The Price of Boredom
September 20^th, 2003
10:37 P. M.

It's Saturday. Whee.

I reconnected, once again, with an old childhood friend, and former roommate. He and I went around town doing some shopping.

Guy shopping, y'know....electronics, beer, beautiful women....

We basically ran around town talking about old times, how our lives were going...and wrestling.
He works for a small lawn maintaince/landscaping business. You may or may not know that this line of work carries possibilities for some seriously painful injuries.

Here's where the wrestling part comes in....he called himself the "Mick Foley" of lawncare.

He told me about a larger walk behind mower he uses routinely. The deck of this mower had...had...wheels on it so if you encountered a curb or a small stump, it would raise up and go over the obstruction.
One day, he was using this mower, and someone had altered it. No one warned him, but apparently the owner of the company, for some strange and unknown reason, decided to take a cutting torch and remove the wheels.
So, when my old friend is out one day, he notices a stump in his path. He raises the deck, expecting the wheels to roll right over that stump. Of course, there were no wheels on the deck anymore...so the deck hits the stump and stops the mower dead in its tracks. My friend...well...experienced Newton's Laws.

He kept moving...his momentum drove him above, and then into, the handle. Normally, the handle is at about abdomen level...slightly below the navel.

So, you guys out there may know what's coming next....He hit that handle bar...

How do I say it without every guy/man/male reading this doubling over in sympathy pain (as I did)?

I can't think of any way ... so I'll just say it.

He got hit right in the groin. He even had bruising of...well...something(s) that we should hope to never have bruised.

And, he went right back to work the next day. I agreed...that does sound like something Mick Foley would have done.

I wouldn't have though. Wow! I suppose, though, I might...my friend and I have one thing in common. We both absolutely hate being homebound. We need to get out, even if it is to go to work.

Boredom really does have a high price. Especially if you consider that there are people who would work through serious injury to ward it off.