Not time yet
We all wonder what it must be like to die. I caught a bit of a taste yesterday.
I took Gai and Miaw, a young couple in our program, along with Bpop and Bpon, two single guys who have been spending with us, to do a small roofing project at Miaw's grandmother's house in the Lopburi province. We were mainly going to replace a lean-to tin roof in front of the house, but the main roof, made from used bituminous tiles, also had some unplugged holes.
Bpop and Bpon were building framing for the lean-to, so I got the caulk gun out to patch the holes in the main roof.
"Can I walk on that?" I asked Bpop.
"How much to you weigh?"
"About 65 kilograms." Ok, that was a bit light. I actually hang right at about 67kg, or 147lbs.
"Yeah it will hold."
"Ok." So up I went.
I tread lightly, trying to stay on the seams, and patched some holes. No problems. I asked Miaw to help spot holes from below. She tapped on a spot towards the back of the house. I found the spot, and just as I bent down to apply some silicone, gravity had its way, and the brittle tile caved in. About seven tenths of a second later, the time it takes to fall about 8 feet, I was lying on my side on the linoleum/concrete floor below.
The next 5 seconds or so, or maybe 10, I don't know, were a few of the weirdest I've experienced. Sort of surreal, outside of reality. In a fright situation like that, the neurons fire like crazy, and you really can't think. But then you do think, really fast. I suppose it's what people mean when they say "My life flashed before my eyes." That really didn't happen--I just lay there not moving while my brain frantically tried to assess the damage and figure out what to do next. I felt like the wind was knocked out of me, so I moaned, panic-like, trying to breathe. I wondered if I had broken bones. I wondered if I would be able to get up--ever again. I wondered what everyone must be thinking.
I discovered that I could breathe, and a little later tried to move. There was some pain, but not intolerable. Sitting up slowly, I looked up at the roof, and said, "I see I've made a new hole."
As it turned out, it wasn't so bad. I landed pretty flat on my side, so the impact was distributed along the length of my body. The main sore point is the around the illium, that big plate on both sides of the pelvis. Ribs and neck are also sore. My mouth apparently caught a piece of roofing on the way down, so I now have 2 small stitches closing up a small hole in my lip. Had I been on a higher part of the roof, or over something else like the glass cabinet used for storing dishes, well, can you say "disastrous"? I can walk, but slowly. I think I'll stay home tomorrow.
Sam, 11, had just finished reading Circles of Seven, a Christian fantasy book in which the main characters must take risks and sacrifice themselves for their mission. Seeing me hobble around the house, he remarked to Judy, in all seriousness, "I am afraid this ministry is going to kill my father." Poor guy.
The ER bill came to about $8.45. Oh, and the hole I made was easily fixed with some spare tiles that were lying around.
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