I’ve run down the stairs of my house hundreds of times without an incident. I never thought there was any risk involved in doing so. That all changed this morning when I was nearly to the bottom and suddenly felt my cranium crash against something very hard. (My severely impaired vision without glasses probably didn’t help.) That “something” was the ceiling above the staircase. (See below)
Figure A:
In case it’s not clear, that dent there is the very corner where the ceiling meets the wall above. I think they put some kind of metal at the corners to make a nice rounded effect. There are two semi-ovalular (I possibly made that word up) cracks in the paint radiating out from there. I left quite an impression.
So, that hurt. And it sucks about the damage. But what’s worse… now I’m all paranoid about it! Four or five times today, I have caught myself running down those stairs, suddenly remembered the tragedy of this morning, and freaked out trying to slow myself down and protect my head. TWO of those times, I actually caused myself to slip and fall, hurting myself in otherwise. (I’m not a klutz. These are unreasonable circumstances.)
Anyway, yeah, now something that I’ve done hundreds of times and continue doing constantly out of habit has become a source of pain, fear, and frustration for me. I hope this brightens up your day!
-Brad
