I had a dream

It was a frosty cold morning on January 17th. It was Martin Luther King Day and the beginning of a promising new century. I jumped into the year 2000 with gusto.

Things were moving along with the building of my house. It had been six long years already. The land was paid for, and the shell of the house was finished and water tight. I was still living in my little trailer that I had found  abandoned on a remote piece of property so long ago. When I discovered it, I was smart enough to have left a note on it asking if  whoever owned it would consider selling it. Sure enough, two months later I received a call from a man who was checking on his property and said he would sell me his trailer. I met the man on a rainy day in March in 1994. The trailer was small, the back window was broken out, and it was generally a mess but was a classic 1968 Lakewood .It had the  little pink Princess refrigerator and the turquoise propane stove and oven. The walls were covered in a beautiful hardwood paneling. At the time, I didn't realize what a treasure it was and how long I would be stuck living in it.  He wanted three hundred dollars for it . I offered him one hundred fifty and told him that I had no way to get it to my property. Being a nice sort of fella, he agreed to my amount and offered to tow it to my property.

I was so excited! My first home! I immediately set to work: repairing  the window, ripping out the toilet, tearing out the bed area and creating a  little one bedroom suite with a little closet. I had a desk, a kitchen, bed and a closet all in 14 feet of horizontal space! Things were looking up. I built the most amazing outhouse.  I eventually had power and phone service brought in and created a class B water system with my neighbor for water.  I created a bathtub out of a stock trough that I love and still use today. I survived without hot running water for 6 years.  This tub was the only way I had to get clean, and being a painting contractor at the time, the evening bath became a very important ritual. I would get home from work around 5:00 pm; rinse the tub out from the night before; fill it with cold water from the hose and plug the heater  into 220 watts of delicious power.The tub uses a hot water heater element to heat it up and takes about three hours to bring it to boiling. Two hundred and fifty gallons of sheer bliss! This gave me time to walk my dog, work on the house and tackle the farm chores that needed doing. Of course, I would have to clean my paint gear, load any additional work- related items, place orders,  line up the next job and the evening paper work before passing out. Eating...well, the animals came first and I was living on peanut butter and homemade blackberry jelly sandwiches at that time.

This trailer, even though it afforded me a free living environment started to become a real drag after a couple of years. I tried to keep a positive attitude  because after all it was allowing me a way to my dream, and I did not want to spend money on temporary comforts. My situation started becoming a nightmare when I woke up to the sound of a light thump on my pillow . I arose with a start and quickly reached for the light switch that was positioned strategically  by my hand . I found myself face to face with the almighty Queen Yellow Jacket looking rather dazed and confused. Arrg! I flew out of bed half crazed still high on paint from work and not sure if I was having a night mare or if this was reality. Unfortunately, it was reality. Then the insects started moving into my domain. I had carpenter ants and all the Queen's children after awhile. They were amazing at finding trails right into the heart of my temporary home. Coming out at night was their favorite thing to do, so sleeping became a necessary burden for me.

I was grateful for all the trailer had given me but I was looking forward to a time when I would  be free of this type of living. My house was to a point where it was watertight and had power and water!  864 sq. feet of space. I was so excited that I decided to put an antenna up so that I could maybe catch some FREE TV. Maybe then I would find the time to relax.

It was very cold that January morning. I still remember the sun shining on the other side of the house. I was standing in the shade on the north side of the house getting ready to install the largest  antenna made that I had equipped with an eight pound rotor motor and a 10 foot pole.(Nothing but the best for my house!) I was going to mount it on a bracket 24 feet up on the ridge of my house. I installed all of the necessary cross bars, saddles and supports.  I was incredibly fit and had been doing martial arts so this was going to be a piece of cake. I finished my cup of coffee. I was going to re-position the ladder so that it was sitting on the edge of the roof rather than the side of the house but I didn't. This turned out to be the biggest mistake of my house-building life.

I grabbed the pole with the huge antenna on it and started to slide it up the ladder. Up I went until I made it to the roof.As I ran out of ladder, I was standing with my feet and knees hooked into the ladder slightly holding  me steady. I hefted the antenna up and started raising the pole so I could set the end into the saddle. Pulling up ten feet of pole is a lot of length and allowed for some time to think.  Right then I had a thought: "what if this thing starts to tip backwards?" As if thoughts create action, the weight of the antenna started to pull me backwards and before I knew it, I was at a 45 degree angle to the ladder. I quickly let go of the antenna and had to make a split second decision as to what to do. I had no ladder to reach for so  I decided to push off the ladder with all my might. Flying through the air was very liberating. I felt no fear. I was having flashbacks of all of the Bruce Lee, Korean Kung Fu and Jackie Chan movies I had watched as a child, thinking, as I flew, " now how would they land?" Well, I am glad I had no fear because the reality was that I hit the ground incredibly hard. I did land on my feet, still spinning. My legs gave out from the force, and my butt  hit the ground so hard that it gave me a concussion. I popped back up to my feet and then fell over. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move I just laid there with my eyes wide open watching the insects walk through the grass. My dog Lucky, saw the whole thing. He came running over and started to lick my face hoping that I would get up. This was one of those moments in life when it really tests what you are made of. I could have chosen to stay where I was and go into shock and end it all peacefully-OR-I could gather myself together and decide what the next course of action would be. I am glad I chose the latter. I had previously been a fire fighter EMT and worked in the ER for five years. I knew what I had to do. I knew I was starting to go into shock from the cold and the pain but I needed to assess the damage. I was breathing; I could wiggle my toes and fingers.  I just needed to get into the house and get warm. It took all of my will to roll over on my side then slowly get to my knees and try to stand. I knew immediately that several things were broken. My back, my left ankle and my right foot.  I hobbled into the house and grabbed the phone on my way up the stairs to my makeshift bed a ridge rest and a sleeping bag.

My first call was to my girl friend who lived about 12 miles away. I asked her if she would be willing to drive me to the hospital . She had two kids , had homework to do  and said that I should call and ambulance. In no way did I want to be strapped to a back board all the way to the hospital which was 40 miles from my house, so my second call was to my mom. She lived about 15 miles away and said she would come to get me.

My girlfriend did call the ER to let them know I was coming. It just happened to be the ER where I had worked previously The person to get me out of the car was the guy I trained and it was my old shift so all of my old coworkers were there to give me support. It is funny how life works sometimes.

After the x-rays I was given a shot for the pain and sent home with a broken back, a crushed left ankle and a broken right heel.

It has been many years since that pivotal moment in my life. I could have surrendered to circumstance. Instead I heard the words of Martin Luther King: " I have a dream."  I believe dreams are the blueprints of your soul. Never let go of yours.