Sunday, not the day we had planned

After Saturday night's Surprise party for Nancy, we had planned to do some boat cleaning and take it easy for the day.  Mom and Elliebug fly in to Key West on Monday for an 11 day stay here.  Since we didn't get to bed until well after 2am, we slept in- there was just no way we could get ourselves up and ready for church on time.  By the time we got moving and were having our breakfast, Kenny called, inviting us to go fishing.  He put the old prop back on, and was itchin' to get back out to their honey hole on the Gulf side to catch some more mangrove snapper.

Seeing how all plans are written in sand here in the Keys, we made a vow to clean the boat Sunday night, and to go play on the water for the day.  I haven't been out fishing yet, and it was flat calm on the Gulf.  I could have waterskied across the Gulf; the water was like glass.  It was sunny, 83, and not a breath of wind or a cloud in the sky.  Perfect for this gal ;)

Donnie left to go get some live shrimp for bait, while I made us some sandwiches and packed the cooler.  Thirty minutes later, he came back- no shrimp.  He hadn't even left Banana Bay yet.  He was busy talking to someone (but, of course!)  Actually, he was firming up the plans for Five Sheets to the Wind playing at an event on Sunday, February 23rd.  Their dance card is getting quite full!  They are playing for Valentine's Chocolate Fondue date night on Friday the 14th, and at Black Fin Resort the following night on Saturday the 15th. Anyhow....back to buying bait....

We loaded up the cooler, bait bucket, tackle box, beach bag and such on the blue piglet.  All we needed was a kitchen table to carry on our heads, and we would have looked like we fit right in with all the Cubans down here, lol.  Needless to say, we were loaded for bear.  Everything was fine.  Until it wasn't.

We came in to a hard right turn in the road, (posted at 15mph) and a taxi was coming into the turn from the other direction.  We were about to meet head on in the middle.  Donnie hit the brakes, I screamed, the blue piglet immediately skidded sideways and we laid the bike down.  Thankfully, the
taxi slammed his brakes and we did not make impact with him, just the pavement.  We both fell to the right, but Donnie seemed to take the worst of it.  He slammed his head on the pavement, tore his tshirt from the road rash, and pretty much has road rash all down his right side; shoulder, elbow, forearm, hip, knee, calf.  We was rolling on the pavement with the wind not knocked out of him.  It scared me to death.  I no sooner hit the pavement and bounced back up on my feet trying to walk it off.  Until I couldn't, and my knees buckled and I nearly blacked out.  A neighbor lady was there to catch me and guide me down into a lounge chair.  I was carrying the tackle box on my right knee, so I took most of the fall onto the tackle box with my right ribcage.  I scraped up my right palm, and got road rash on my left forearm and elbow.  I also broke my two toes on my right foot again- the same ones I broke last year trying to save Willis when he fell overboard.  Both of us were really hurting in the ribs, and Donnie had a headache, but we decided to go ahead and go fishing after all.  Donnie went and got the bait while I took a few more minutes to gather myself, and off we went to Kenny and Fran's.  Frannie helped to clean and bandage us both up, I taped my toes, we pumped ourselves up with some Tylenol and Aleve, and away we went... (sorry, no pics of the piglet laid down in the middle of the road- I was a little shook up).  We did pass the ambulance on Highway 1 that was coming for us, but we had already decided we didn't need to go the hospital.  Pfsh.

Kenny caught a really nice mangrove snapper.  We had 11 in all.  He
also caught a keeper yellowtail snapper, too.  That guy must have been
lost; you don't see many yellowtail on the Gulf side at all.
Look how flat calm it was out there- like 7-8 miles offshore.

I caught a really nice grouper that we couldn't keep, and Kenny caught
two of these remoras.  They are these ugly sucker fish that attach
themselves to the belly of a shark.  I was hoping to see a bull shark like
the guys did the other day.  They were obviously out there since he
was catching the remoras, but we never saw them.  Donnie saw a big
sea turtle, but I missed it. :(

We could have stayed out to max out on the snapper (five for each person), but our Tylenol had worn off and we were both aching pretty bad.  Donnie said he felt like he'd been in a fight- beat in the head, knocked down, then stomped on for good measure.  I can't say that I've ever been in a fight like that, but I was definitely hurting.  The soreness was setting in.  We helped Kenny and Fran eat the leftovers from yesterday's party, along with Ken and Lucille and Martina and Rupert.  After dessert, we were ready to call it a night and just lay on the couch and watch the Olympics.

At about 9pm, Peter (from Slovakia) came knocking on the boat bringing a bottle of red wine.  We sipped on that, and enjoyed getting caught up with each other.  I gotta say, after two more Tylenol and a glass of wine, I was breathing easier than I had been all day :)  By 11:00pm, Peter convinced us to go to the ER for a catscan on Donnie's head, and Xrays on our ribs.  He had a head injury playing volleyball earlier this summer, then six weeks later landed in the hospital having brain surgery for a slow bleed that left him with numbness on his right side and an inability to talk.  That was scary to hear, so Peter was right- better to go get it checked out and be safe rather than sorry.

By midnight we were side by side in the ER taking turns with the Dr.
getting thoroughly checked over.  Donnie's scan came back just fine-
no hematoma, and they found the peanut up there, so all was well, lol.
He always has been hard headed, and that was proven again today. 
Both of our chest Xrays indicated pretty severe bruising, but no fractures. 
They offered pain medicine and we declined.  Armed with a sack of goodies-
iodine sponges to scrub our wounds (that HURT), dressings and tape for my toes,
we finally got home, got showered and bandaged, and to bed after 2am.

Tomorrow we head to Key West to pick up Mom and Elliebug; I hope we are not the walking wounded too very bad :/ It could always be worse, right?  G'nite, y'all.