The Unexpected Appearance of the Abrupt Idiom in Everyday Ramblings

This is the new bridge yesterday afternoon just after work. S. came over and met me here and we walked from West to East and then did a big loop along the river crossing back again over the Steel Bridge. It was a most enjoyable walk.

The new bridge called Tilikum Crossing (Bridge of the People) is not like most of our other bridges in two main ways. First, no cars are allowed on it and second it is not a drawbridge so it slopes up in the center to allow watercraft to pass below. And it has the coolest night lighting you can imagine….

• The lighting system will change colors according to data streamed from a U.S. Geological Service river monitor near the Morrison Bridge.

• The lighting effects will change based on the river’s speed, height and water temperature.

• Specialized software will translate the data from the river into the movement of color and light across the bridge.

• The base colors will be determined by the water temperature.

• The speed of the river will control the pace at which the colors change and move across the bridge.

• The height of the river will be displayed by a secondary color moving vertically up and down the pylons and cables.

I still haven’t seen it at night yet but look forward to checking it out soon.

On Friday I was over at the studio teaching material that I had never quite taught in this way before. One of my female students wanted to work on upper body strength and I wanted to do that in a holistic way that had a lot of solid prep to make it safe.

…And I wanted to sneak an arm balance up on them, because honestly if I had told them in advance (a group of four women in their mid sixties or older) that I was going to ask them to do this, they would tell me they couldn’t. Early on I asked them to them do a side lift up on one forearm just an inch or so off the floor and they were quite funny about how difficult that was, unusually verbal.

So, when I actually had them all move into the side plank (they had their feet on a wall to help with balance) they were astonished. And I got them to do the other side before they realized what they were doing. There is something exhilarating about doing something you don’t think you can do and they were experiencing that.

I led them through the rest of the practice nice and relaxed and everything was all groovy and they were starting to put their props away and I reached over to pick up my notes (so I was looking down) and talking and gathered my legs under me to stand and thwack!

I hit my head really hard, my forehead on the wooden shelving that holds the blocks and belts. It was loud and there was blood and I was not really humiliated or embarrassed as much as worried about their concern. We have a student in the class, this bright healthy wonderful woman, who is taking care of her husband (he has a curable kind of blood cancer) at home.

He fell the other night in the living room after getting confused and taking a little too much morphine and in trying to get him back to bed (it turns out he had broken his upper arm when he fell) she passed out from the effort of trying to get him up and broke her nose and bruised her face badly. We were all so concerned about her.

Luckily she was in the restroom when I had my adventure in hard headedness.

I am fine. My head hurt for a few hours and I iced it when I got home. I have a scab on my forehead, but blessedly I didn’t need stitches or have a concussion. I am putting arnica gel on it and think of it as sort of an off-center bindi, a decoration to remind me of all that transpires unseen in our world.

I remain hopeful too that perhaps it knocked some sense into me…

knock/talk some sense into somebody
to try and persuade someone to stop behaving in a stupid way, sometimes using rough or violent methods Try and talk some sense into her before she makes the wrong decision. Where would I be without you to knock some sense into my head?

That would be useful and good.

Last updated September 19, 2015