On coincidence and caution

A pause from the knitterly content for a minute. This morning, the headline on CNN.com said "Shuttle engineers keep eye on tear in heat shield." This worries me in much the same way that the Yarn Harlot worries about all the earth's sheep suddenly disappearing. (Does that shameless plug mean this now relates to knitting? I'm not sure.)

You might wonder why that worries me. As usual, there's a bit of a story. I'm fairly awake this morning, so I'll try to make it brief.

In 1986, I tripped on some stairs and broke my left leg. Both bones snapped just above the ankle. Not pretty. Upon my return from a night in the hospital (no surgery -- it broke/splintered in such a way that they couldn't put pins in), my (now ex-) husband got me propped on the couch with plenty of pillows and supplies and the remote control and left for work. I got set to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger -- only to watch helplessly as it exploded.

Fast-forward to 2003. I tripped going down one measly stair into my garage -- barefoot -- and broke my right ankle. Dislocated, broken in three places. Again, not pretty. Upon my return from a couple of nights in the hospital (surgery this time -- I have pins and a plate in there now), I got propped up in my living room and turned on the TV -- only to find news coverage of the Space Shuttle Columbia burning on impact.

Coincidence? My logical mind says yes. My reactionary, worrier mind says that every time a Space Shuttle launches, I need to be very cautious. My totally irrational mind says that if a Shuttle is up and I break another bone, I better call NASA immediately and alert them!

So now we have a Shuttle in flight with a torn heat shield. I'm holding on to every stair rail and proceeding very cautiously until it's back, safely, on the ground.

Call me crazy, just don't make me have to call NASA or an ambulance -- in either order -- okay? Now, where did I put that number?!