Well now...

[Robin Blankenship]

Dear Newton,

Very distressing indeed to read of your calamity. We who depend on our
health and our bodies to work are oh so vulnerable to the evils and
stupidities of others. I send my best wishes and prayers for a speedy and
complete recovery. And, for the services of an excellent and appropriately
hard-nosed attorney.

All the best,
Robin Blankenship

----- Original Message -----
From: Newton Hunt <nhunt@jagat.com>
To: <Pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 1:58 PM
Subject: Well now...


> Dear Friends,
>
> I have done it again, gotten myself into a nice pickle.
>
> Yesterday, Saturday, a little after 2:00 I was walking home,
> hurrying because I needed to visit the boy's room, when a
> car whipped around making a left hand turn and preceded to
> break my left leg and bruise my tailbone and small of my
> back.
>
> I was taken to the hospital by our local volunteer EMS crew
> and I want to tell you that a ride in a ambulance is to
> fun.  I HATE not being able to see where I am going and have
> no control over my body, strapped in and all.  Those neck
> braces _work_, you can only see where you balls roll.
>
> X-rays showed a crack in the bone behind the tibia (forget
> the name right now).  They put a brace on my leg and told me
> not to put any pressure one it.  Yeah right!
>
> I have Fibromyalgia and have lost enough upper torso
> strength that I can no longer lift my own weight to use
> crutches easily so they gave me a walker.  I have a hard
> time with that as well.
>
> So here I am, bed bound, alone, with an occasional friend to
> drop by and give me a few scraps of food and fetch and carry
> for me.  Nothing to do but sleep, take drugs, read and play
> with my laptop.  I don't have a phone line in here so
> somehow I have to get to the office to send this and get the
> rest of the messages.  Monday I will try to find a source of
> a daily helping hand, I hope.  It will be about three or
> four days before I can regain good control of my body to be
> able to get around well enough to cook for myself,
> hopefully.
>
> So, this guy hits me, a little after 2:00 pm on a beautiful
> day while I was in the cross walk and had the light with
> me.  As far as I am concerned, no excuse and I think my
> lawyer is likely to take a dim view of this behavior as
> well.  And I am a blind man as well.  Wonder what my lawyer
> will make of that?
>
> I am so grateful I am alive and no more injured than I am
> but this comes at a real inconvenient time.  Hmm, what
> accident does?  I have to cancel my class tomorrow, cancel a
> repair on Tuesday, not hang the ceiling fan, not work on the
> piano, not paint the bedroom walls and not do other
> interesting things.
>
> I had real quick action because the police, fire and EMS
> stations are just three blocks down the street from where I
> was lying in the street telling the driver who asked, "Are
> you ok?:  I said, "no I'm not"  he called 911 on his cell
> phone since I could not find mine.
>
> Six and a half hours later I am at home in bed with a
> wonderful bowl of Minestrone my former wife brought with her
> when she picked me up at the hospital.
>
> They do not feed you in the ER and they wait forever before
> giving you any pain medication.
>
> Lesson, don't walk cross the street and don't go to the ER
> if you do.
>
> You can get hit, starved, tortured, ignored and they'll take
> your pants off.
>
> Hope everyone else has a good week.
>
> Newton (hobbled and caged)