…Almost. Right now I have my arm in “sling” position, with any movement upwards causing extreme pain which shoots through my shoulder. I type this looking like a gimp. How did it happen? Well, if you go back a week ago, I was doing an install (one of a series of 5 I am doing for an article) at my buddy Frank’s house. He joked about falling through the ceiling and I commented that doing so is an extremely rookie mistake, and something that should not happen with any experienced person who has spent any time in an attic.

Needless to say, that sort of ramps up the odds of something going wrong – courtesy of one Mr. Murphy and his “law”.Well, nothing happened and the install went swimmingly well. This week I went to another neighbor’s house – we’ll call him “Joe” (cause that’s his name.) I was in Joe’s attic by myself. Joe’s attic was typical in that the access was via a square point of entry in the 9-foot ceiling. I had to use my 4 foot ladder to get as high as I could, reach my arms up over my head and then pull myself entirely up into the attic through the entry hole. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the lack of a taller ladder ( I really need to buy one this week.) It’s quite the physical feat.

Well, no one was home (Joe had a “meeting” in Orlando so I was solo on the entire install) and I was walking the attic heading back towards the entry. That was when it happened.

I stepped on something that either moved, or caused me to slip – I have no idea anymore which… Absolutely DETERMINED not to fall through a ceiling I cemented my hand onto the nearest joist with a vice-like grip. I mean a really powerful grip like you see in the strongest men competitions when they… OK, well, anyway it was a tight grip.

My body swung underneath the joist, but my grip held fast. As I did a 180-turn I reached out with my other hand to steady myself at which point I heard a strange noise from the shoulder attached to the vice-like grip. I have no idea if I really heard it or if I just remember hearing it – or if I’m just making it up now to make the story more interesting. I DO remember thinking “ah, this must be what it’s like to dislocate your shoulder.”

Followed quickly by:

• This REALLY hurts bad.
• “I don’t have my cell phone with me.”
• “What if I can’t get down?”
• “Am I trapped up here until someone gets home later tonight?”

Well, somehow I managed not only to get down from the attic, but to get up and down it 4 more times (hey, I had to finish the job.) On the very last time I prayed out loud that everything would be in place so I would not have to egress again. I don’t think I had another one in me… But that was it, I was able to wrap it up, clean up the mess and leave. That night the pain grew and I’m attempting to nurse my shoulder to allow it to recover.

It will be nice to be able to take off my shirt again without help… I never quite realized how important it is to be able to lift both arms up over your head! But, Joe is wired for surround sound. I’m ordering him speaker mounts and he’ll be all set. I guess this goes to show that a true Audioholic will do anything to get surround sound into his friends’ homes!

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