and collect myself. After a few minutes I was up posing for a picture. Note the distance between the dock and the wall - not very wide but that’s where I fell.

Luckily he was there because I couldn’t have gotten up onto the dock there without him. There was nothing to hold on to, no steps. I would have had to ditch the wet heavy sweatshirt I had on and swum around to - well, I don’t know where - this was a marina and it was probably all pretty deep since the sailboats were pretty big and had deep keels.

He finally got me up onto the dock and I laid down just to rest and collect myself. Whew. What an experience.

We laugh about it now - what a dipshit I was - but the space between the end of the dock and that wall is about 2 - 2 1/2’ wide - just wide enough for me to slide down. Could I have hit my head? Oh, yeah. Could I have broken some bones? Oh, yeah. As it was I lost my iPad, my car key fob and I have a huge bruise on my left knee which means I won’t be walking much for a while. I still have my glasses, I still have my RV keys and I still have my billfold and - all the money I had just gotten from the ATM. I was SO lucky. SO, SO, SO lucky.

We immediately came home (about 7 miles), I was shaking all the way both because I was cold from the water and from the shock of the fall and how close I came. Gary had the heat all the way up until even I said I was warm. I took a shower, Gary washed my clothes and we headed out to find a new iPad.

We found one at, of all places, the local Apple Store. But after stops at Staples and Office Max and Best Buy, I could not find a good cover for an iPad mini 4. So, I’ll probably order from Amazon - where I got my last one.

Home finally and now to rest. But, I’m caught now between wanting to walk to keep my knee limber but wanting to sit so it can heal. I think I’ll sit for now. Enough adventure for me. But, believe me, whenever I turn in my chair or stand or move my left leg at all - oof-da. I’ll need an aspirin before I go to bed for sure.

Meanwhile we dried out everything in my pockets and billfold: receipts, cash from the ATM, credit cards, insurance cards, etc. I just hope that those $20’s from the ATM don’t shrink as they dry.

We also put my journal out to dry - looks like I’ll need another one.

Here are the funny little details about not being able to move my left leg. Gary had to help me undress, after my shower he had to dry me from my knees down and then help me dress. Putting socks on someone else is a bit of a challenge but he managed it.

        Meanwhile I’ll be flashing back to ‘what if’s’ for a while.

                What if Gary hadn’t been there?

                What if I had hit my head and blacked out?

                What if Gary had fallen in? I couldn’t have pulled him out. On the other hand, he wouldn’t have been so dumb.

        I was SO, SO, SO lucky.