Summer is Upon Us! And that means Comic Book/Superhero based blockbuster movies! The Green Lantern is headlining the genre this year...well here is something for you to think about while you watch all that action, destruction and carnage that enevitably occurs in all movies of that genre...
Think about it...all those night out fighting crime, punching evil doers in the face, rescuing people from burning buildings and cars crashes...Batman, Superman, Spider Man and the like...forget about The Joker, Lex Luger, The Green Goblin and the like, the REAL villain to any hero goes unseen in all that blood from kicking ass and saving innocent shell-shocked by-standards...I'm talking about Hepatitis C and other very bad blood transferred diseases!
I would like to start this next part out by saying that I in no way shape or form consider myself a hero...I simple regard my actions in the following story that I am about to relate to you as standard and what anyone would/should do in the same situation...
Driving home late, late one night (it would really be considered early morning) at about 4am heading down HWY 277 from Abilene to Blackwell, I noticed something strange in the road up ahead of me. My headlights caught the reflection of something blue in the middle of the road...my thought was "what the hell could be blue in the middle of the road?" So my attention was drawn to attention as I approached the mysterious blue object. Slowing my speed down as I drew closer, I noticed that it was a person, a man, wearing a blue reflector belt (military issued). A quick glance at the road with only the light from my headlights to make visible the scene, as it was a cloudy, moonless night, revealed that there was also a woman lying in the middle of the road...bleeding.
I stopped.
The man ran to my window and in a breathless voice tried to tell me what had happened: The couple had wrecked over 2 hours before my arrival; the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and flipped the car into and beyond the bar ditch...and I was the only person who stopped to help (several cars passed them by). I called 911, reported the accident, and rendered what little aid I could to the young lady who was bleeding in the middle of the road. Her foot was mangled pretty bad, obviously broken in multiple places, swollen to 4 times it's size and bleeding all over. Her companion (who was seemingly uninjured) and I put her in my truck, I wrapped her foot in what I had...paper towels...elevated it by sticking it out the driver-side window as she sat slightly reclined inside the truck on the passenger side (her right foot was the one torn up). I covered her in a sleeping bag I happened to have to help prevent her from going into shock.
Well the ambulance came and rushed them both off to San Angelo...turns out the driver was fine, just some scratches...the young lady had a fractured back to go along with her mangled foot. I checked up on them both the next day, and visited the lady in the hospital giving her a card with my number in case she needed anything from me as far as a statement for her insurance or anything like that....well....
Not long after that she called to thank me and we became friends, talking every so often on the phone or via a text message here and there...
One Day...we are talking and she informs me that I should get tested for Hepatitis C...for you see on that fateful moonless night on the side of the road while I rendering aid to her mangled foot I happened to have an open cut on my hand and in the heat of the moment I did not even think about the possibility of contracting some blood-to-blood disease as I handled her bloody foot...I was just trying to help someone in need...
Turns out I am in the clear! But none the less this scary scenario regarding this incident got me to thinking about all those Superheros and all the diseases they my have caught from just helping people in need...
Beware Out There! The TRUE villain to any type of hero (or the simple good samaritan) may really be the microscopic kind! Kryptonite my ass!
On a little lighter side...the incident reminded me of how short life can be...so not long after I happened upon that wreck I decided to do something I have always wanted to do but never got around to...learning how to play the fiddle! I am have had 1 lesson a week for 3 months now and love it!!!
Morals to be learned here: 1. Don't be afraid to help someone in need, just remember to protect yourself! 2. Life is short, do what you want to do today because there may not be a tomorrow.
