Headlong Into a Lamp Post

Walter had jury duty on the 13th and 14th of this month. The courthouse is downtown as is my office so we decided to take the bus together on the first morning. When we got to the park and ride it was no longer dark, but it wasn’t yet bright daylight either. It was that part of the morning just after sun-up when everything looks gray – including gray light posts!

We were walking from the car to the street where people were waiting to catch a bus. I saw a bus arriving and thought perhaps we could hurry and catch it. Walter was a few yards behind me. If it were dark I would slow down and keep him closer to me to make sure he didn’t need assistance and was following me okay - his sight is very limited in the dark. But because it appeared to be daytime I didn’t slow down enough.

Walter was focused on me, trying to make sure he didn’t lose sight of me. Suddenly I heard a big SMACK sound. I turned around just in time to see that Walter had run straight into a tall metal light pole. He hit with his right orbital bone so he got a bruise above his right brow and quite a shiner just below the eye. He even bled a little – not from a cut but from the force of the impact. And he banged up his left knee a bit.

Fortunately he did not fall or pass out from the force of impact. His face hurt for a while and he was a bit bruised, but otherwise he is okay.

Needless to say I felt terrible. I wish I had realized he could not see well enough to keep up with me and still see things like lamp posts.

Fortunately Walter has a sense of humor. The next day when we passed the same light pole on our way to catch a bus I pointed out to Walter that was the one he ran into the day before. He stopped and said to the pole: "You wanna piece of me, pole??" I laughed and told him "I think it got a piece of you yesterday, Dear!"

By the way, I'm very proud of Walter for serving jury duty. This is his fourth time in the last few years. We went down to the courthouse ahead of time to check it out and they told him he could be excused if he felt like his limited vision would make serving too difficult. But he decided to stick it out and he served his two days. Go Walter!