Sometimes humility hits you right between the eyes.

Yesterday I went up into our garage attic to get a few small things I needed. I get into the attic by pulling down a panel in the ceiling to reveal a segmented ladder/stairs, the bottom third of which pivots so as to reach the garage floor. After retrieving my items I descended again with these carefully balanced in my left hand.

Refolding the ladder and closing the attic is usually a two-handed operation, but I did’t want to set anything down so I used my right hand to refold the bottom section, then shifted my grip to the bottom of the panel so I could hoist it back in place. In so doing, however, the lower section of the ladder began to swing out and down again. That was not what I wanted to see, but I quickly repositioned my right hand so that it grasped one of the steps in the ladder.

Unfortunately, in my haste, I grabbed one of the fixed steps in the ladder, leaving the hinged section to continue its downward arc, which I witnessed up close and personal-like as the lowest step gracefully impacted my forehead, smack between my eyebrows — which for the next few days at least will look like one long eyebrow.

Sweet magic 8-ball, I should have known that would happen. I seem to have escaped serious damage (there’s a reason why the forehead bone is the thickest one in your skull) but my brain hurt the rest of the day. Serves it right for falling down on the job.

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