This evening after supper Tom stepped outside onto the deck. It had been misting all day and the artifical wood (Trex) of the deck was wet, maybe somewhat slimy. It's been an odd winter.

Anyway, he slipped. The important thing here is he slipped ON the deck not OFF the deck.

He was just away from the door to the house. I'd heard a noise and was going to investigate when I heard a pounding noise, yelled, "I'm coming!" and ran down the stairs. (Neat trick as my knee has been giving me grief the past couple days.)

He had the door open and had pounded on the sheetrocked wall to get my attention.

He couldn't right himself, and thought he may have done something to his ankle. So I brought over his heavy antique wood office chair on casters to see if he could pull himself upright. No go.

I called 911.

First a Nottingham police officer and then the EMTs arrived.

They got him into a chair without stressing his ankle and, eventually, loaded into the ambulance to take him to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover. After posting at Facebook and calling my boss (I'm scheduled to work noon to 8 on Thursday), I followed him.

He was somewhat settled in when I got there -- Dr. Trotzky said he'd dislocated the right ankle. Usually in these cases, there needs to be surgery soon after to repair minor problems associated with the dislocation. The last time I talked to him was just before Sue from X-Ray dragged him off for a photo shoot.

After waiting a couple more hours, I encountered the nurses' station. Kelly was off looking for the hospitalist who would admit him and get him settled in a room. It was unclear as to whether a room was available, in which case it wasn't, they'd get him comfortable in the backwater of the ER where he was.

I left at 11 pm, after settling his new insurance cards with the ER admitters, and came home to post at Facebook, send an email to a friend, and call my sister before trying to sleep.

A craving for a taste brought me again downstairs, so here's this post.

This shouldn't be a major setback, but it does mean I have to clean out the living room and find room for him on the couch as I don't expect he'll be able to negotiate the steps for awhile. And I'll have to do basically everything for awhile until he can do his share.

It also means he'll be missing the Press Room evening St. Patrick's celebration for the second time since the first in 1978. And that means Bob Frost, who has only missed one (with the Angel Band) will beat his record. Tom and Bob are planning to hand off the evening entertainment after this year -- hopefully to someone in the Press Room family.

I don't know what pains Tom more...

Whatever, it's going to be a major change, and some major physical work for Tom whom I don't think has broken any bones before. I'm not going to second guess what God has planned...just that it will be different and will probably work out better than we speculate.

Please send some good thoughts in this direction.

Linn