Tales of Target, the ER, and the Huey P. Long Bridge

As some of you know by now John fell about four feet from a ladder this afternoon while we were putting in ceiling supports for the framed walls at the showroom project. The ladder itself didn't tip, he simply lost his footing coming down from it, and in a fall that seemed to last for five minutes, landed on his shoulder and also hit his head on the cement floor of the office space, knocking him out for a few seconds. Dudley called 911, and within a few minutes John was communicating with Celine and the others there, but we kept him in place because he said his shoulder hurt.

It took about 25 minutes for the EMS to get there because they originally thought Dudley was calling from the other side of the river (Mississippi) and were trying to find him there. But he called them back and they used his cell phone signal to help track where we were. Turns out we were only a couple of miles from the hospital John was taken to.

John suffered a broken clavical, and after getting fitted with a sling was released from the hospital a few hours later. We were all very thankful that it wasn't more serious. He is back at the mission station for the night, and the docs want him to not travel for 24 hours, so we will go ahead and still make our return trip on Saturday. He and Celine are both in good spirits, and are doing fine.

While waiting for John to be seen at the hospital Celine accused him of doing this to get out of planned trip to the Largest Target Any of Us Have Ever Seen we had scheduled for after work today. Seriously, it is a two story Target about the size of a Macy's or large Dillard's-type store. After he was seen by the doc and things were a bit calmed down, and John was waiting for some xrays to be taken Celine suggested that Dudley and I go on to the Target to spend time rather than waiting at the ER with her. We decided that we would and then hopefully John would be ready to come "home" by the time we finished.

Now we know that there are certain church members (specifically those of you in the Changing the Current Sunday School class) who will appreciate the importance of a visit to a Target--especially one of this size--and this was only further reinforced when one of the EMS workers, hearing Celine make that remark, informed us that there was an escelator for shopping carts! Well, that sold us, and with Celine's encouragement and blessing, off we went.

Now to the Huey P. Long Bridge. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a 80-90-year old bridge that spans the Mississippi with both railroad and car/truck traffic. Here's a description. Imagine a child's Erector Set run amuck. It is both the most dramatic display of steel and bolts, and frightning that traffic--let alone trains--are crossing it. Google it, people, and look at this thing. So the showroom project we were working on was right underneath the bridge. As going back to our mission station by any other route, especially during rush hour traffic, would have taken a very, very long time, both yesterday and today we took the HPL bridge. We all feel very brave for this adventure.

We are especially exhausted tonight, and ready for bed. More on Friday!