July 4th was one one day I will NOT forget any time soon. Let me tell you a story...
After spending some time at my mother's house with some family friends, I decided to go to an old friends house for some Holiday fun. When I arrived the water balloon throwing already started. Naturally, I jumped right in. By the way, water balloons are freaking hard to tie. Maybe I just don't the technique down. Practice, practice, practice... And these water balloons were small enough that when they hit you, they didn't bust. So, you might as well have had someone come up and slap you right in the face, because that's what it felt like.
Anywho, the guys decided that it was time to go for some good ole' county 4-wheelin'. There were 4 of these rides, so to get them we needed 4 guys. 3 of us hopped on the tailgate of the hosts' pickup. The truck was full of pallets. So, the only room for us to ride was the tailgate. THAT will play an important part of this story.
The 3 of us were set to go. So we thought.... The driver backed up pretty close to a tree. Everyone was thinking, "Oh, was a goofball," or something generic like that. Then he took off down the dirt road. He MUST have forgotten the rules of physics, because when you take off pretty quickly, you must compensate for that forward motion. Again, I was on the tailgate and there were wooden pallets in the bed of the truck. There was nowhere for me to lean. At this point I knew I was in trouble. I was about to "hit the ground runnin'", so to speak. So, I thought I could "Superman" it by running backwards with hopes to stay upright. Let's just say that didn't work. As soon as my feet touched the road, I fell back with my head taking most of the impact. I slid for who knows how far. It wasn't very far because I guesstimate we were only going about 15-20 mph at the time I fell out. But, fast enough to generally suck.
As soon I stopped sliding I got up in a daze. There was dust all around. I knew that whatever happened probably wasn't good. My head hurt, so I took my left hand and touched my hand. The wife of the driver rushed over and said, "Oh my God, you're bleeding." Then I looked at my hand and there was blood all over it. Again, not good. So, she took my inside her house and helped me take care of my wound.
4 hours later, the blood finally stopped. I look back on all of that and I consider myself extremely lucky. Considering what happened, I came out as good as you possibly could. There weren't but a few scratches (not very deep). I didn't have a concussion, which is what I was most afraid of. The driver appologized time after time, which he didn't really need to. I knew he didn't do it on purpose. I think it scared everybody who saw it. Well, except the other two guys on the tailgate. The told me that they had a good laugh, until they knew I wasn't exactly "peachy". Oh well, I can't say I wouldn't have done the same.
4 days later there are still some sore spots. But considering what could have happened, I am very thankful.
Until next time, vaya con Dios.... and maybe I should be more careful.... so should you.
Does this picture mean anything? No? Well, your right. I was feeling the pressure of taking more pictures of myself and I succumbed to temptation. What you see up above is, sadly, the result. It's half boredom, half stupidity, and half bad math.
