Land Shark

Like a round shark patiently gliding across the surface of our backyard lawn, our Christmas trampoline has now claimed a pair of victims.

Most of our wrestling matches have migrated out from the living room onto the trampoline and its benetted form. The bouncing/wrestling surface is surrounded by an eight foot high, eight pointed net (the kids refer to it as the Octagon) which keeps the activities inside, but injuries still abound.

I was the first to fall, both figuratively and literally. A few weeks ago I was practicing a flip. Although it maybe difficult to imagine my gyrating doughy physique (the first time Google’s ever encountered that particular phrase), Scooter and I are competing to see which one would be the first to complete a flip (the easy part) and then stick the landing (more difficult).

After completing another lazy rotation, Scooter offered some helpful advice. “Daddy, if you tuck your arms and legs, you’ll spin faster.” … What can I say, she was right. Unfortunately, I over rotated and slammed my face into the (padded) pole that supports the netting. The “net” effect is that it scrapped a layer of skin off my nose. (This picture was taken a few days later).


(Sorry for the sinister close up of the eyes.)

On Saturday, Skeeter, Squealer and I were jumping and I attempted to double bounce Skeeter, as I have done hundreds of times before. But this time, she rolled her little ankle and went down in a heap of agony. (Actually, because I double bounced her, she went up in a heap of agony. Then down.) Immediately her ankle began to swell and she now sports what looks like a half of a hard boiled egg attached to her ankle spur. A call to my sister-in-law, PTGirl…who’s a PT, and I got her an ankle brace and crutches.

Now Scooter, Kadie and Squealer are eyeing the trampoline with trepidation, knowing that they might be next…