insult to injury, bump in the night, party like it’s 2015

My arm is doing much better and I’m able to type for a longer span of time without it hurting – so, time for a blog update.

The initial injury was on campus so I had initiated the paperwork for a worker’s comp claim at the emergency room. Despite doing everything right as far as paperwork and reporting went, my claim was denied a few days before my birthday. Apparently, I wasn’t technically at work – I was instead going to work when this happened. If I had already been at the office and then gone back out and fallen, it might have been a different story – though it’s not like I was in my own driveway or something.

Also, I wasn’t technically on the university property – I was on city property. Even though I had parked in a university deck and was walking directly towards a university building, the sidewalk where I fell was city property.  Though I understand that the university did maintain at least part of that area.

I had a chance to appeal it and I suppose I could have fought it by being as nit-picky as their lawyers were, but it almost doesn’t seem worth the effort. I have good insurance and paying the co-pays is worth saving on the hassle. Well, I say that now – I don’t know what the surgery bill is going to be.

I’m disappointed that there didn’t seem to be an investigation and that the claim was denied on what were essentially technicalities – I’m also well aware of the adage about not defecating where one consumes food.

So, for Christmas I got a broken arm and for my birthday? Medical bills. Kind of a crappy winter so far, actually.

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In terrible, but funnier, news… Thundercat had a rough night recently. We were chasing each other around the house – as we sometimes do – and I decided to stop the game and take a shower. Thunder was near the bathroom door “hiding” and decided to take off when I turned on the water. He went from 0 to 60 – and right back to 0 when he missed the turn and slammed into the door frame head first.

He threw his head back and let out a silent howl of pain – looking much like the logo of his namesake – and went into my bedroom. I followed him and tried to console him, but he wasn’t having it.

I guess he blamed me – though it was his own dang fault for not looking where he was going. But, because he’s a cat, he forgot about it by the time I was done with my shower and we’re bros again.

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This past weekend, I had some friends over to help me celebrate my birthday. It was slightly impromptu and grew into a bigger event than I expected. Ended up with 8 adults and 4 kids.

Since I don’t have kids, I’m mindful that my house isn’t really all that kid friendly. So, I make it a point to have some kind of kid activity lined up. I had paper and markers for coloring, kid level card games, floam, and – the hit of the party – shrinky-dinks. Super, super fun. I was in charge of the scissors and the oven, but all the kids got to make something and were pretty much amazed with the whole process. And they were way more fun than the adults. 🙂

We had pizza and played some games – and it was a fun night. Though I was pretty tired from cleaning that day and being the “one-armed host with the most”, I’m glad it all came together.