Piggy-back rides kill
It seems that about once a year my life is punctuated with a particularly unfortunate incident. I got it out of the way early for '06. I was giving a young lady an innocent little piggy-back ride last night, when I managed to stumble over a slightly raised portion of sidewalk. My startled passenger instinctively clutched me tightly as balance gave way - so tightly, in fact, that my arms were pinned, and I was completely unable to extend them in an effort to brace for impact. To put it bluntly, I basically broke her fall with my face. SLAM. A little trip to the ER courtesy of Mr. Roberts led to tetanus shot, several sutures around my right eye, and some surprisingly humorous banter with the medical staff. A little trip to the dentist today led to the discovery that the necessary dental work to restore my teeth will cost me somewhere between $1200-1700 and consist of an always-pleasant root canal followed by three crowns. Goodbye tax return. I will be rocking the "razor-toothed cyclops" look for a bit here, but should be good as new sometime next week. If you're not queasy and you want a good laugh, call me up and come visit me -- I'll be in hermit mode out in the U-District. Following my recovery I will post some pictures of my beaten face. Later.