THE IRONY OF MY FREAK ACCIDENT ON 7/1/07

Bagelo's*

I've been boycotting Bagel-o for the last month. Well to be precise I've been boycotting this particular branch of Bagel-o for a month. I've had nothing but bad experiences with employees there.  BUT ,they have a great outdoor patio.

Here's a little bit of background before I go into the main story. I'm am extremely aware of my environment at all times and probably take more precautions then most people. Here's an example. Since the weather has warmed up, I've had "sidewalk cafe safety" on my mind.  

Seems like most sidewalk cafes have no buffer between the customer and the driver who is parking their car or leaving the restaurant. I can't think of any reason in the world why I should trust most drivers, based on my past experiences. With the subject heavy on my mind, as usual, an article comes out in the paper on the topic. Did you see it? Baltimore Sunpaper, sidewalk cafe safety. Too much.

So, whenever possible I try not to sit in a place where there is a good chance of a car running me over. About 3 weeks ago, I was in front of a grocery store's sidewalk cafe, when I felt my chair "melt" under me. I lost my balance and my stuff fell to the ground. I had no idea what had happened. A man saw it happen, ran inside to complain. I asked him not to complain for my sake, but he proceeded to anyway!

Lucky for me, one of the more intelligent employees came outside to investigate. We'll call him Rick

. He said: "Yes, our patio furniture is very dangerous, and poor quality! We've already had a little boy fall out of the chair onto the ground. The owner bought this patio set because "it was a bargain!

me-: "Sounds like this product is ripe for a recall!" Rick assured me they'd get better furniture.

At Cahuna's cafe about 6 weeks ago, a woman tied her dog to a table and it came crashing down!

At Bagel-o's the place I've been boycotting, I thought, I want a little bit of sun. So, I bought a drink from the drug store and walked over to the patio. Some of the employees are very mean spirited so I will not go into the store, and will only take in 10 or 15 minutes of sun then I'll walk to the grocery store to do some shopping.

The wind is blowing, I'm holding a glass bottle of coffee. Before I can blink, the umbrella from the table next to me blew over to me and the base of the umbrella pole punched me in the chest. Remarkably, there were no cuts and remarkably the pole didn't get my eye, which could have blinded me.

It was very very painful. And I'm already in a lot of pain because of the fibromyalgia. I held my chest for about 10 minutes or more while the crazy patron next to me held the umbrella up to my chest instead of letting it fall to the ground. I had to yell at her to let it go to the ground.

  She said: "Are you o.k?! "No, I'm in alot of pain!"

  But are you o.k.? she insisted.  Did the bottle cut you? "no, I'm not cut."

She said: "I'm going inside to get someone" I replied: "Don't bother, they'll be glad I got hurt" (you think I'm exaggerating, but there are 2 managers and at least 4 employees who would enjoy that I got hurt) She said, "I'm going in anyway" She got some random employee who had no idea what to do. (most people are terrible in a crisis) I went inside to look around and see which manager was on duty. If one of the neutral managers is on duty then I"ll complain, if not, then I won't complain. I see no managers at all and I don't trust the intellect of the employees. So, I start to walk home. Then I think: "Is that the right thing to do? just leave?" No, I thought. So I asked an employee for an incident report.

She went to the back and apparently asked the manager where the incident report was. He is one the managers who is neutral toward me, which is a good thing. So, he started to fill out the form, but I didn't trust him to do it right, so I told him I'd fill it out myself. But near the bottom of the form (he had the form back at this point) there was a place where he was supposed to fill it out.

It asked: "Does customer plan to seek immediate medical attention" Although I told him "not immediate" but I'd keep an eye open, he wrote "no, she doesn't" I didn't realize it til later. He got a report from the 2 witnesses and then came back to me and asked me for my phone #. He said: "I wrote no, to cover my ass, but if you decide to seek medical attention that is fine"

Ironically, I was in the e.r. within a week of my birthday for the last 3 birthdays. I knew that trying to get to an e.r. without a car was going to be hell on a Sunday.

Every 20 minutes I've been checking my injury. Day 1 a barely noticeable bruise, day 2 a more evident bruise. The pain is there all of the time in kind of a dull way. I haven't been able to reach my Dr. directly and the receptionist hasn't given me a clear answer on what to do. So, I'll call "after hours" in the event he wants me to get an x-ray.  My friend Allen is a doctor and encouraged me to have someone look at it because he said that problems may develop down the line.

JUST WHAT I NEED, MORE STRESS!