California . . . Dad update!!!!



I've been in San Diego all week at a conference and just got home last night. I was staying at the Hilton San Diego Resort on Mission Bay for this technology conference. The conference was great, and so were the digs. My room was right on the ground level with a little porch that looked right out over the bay. There was a walking/bike path about 20 feet from the porch that went for several miles in each direction along the bay through parks and recreational spots. It was a beautiful place to take my morning walks; and there were all kinds of people out there night and day so you felt pretty safe most of the time. Right across the bay was Sea World of the Pacific. If you look behind the kites in the picture below, you will see some towers and buildings on the far side of the bay. This is Sea World!




Of course the resort had sailboats and lots of great recreation which I did not get a chance to take advantage of. So I mainly walked, enjoyed the grounds of the resort, and ate seafood every night for dinner.




On the home front, I learned that Dad had a little accident with his tractor and has two broken ribs and a bunged up knee. I just got the scoop on what happened, so I will let Dad tell it in his own words.





I had backed the implement trailer up to the garage to air the tires and planned to load the tractor and mower for BCC and mow the lot. I was unhooking the implement trailer from the tractor so I could hook it to the truck. I got off the tractor and put a block under the trailer frame. The next step is to lower the trailer on the block and release the ball/hitch so I could drive the tractor away. I stepped between the front wheel and rear wheel on the tractor. Rather than grasping the 3 pt hitch lever I grabbed the gear shift and moved it forward into low gear. The clutch was not engaged but it went into gear very easily and the tractor was running. The tractor lunged forward knocking me down and the large rear wheel came at me pinning my left knee under the wheel.



I managed to get my head out of the way but the rear wheel run across my left knee, abdomen and right chest. It must have weighed about 300 lbs. Needless to say the tractor continued to go down the driveway until it hit a tree and the rear wheels started digging into the sod. I got up before the tractor hit the tree and was about to catch the tractor when it hit the tree. I managed to shut off the tractor and laid down behind the tractor to analyze the damage to my body. After a few minutes I walked to the house.



There is a large bruise spot behind my left knee with swelling and Dr. Peters says I cracked 2 ribs. No chest or knee braces required but I am on Tylenol during the daylight hours. The knee swelling is going down and I am about to throw away the crutches except in going up and down stairs. The hard part is getting up and down from chairs and bed.




Needless to say, this sounds pretty scary to me; and I am really glad that Dad is okay. On the bright side, Dad's article was published in the farm magazine recently regarding his channel sweeping robot. He has had two inquiries from interested people who might want to develop the robot. And . . . an edited version of Dad's article about veterans appeared in the Dayton Daily News on May 20. So he is a published author if only he stays out from in front of his tractor!