Well, last night I took a very interesting tumble. Before I retired, I had planned to take out the trash, since today is trash day. I dutifully grabbed the trash and recycle  bags from the receptacle in the kitchen and out the sliding glass door to the back yard I went.

The trash cans are on the east side of the house and there is a nice, wide cement walkway that leads from the back patio around the side of the house and then straight for about 30-40 feet to a gate into the trash can area. It's dark around that side of the house at night but I never worry about it because as soon as you open the gate, a motion sensor turns on a flood light.

So I'm casually walking with my two trash bags, and before I get to the gate, one foot and then the next catch on something hard and the bags and I go flying. My dirt bike experience taught me that when you go down, it's always better to try and land on your side and arm rather than face or back. In midair, I released the bags and twisted a bit so I landed on my right side with my arm down, in the dirt strip beside the walkway. 

Another lesson from dirt bike riding is pretty obvious. I laid there, not moving, for a couple of minutes while I took inventory. When I surmised that there were not broken bones or other major injuries, I felt the rear end of the lawn mower pressing against me. As I pushed it away in preparation to get myself vertical, I realized that earlier in the evening, my wife had left the lawn mower in the middle of the walkway and a few feet in front of the gate. In the darkness, I walked right into it and went flying. 

Once I made my way back into the house, I found Sherry sitting on the couch in the family room watching TV. I said to her, "You know you're damned lucky I don't have a broken bone or bleeding gash or worse, from tripping over your brilliant positioning of the lawn mower in a walkway in the dark. But I'll say no more about it." She was very apologetic. 

I see patterns. Constantly. One of my favorite movies is A Beautiful Mind. My patterns are a tad different, though. I see one plus one equals two all over the place.  I see future possibilities and consequences that move me to action. For instance, I would never, in a thousand millennia, have left a lawn mower in the middle of a walkway like that because (1) it will be dark soon and (+1) someone could come walking here and trip on the lawn mower, (=2) I will move the lawn mower to avoid that possibility. A simple equation to be sure. A pattern also.

But, for some reason, the vast majority of women with whom I have experience, do not have the capability to add one plus one in that way. They don't see patterns and possibilities, or consequences. I will have to be more careful in the future. Make no mistake, I love this woman with a passion I cannot describe and this error has not diminished that one iota. Is she perfect? No. Am I? No. Still, these patterns look clear as crystal to me. I have to remember that they don't look that way to everyone.

I am sore today and have a rather nasty abrasion on my shin and a smaller one on my right elbow. This is a good reminder of why I stopped riding dirt bikes many years ago.