June 7, 2007
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Waiting for the Third Bad Thing
I’m not really such a fatalist, but I have heard that bad things come in threes. As you know, Gockle broke his collarbone last night. That’s #1. Here’s #2.
It’s around 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday night. Hunter emerges from the basement where he has been weightlifting.
Hunter: Mom, I was lifting, and I got this sharp pain right here. (Points to back of head)
Teacherperson: (Not usually given to panic) Thinks, “Brain aneurysm! Brain aneurysm!” Huh, I wonder if you have a sinus headache. Why don’t you take an Advil and your allergy medicine and go to bed?
It’s around 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday night. Hunter emerges from the basement where he has been weightlifting.
Hunter: Mom, I got that sharp pain again.
Teacherperson: Thinks, “He’s gonna die! He’s going to drop dead right in front of me with a ruptured artery in his brain!” I think you’d better not lift anymore tonight. I’ll call the doctor tomorrow to see what it is. Is your vision okay?
Hunter: Yeah. Wanders off to IM someone.
2:35 a.m. Teacherperson is wide awake imagining Hunter needing emergency brain surgery the next day. Thinks he might be dead in his bed that moment. Goes to his room and pokes him until he grunts and rolls over.
Thursday morning
Hunter goes to the doctor and discovers he’s pulled a muscle in his skull. He’s sprained his brain!Hunter is bummed that he can’t do any heavy lifting for the next few weeks, as he has been on a good weight training routine. Teacherperson is also sorry because her Sonlight order arrived today and the boxes were heavy. (She is also glad that this injury is not life-threatening and should heal just fine on its own.)
Do your “bad things” come in threes? How about your sneezes? (Mine do!)
Comments (40)
No, bad things don’t come in threes — people just start counting again after the third “bad news” incident. As for Hunter spraining his brain, I feel sorry for him but I did laugh. Out loud.
So, TeacherPerson, are you getting excited about your trip to England by any chance?
RYQ, read and take anything and all things by Rick Steves on England or its cities. You’ll not regret it. And do what he says. It’ll save you time and money.
ach, poor hunter. kind of ironic that he sprained one muscle while working out other muscles…
I hope your sons / my friends heal very soon!
I remember an interesting chapel at CU (though I can’t remember who it was) in which the speaker asked, “How would you feel if I told you that nothing bad would ever happen to you again, for the rest of your life?”
Then he expounded on that thought for the rest of the message, based on Romans 8:28… wow.
Thanks for your thought-provoking question about WWII reporters trying to ‘get the scoop’ just as today’s likewise try. I suppose that was the case, though I think there were several differences. The Nazis were strongly portrayed as evil, and as the ‘enemy’… the Nazis’ atrocities were given front page press, not the mistakes and misdeeds of the Allied forces. As an example, check out this page from the New York Times, June 7, 1944: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0606.html#article . Notice terms like ‘the enemy’, and notice the ‘ “Let Our Hearts Be Stout” A Prayer by the President of the United States ‘…
Since then, vast changes have occurred in the media… e.g. Vietnam (cf. all the protesters, and the extensive coverage given to them), Korea, and then Iraq/Afghanistan/etc.
Never pulled a muscle in my skull before. Interesting. But, in my case, bad things usually come in fours, at least, and are usually complicated, requiring remedial procedures to be irreducibly complex.
That is scary!
Skirtgirl93
Reminds me of an old Agatha Christie movie where one of the characters talks about bad things happening in 3′s. Sure enough, she discovers a dead body right after that.
Sprained his brain? I sprained mine a long time ago, and I don’t think it ever healed completely. It explains a lot.
My bad things come in 5′s, 6′s, and the occasional 7…
We had some appointments in Harrisburg. One of them was an eye appointment for M. Very good news, one of them is that her eye sight is getting better, it was 20-35 and now it is 20-25! Her lazy eye is getting better too! We also had to pick up my grandmother who was staying with her sister and niece for the week.
I hope the bad things stop at three, and that another set of three doesn’t start soon.
HAHAHA “sprained his brain”
Funny, but not cool. Hope he gets better soon!
My sneezes come in fives or more. Generally.
I say, take good care of David. I sense a pattern here.
Sprained his brain, really that can happen! My sneezes always come in threes, but bad things not so much!
I’m so sorry about Hunter, but must admit to laughing out loud at the thought of “spraining your brain”.
Yes ma’am he is. He’s an Army Engineer. Stationed at Camp Striker, Baghdad, but he’s offbase on missions a lot.
See, and I would have thought AVM (Arterio-Venous Malformation) since my step-mother died of one. Glad his problem was relatively minor. I haven’t noticed bad things occurring in threes for us. Once my second son got a concussion and he had two years of college under his belt. Since he kept asking the same questions over and over again and not seeming to remember anything I told him, I was a tad worried that his engineering career was over before it even began.
No, but if I get one set of hiccups, I usually get three!
That’s sad but I have to say I laughed out loud at “sprained his brain.” You had the exact thought pattern I would have had. I would have gone in there and shaken him till he woke up and worried the whole night too. Glad to hear everything is ok. Have a great weekend.
Hope your boys are feeling better soon. What a way to spend the summer!
My sneezes usually are only one at a time, sometimes two, three only if I have a cold.
My record for sneezes is 18 in a row in 8th grade Science class. Since then my highest is 13, but most the ime just 5 or 6.
Some people see bad things happening in 3′s, some don’t think about any connection at all be cause they see only the possitive and don’t consider anything really bad…Others, see everything as bad and have no distinction between their sets of 3. I guess I’m in the camp that bad things happen, lets find the positive, pray about the perceived negative, and look forward to better days.
My prayers are with you and the boys. I know what mom duty is like. I think you made God laugh with your sprained brain!
Now that’s a new one! Didn’t know you could actually pull a muscle there!
Don’t focus on the three thing!
And yes, I sneeze in threes, too. weird.
Oh my! How funny! as in odd, not rofl.
Yes, it is funny (odd) but most of my bad things come in threes. Is it coincidence or is it because I expect it? odd.
i was in 3 car accidents in 3 years. i’m hoping that bad things come in 3s because i don’t want to be in any more wrecks!
Wow- now we have 2 Sellers to pray for! Will this keep Gockle from biking/swimming on our camping trip??
lol “sprained his brain”…. that is too funny.
yes, bad things seem to happy in threes. (i don’t know why) and yes as a matter of fact i do sneeze three times in a row. (but when my allergies are bad it is more than three times in a row. )
so you use sonlight curriculum? that’s a good one!
I feel bad for Hunter, but I did laugh out loud at “sprained his brain”. Glad it’s not an aneurysm.
I’ve had bad things come in 2′s so I’m always watching out for the pattern and hoping #3 doesn’t come along. So far I’ve broken the “pattern” on totaled cars and knee surgeries. We had a period in our family a few years back where it seemed that bad things kept happening. I didn’t count, but we were thankful that at least the situations were back-to-back instead of all at the same time. We just dealt with one thing at a time. God never gives more than we can handle with Him at our side!
I have heard that once a male has a “sprained brain” they never heal. (LOL) In fact according to your sons age…..I think it’s normal for brains to become sprained during this time period…..it’s sort of part of puberty…they just turn off one side of their brain- the side that has common sense, forethought…you know that same side of the brain that makes them NOT ask for directions.(giggle)
I am so sorry to keep you in so much suspense about my age. While doing your mathematical theories, you must have concluded that my mother had me very young….and that I too got married at a young age.I will be 32 this year.
But man…..do I feel older than that!! (rotfl)
Also, I do not use Xanga Themes, I made all of my own graphics using Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw 11. I have learned by trial and error and lots and lots of REDOING. (sigh) I am not sure what Xanga themes is capable of doing?
As far as summer school- we pretty much wrap up in May, but will go on some educational fieldtrips, read stories as a family and maybe do a craft or two.
Oh my! Brain Sprain.
I’ll be praying for your injured boys. So glad it wasn’t serious. Gee 2 hurt kids in a week! People are going to talk!
Love the new wall paper1
So it is possible to sprain one’s brain! I always knew it. Only. . . I thought that happened from thinking too hard, not from weightlifting.
Poor guy. I’ll have tp keep your family in my prayers.
Nice background.
A BRAIN SPRAIN!! THAT’S RICH…
Thanks for your VERY generous offer and I know we will take you up on it!
Sounds like you’ve had an eventful week! (Or, should I say, more eventful than normal?)
Hope you’re surviving this heat – and may the “third thing” be a good one.
wow!! thats really creepy! yeah..sometimes they come in threes, one time this last spring, I don’t think that it was a very good day at school, then I had a sleepover w/ a friend and we had a great time but after drinking lots of soda I had really bad heart burn. The next day we discovered that I was sick and I ended up missing a whole week of school! so yeah, thats kind of a threesome.
Just had to check with my parents. See, Grove City has a freshman orientation day on June 18th, so we will be driving through on the 17th. Father’s Day! I dunno if you’re busy or anything. I’m not quite sure what time we’ll be coming through…I’ll let you know.
I’ve been doing some catching up and left comments further back.
The concept of everything coming in threes is a Greek/Western civ. concept I believe. The American Indians look for patterns of four, but how about just two? I vote for only two.
I’ve seen you “sneeze in threes” people in action and I think it is so funny. I sneeze one sneeze at a time, but it usually gets the job done. Sooo, do I take it you do not want a plant that you have to pick the blossoms from each day?
Love the description of “sprained his brain”! That was too funny!
I hope that things calm down for you soon. It’s always a challenge for me when so many things are happening.
Have a great weekend!
A brain sprain? Ouch!!!
I like for chocolate chip cookies to come in 3′s
To put it succinctly, Rhetorical Invention is a class on the first of the five canons of rhetoric, to wit, invention. It’s concerned with ways to find and construct arguments, such as by and from various kinds of divisions, by and from definitions, causes, effects, circumstances, comparisons, opposites, etc. Basically, its about all the different kinds of propositions one can make, and how to validly construct them and state them in a way that is clear, eloquent, and convincing, not only to the mind, but also to the will and the emotions.
Hope Hunter gets better soon. I have to say though I chuckled at the “sprained his brain” bit.
Oh my, bless your heart. I’ll be praying for all of you. I’m thankful that it’s not anything life threatening.
Sprained his brain? Do tell him not to over do it… severe compression of the human spine is not part of it’s design! Don’t slip a disc Hunter!