Every year, our family members meet in Ohio to attend an Ohio State University football game. We have been doing this for years, and it has become a family tradition where we all have fun supporting our Buckeyes.
For those unfamiliar with the Buckeyes, their arch-enemy and the game of the year has always been OSU vs Xichigan game. Let me explain the “X” thing. If you go to the OSU campus and many other places in Columbus, Ohio, you will notice anything with an “M” in the title of buildings and other items has the “M” x’ed out or taped over. Why?
“Ohio State is using tape to cross out the letter “M” around its campus ahead of “The Game,” WCPO reports.
This includes billboards, plaques and buildings.
It’s a tradition to cover the letter and helps students get in the spirit of the rivalry, according to WCPO.
The rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan (The Team Up North) originated in 1897.”
Now for the juicy facts of this story. As any family does, we visited sites with 12 adults and children of various ages. We decided to stop by a farm Diary site selling ice cream with stuff for the kids to do - slides, animals, and much more. The key word is kids, as you’ll see.
A trio of us guys go on our own, while others go for ice cream and other fun stuff. We walk around looking at sites on this farm and see animals, playgrounds for kids, and batting cages with slow—to—fast softball and baseball pitching machines. As we are on our own, we begin to watch those using the batting cages.
My son and son-in-law started talking smack as if they were kids, thinking they could still play the game. So, they decided to try it out. Of course, they picked the next-to-fastest baseball pitching machine to prove their prowess. These two are 40ish and up, with me turning 70 this year. Let the games begin.
For some reason, my feeble brain tells me I should try this and show up these punks that I love. So when they are done, I say, "Let me try a round." What could possibly happen except for me not hitting one pitch out of 15? Watch the following short video to see my attempt at embarrassing the young.
Ok, if you can stop laughing, I’ll explain the rest of the story. I think this can’t be that hard as I get into the cage. To get my bearings, I let the first pitch go by to prepare for the second pitch, and I got lucky enough to hit one or two balls. By hit, I mean I touched the ball, and that is about it until I tell myself I got the hang of this, and I prepare to knock the next ball out of the cage. My eyes widened as I saw the next ball coming down the shute. I’m telling myself, this is my time for glory, and I give my best swing as hard as I can, but I miss the ball and do a twirly to the ground.
I’m on the ground with the balls still coming, fast. My boys yell, "Don’t get up," multiple times to save me from getting hit by a fastball. At 70, I don’t know how that would go and didn’t wish to find out. I get my bearings and let a ball or two go by as I slowly get up from the opposite side of the plate from where I started. I return to the right side of the plate and hit a few more balls before I finish. When I say hit, I mean tip the ball while the boys roll on the floor, laughing at me.
Ok, everyone had a good laugh, me included. As we started walking around a bit, someone noticed blood on my right arm elbow from falling on the concrete. I didn’t notice it because it didn’t hurt. But boy, my right thumb hurt from the fall to the ground. My thumb starts pounding similar to the after effects of hitting your thumb with a hammer.
In addition, it slowly starts getting purple as the remainder of the family returns, and the women, my wife, daughter, sister and sister-in-law yell at me for doing something stupid. Yep, I agree, but I did have fun and probably would try it again if they were not around.
The following photos are from my fall:
There was no major injury, and I’ll survive, but let me tell you the rest of the story.
I never understood how dependent one is on the thumb on your primary hand. As my thumb turned purple, it also turned hard to the touch. Anything whatsoever that touched my thumb hours after the fall was very painful. So, I try not to use it in any way until it heals. Not so. Your thumb is critical to many functions one needs to perform. Let me tell you some functions impacted by the use of a thumb:
I had to open a bottle of water with my left hand, which was less functional than my right.
I could not button my blue jeans, and using my left hand was awkward and difficult.
I could not remove my wallet from my back pocket without using my forefinger and middle finger. This process was not fast, given that I could not apply the same pressure as doing it normally.
Once I took my wallet out of my pocket, I could not remove my credit card from the tight slot without much effort. Why? It requires pressure from the thumb and forefinger, and using the forefinger and middle finger did not work. I eventually did remove it from the wallet.
Eating snacks and other stuff was brutal.
Pulling my pants zipper up and down to pee was an issue, but luckily, I could do it with effort using my forefinger and middle finger, although it took longer than usual. The following steps to complete my pee I won’t go into so I don’t have to classify this article as NSFW.
Try opening a Tupperware-like container with your opposite hand. Not as easy.
Finally, you have no clue how often your thumb gets bumped during a typical day until every bump causes excruciating pain. It happens a lot more than a couple of times. Hopefully, my thumb will heal quickly, but I doubt it because as you get older, you don’t rebound as quickly
Did I learn my lesson? No, I am not one to sit idly by, and sometimes I feel younger than I am. For example, my granddaughter got me to try to jump rope a year or two ago. It looked easy, and I was good at it in my younger days. So, I give it a try, jump once over the rope, lose my balance and fall flat on my ass. I guess I will never learn, but I am providing my family with stories to tell for many generations. Thanks for reading.
tks, how have you been. Time is flying by so fast. I have been blogging for about nine years now and started a few articles and trying to write a short book but not sure if I will ever finish it. Hope all is well with you and family.
I had no idea you were such a great writer! I loved this!