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#99 - When the horse throws you; get back on. (Watt Thoughts)
I have always heard the saying that "when the horse throws you, get back on". What is the reason for the saying? If you don't get back on the horse, your fears will grow of how bad the horse will hurt you next time you get thrown. You will blow those fears out of proportion and forever never be able to that item (ride the horse) again.
It is my personal belief that we ought to remember this saying on our life and not let ourselves be inhibited buy some accident. If we did not follow this belief we would all be crawling around as the first time we tried to stand up and fell we would never try again.
Now where am I going with this little story? It is a story about 11 months old and an expense of close to $100,000 and a helicopter ride. Last December 13 (yes it was a Friday) evening I was putting up the Christmas lights on my house and the ladder slide out from me. I was hurt badly and took a helicopter ride to Augusta where they put me back together with God's guidance and the prayers of many and good surgeons (a future article will give you a diary of this accident).
Now it is November and the statement by many throughout the year has been "You are not going to put up lights again or get on a ladder again." It just would not be me to not do stuff on a ladder and some parts of where my career has headed require me on a ladder. Can you imagine me pulling network wires through the ceiling not on a ladder. No neither can I, and I am not a comic book hero, so can't fly (see December 13, 2002 for evidence).
I have pulled wire this year, gone parasailing, top of water tower in Nassau, climbed wall on cruise (of course on the previous three I wonder if my employer is trying to get rid of me as the vice president convinced me to parasail, the director of instruction climbed wall with me on top of ship, and the president's wife convinced me I could go to top of water tower ) ), patched my workshop roof, and painted the workshop roof. I must admit in all of this I have long had a fear of heights; it took me forever around 1970 to climb to top of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. You should have seen me trying to ride glass elevators in Atlanta in the 80's, but the Tech crew led me many places. I have noticed though since the fall, that I don't seem to have as much fear of heights, but there is some still there. Of course I am certified, but I can find in none of the certificates I have that I am certified crazy or sane.
On November 11, Veterans Day, I decided Christmas is approaching. I am proud to announce the only close to $100,000 light display that I am aware of in Southeast Georgia is now operational on my house. It is a display that was also 11 months in the making. I personally hung the lights and they work. I did have my neighbor keep an eye on me and he suggested a better way to do the ladder. I will admit only one being a little leery of going up ladder and that was when in same place it slide last year.
So the ladder slide and threw me and I am proud that I have successfully gotten back on the ladder and did the job. It would have been easy to say I will never go back on a ladder after last December, but I knew I had to do it. Don't let the bad things that may happen to you get you down. Get back up and confront them. Without the fall the lights would look the same at my house, but they now have extra special meaning. Come by and see the light display that cost almost $100,000 and was 11 months in the making.
Keep doing better and reaching new heights
Dwight
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