Okay, so this is the second blahg in the past month featuring a topless me. 
This wasn’t intentional but if you had read my last blahg, BRIDGE CITY AGAIN, PIRATES, AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CANADA! , you will recall that I said I suffered an injury during the writing of that blahg. So therefore, this blahg will be the explanation to that blahg and will also continue with something else that I mentioned last time. Make sure you’re wearing your helmet because it’s a bumpy ride.
In my last blahg I talked about being on holidays. That’s why last month’s blahg pictured a topless picture of me at the beach. 
I was writing last month’s blahg when I decided to take a break and ride my daughter Abbie’s scooter around Big Island which is a couple kilometers from my home. At left is a picture of what the scooter looked like when it was new. That’s not a photo of my own but one I found on the Internet. Somewhere I have a picture of Abbie sitting on it after she won it. Yes, she won it. She bought a raffle ticket at a school event and won the scooter about two years ago. Unfortunately both my son and I have had mishaps on the scooter so it doesn’t look so new anymore.
Getting back to the joy-ride and eventual accident, I left last month’s blahg unfinished on Friday September 15th and took that fateful ride. I’ve ridden the scooter around Big Island many times before and had actually taken the scooter for a ride the day before up another long road looking for a lost hubcap off my wife’s car. I didn’t find it but I also didn’t wipe out that day. On the Friday, I drove across the causeway to get on the island and decided to take the long counter-clockwise ride around the island that I have before. I was whizzing along at around 60 kilometers an hour and slowed down to take a left turn onto a side road to start the loop back. I was probably only going about 20 or 25 when I wiped out. All I can figure was that the side road was comprised of loose gravel and that was my undoing.
Let me be clear that I was wearing a motorcycle helmet but because it was unseasonably warm, I was also wearing a t-shirt and shorts. 
After taking the turn onto the side road, I just remember lying on the road. I don’t think I was unconscious at any point but I sure was dizzy. Without the helmet I think I might have had a serious head injury. As it was, I was dizzy for about 10 minutes and my left elbow really hurt, as did my left lower leg and my right chest. I knew I was bleeding and after my head was clear I decided I better get moving and seek medical treatment. It didn’t occur to me then that I could have called an ambulance because I had my cell-phone with me. But then again, the scooter (and you can see the damage to the left side in the picture above…click for larger) would not have been able to fit in the ambulance.
I decided that instead of driving home, I should probably just drive to my wife’s school because my vehicle was in the garage that day and I thought my injuries probably would require more treatment than what I had at home in the medicine cabinet. My wife’s school, and she’s a teacher if I haven’t mentioned it before, was just across the road from the causeway that I drove over to get onto Big Island. It wasn’t a very long ride but I was in enough pain with my left leg and elbow that every bump in the road made it that much worse. I parked the scooter outside the school and went into the office. I don’t know if the secretary recognized me as my wife’s husband but I quickly explained who I was and that I probably should go to the hospital. I was thinking my wife could drive me in her car but the secretary quickly called an ambulance and the Principal attempted to clean my wounds. It was probably about 15 minutes before the ambulance came and by that time my wife had been summoned to the office. She was a little surprised but she quickly understood I had been riding the scooter and then wasn’t so surprised. So now I can joke that it’s her fault because she didn’t tell me not to ride the scooter. The police also showed up to make sure I was alright and that I hadn’t been drinking at that I had been wearing a helmet. Yes to the helmet and no to the drink. I don’t drink but at that point I was thinking I could use one to dull the pain.
A short ambulance ride later and I was at the hospital in Picton. It’s a nice hospital in a small town and I quickly received attention from the nurses and the Doctor. That’s where the half naked picture of me from above was taken. 
The picture to the right is of my injured left elbow. It was a nasty scrape and some gouging that is still healing. I’ll probably have a nice souvenir scar. The picture on the left is of my scraped up leg.
They did x-rays on my elbow and chest. It turned out the chest pain was not cracked or broken ribs but probably pulled chest muscles from having the scooter pull me and ride on top of me for a while. The x-rays did reveal a slight fracture in my left elbow. I had to wear a sling for about ten days and then visit the fracture clinic at the Belleville hospital. I survived to tell the tale and will have that souvenir scar. That ten days with the sling was a little rough and the first couple of days and nights after the accident were painful but I took nothing more than Advil and put Polysporin on my scraped leg and elbow. The scooter remained locked up at my wife’s school until she walked it home about a week later. She doesn’t ride scooters and she certainly wasn’t going to let me near it again for a while.
As I said, I had to wear the sling for ten days and of course my 55th Birthday fell during that time. I’ve had worse Birthday’s but having your arm in a sling and having your wife have to help you dress, doesn’t rank among my favorites. It was also the first Birthday where none of my children were home to enjoy it with me. They did video chat with me later and my son even showed me my present…something that will link back to last month’s blahg.
Remember last month and all that jazz? 
Specifically recall how I detailed about “Pirates, Buccaneers And All That Jazz” by The Pat Riccio Quartet. I posted a few of the tracks and mentioned another album by the Quartet. Before talking about that other album I have to mention something else about the Pirates album. I don’t think that’s the original title and cover. 
I came across the same tracks on a different album called “The Basic Sounds Of The Pat Riccio Quartet ” on the Quality label in 1959. The quartet in 1959 featured the following members:
-
- Baritone Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Flute – Pat Riccio
- Bass – Harold Holmes
- Drums – Billy McCant
- Piano – Herbie Helbig
You can get a glimpse of the back of that 1959 album by clicking for a larger view of the picture at the right. 
I believe the “Pirates” album is a reissue of the “The Basic Sounds Of The Pat Riccio Quartet”. Of course, there is that other Quartet album that I mentioned that time and I will now link to my Birthday.
In the last blahg, I mentioned that second album, called “The Pat Riccio Quartet Featuring Teddy Wilson” put out by Canadian Talent Library in 1966. 
I was able to find a listing for the album as being in stock at a used record store in Toronto. I emailed my son that it would make a great Birthday present and so he hiked over to the store and picked it up. What a good son.
Here’s one of the tracks from that album, “Just One Of Those Things”:
Yes, I suppose the scooter accident was just one of those things. So, too is writing a blahg about it. 
I want you to have a better look at the back cover of this new album. Click on the picture on the right for a larger image. By the way the composition of the quartet is different on this album:
-
- Saxophone – Pat Riccio
- Bass – Doug Wilson
- Drums – Ed Thigpen
- Piano – Teddy Wilson
I’ll close with one more track from this great album. It’s what I wish I had done instead of take that scooter ride. In hindsight maybe I should have convinced myself to “Take The A Train”.