One year yesterday. Woo-Hoo! I’m still improving everyday. It’s only a matter of time before I’m climbing trees and playing hockey and doing hundreds of other things that I love to do. This place or planet or universe or dimension or whatever is magical. Appreciate every moment. Let every breath completely fill your lungs. Be in touch with yourself and know that you and everything else are all made up of the same stardust here in this physical place. Oh yeah…and listen to Phish. Lots of Phish. Surrender to the flow.
^Amen Brah!I just read this post this afternoon. I started reading it thinking this happened just recently,but realized quickly it happened a year ago.
Anyway glad to hear you’re doing better and have positive vibrations.
Keep em coming
good luck with all of this Ghost! I hope you get a full recovery ASAP…
stay strong bro
Four years. The double vision and the dizziness are still constant. I get social security benefits and Medicare. (I’m certainly not helping this whole health care issue.) It’s not enough money for anyone. Jamie is carrying the load while I figure my shit out. (She has been incredible.) I’ve been taking some college classes to help me decide what the hell I’m going to do. I’m still not sure. I’m applying for some graduate programs.
Ah, rats.
But I am alive. And it all could be much, much worse.
And Phish is back. Did you hear?
wow, i just read this whole thread. it actually scared me a little. i’m an electrician and climb ladders everyday to hang light fixtures and stuff. mostly just four and six foot ladders but sometimes we have to use 10,12, and 16 footers for higher ceilings. and for the flood lights outside we have to use a 40 ft extention ladder on the three story houses. i’ll definitely be more aware of what i’m doing next time i think about standing too high up on one.
hope you continue to get better.
Be careful out there you crazy bastards.
All the best, Eli!
Here’s to hoping there are no more ladder related injuries on the pa.
I have an old ladder at home. My electrician called it “The Widowmaker” when he first laid eyes on it.
Thanks for relating your experiences, Ghost. Even for those of us who don’t habitually stand on ladders, it’s a pretty eye-opening account. I really hope you continue to get better. Don’t worry too much about finding your “direction” in life… most of us are just making it up as we go along anyway. Some call it slackingl; Phish does the same thing and they call it improvisation. I like their word better. 
Five years.
Still no new job/career.
No school for now. Just a stay-at-home-dad.
Same double vision and dizziness. Woefully out of shape and a little too doughy.
Don’t know what to think about being back in Texas.
But Phish in Austin next month. Score.
The OKP still kicks ass.
I can’t believe you still experience symptoms from that fall. Nothing can be done about that?
I have another Phish friend who is a stay-at-home dad, and he has a license to practise law, taboot. But his wife, who is an international tax attorney making close to a half mil a year, and he agreed that he should raise the kids.
Nine years
Keeps getting further in the past, but always right there on my mind. I see the giant scar across my head everytime I look in the mirror. I feel the dents in my skull when I touch my head. Constant double vision is something that I don’t think will ever become the accepted norm. It will always bother me. Same with the dizziness. And, Fone, nothing can be done about it.
But to still be breathing the air is a wonderful thing. To be capable of caring for myself, and others, it a very appreciated thing. My personal reference for what is shitty was definitely reset far into the realm of shittiness. Life is good. Stuff isn’t really that bad.
And the OKP is the best. I don’t have a lot of time these days for coming around here, but, when I do, it’s awesome just like it always was.
Full moon today too. It’s been a good day.
Holy moley, nine years!
Glad you is still around, good sir.
and more, and more, and more 6 months!
Wow, I had forgotten about this whole story. Glad to see Ghost is still positive, but then again, you kinda have to be. Hope to see you around more, buddy.
Medical Marijuana?
So, yeah, falling off a ladder. Fuck. Today is 10 years to the day. For years I just felt a sense of loss for the me and the life that came before. Now I feel sad that I’m moving on and forgetting that me and that life. Whatever. Can’t go back. Can’t stand still.
::digs out Garcia to listen to The Wheel::
I graduated from West Texas A&M University in December 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in Fire Safety and Protection. I wanted to be a firefighter. I had taken an EMT class, but I never got certified. When I started looking for a job, everyone else wanted to be a firefighter after 9/11. I took 3 fire department tests in Northern Illinois around 2002. I did well on the tests, but lots of other people did too. I was way down the list. I moved to Texas at the end of 2003. I took the test for the Denton Fire Department early in 2005. Then the Fort Worth Fire Department announced a test. I had always thought that I would work in a smaller, suburban fire department. Applying and taking the test seemed like more of a fun thing to do. I wasn’t getting my hopes up because there were lots of other people taking the test also. I got my info in the mail:
The test was in a huge room. On the way in we drew random numbers out of a box. Those numbers, along with our test scores, would determine our place on the hiring list.
Someone called me the next week to tell me that I was 27 on the list. (I was told that they were going to hire 32 people from the list.) I got this in the mail shortly after:
So I was surprised, excited, nervous, thrilled, and much more. It was still very early in the hiring process, but I had gotten over that testing/random number wall. I felt like I could just keep trying hard and doing my best and the plan would come together.
There was a practice session for the physical ability test. I did well on that.
I had this and I was just waiting to complete the next step
On September 8 I fell off a ladder at work as a carpenter. I landed on my head a wooden fence first. It left dents in my skull and tore my scalp open from ear to ear over the top of my head. Then I landed on my head on the concrete.
The Fort Worth Fire Department was notified.
And that’s where my firefighter dream ends. It still flickers as a forgotten memory in my smashed head.
::plays sad trombone sound on imaginary trombone::
I apologize for keeping this self-absorbed thread going. Treat it as a cautionary tale about not falling off ladders and becoming a loon. I had just joined the OKP in June 2005. When I was spending a lot of time by myself at the end of 2005 and in 2006, the OKP was a big part of it. I was looking back on my life to get an idea of who I was and what I was worth and what anything meant. Threads about Hawaii and skateboarding and Calvin and Hobbes (EDIT: someone else started that thread.) and The Far Side and whatever other crazy shit I thought about were just me sharing my favorite things with all of you. (I also had lots of time to listen to Phish. I had never downloaded a show before. I was blown away by all of the Phish music right there for anyone and everyone. I listened to 100s of shows. It was definitely a step up for me in Phish listening and Phish knowledge.)
So thanks everyone for being awesome and coming around here too.
Don’t stop bumping this thread
… Just stop bumping your head?
I think it’s an awesome story of survival and of life and loss, no apology necessary mang.
Love you, good sir.
