ow!

[ratcreature]

I should not have read while walking. I stumbled over some uneven pavement and fell down. I didn't hurt myself too badly, mostly my hands, one wrist and both my knees are scaped up, but my ebook reader was destroyed. :((( Also my trousers, but I mostly feel the loss of my ereader.

I mean, I feel lucky that I didn't break my right wrist -- I awkwardly landed on that since that hand was holding the ereader and scraped its outside, but I guess the device absorbed quite a bit of force (it actually bent and partly shattered). Or damaged my new glasses which were far more expensive than my ereader.

But still. I really liked that ereader, and it wasn't that old either.

Comments

[king_touchy]

Oh no!! I mean, sure, things could have been worse, but it sucks to lose a gadget, damn it!

[ratcreature]

Yeah. And it wasn't even a year old. :(

Also in the hours since my rigt knee has swollen with a painful bruise. I mean, I can move it alright, but gooseeggs on a joint that you move aren't fun. *whining*

[bluemeridian]

Oh nooooo! :(

[ratcreature]

Yeah. And now I have the hassle of deciding on a new ereader again which is as bad as the extra expense. My old model actually costs a few euro more now than a year ago when I bought mine, which seems just wrong for electronics. So I'm not thrilled about that.

But I don't want to be bound to a vendor like with kindle, so sticking with a PocketBook again would be good. The newer model from this autumn would cost about 45€ more which isn't too bad for HD display, more space and sound/audio book capability but reviews I read said its firmware was really buggy... So basically I have to make decisions about gadgets again which always sucks.

[bluemeridian]

Oh man, that is so true. On the one hand, I do like shiny tech, but on the other hand, the pre-buying research is SUCH a pain. Reviews are great, especially at pulling out the issues on things like buggy firmware, but it seems to double the headache involved until you just want to resort to random dart throws for the decision making!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, having tech is great, shopping for it not so much.

[madripoor_rose]

Oh yikes! Glad you weren't hurt...too much.

Another point for paperbacks, I guess. They bounce!

[ratcreature]

True, though I suspect if I had fallen on a paperback like this it would probably have torn pages and be ruined too. Only about one tenth of the loss of my ereader though, financially.

[sholio]

Oh NO! That is one destroyed ereader, all right. :( Also, ouch! There might not be anything broken, but that sounds terribly unpleasant. I hope all the bruises and scrapes heal up quickly.

Since I have a general habit of walking and reading, this is something I'd better keep in mind ...

[ratcreature]

Yeah, it's pretty thoroughly destroyed, though it actually still turns on, and the lower half of the display sort of works. So if I hadn't backed up my library anyway because I manage it on my laptop, I could still get my books off of it.

Walking while reading is clearly a risky habit I should not continue. I can maintain a basic awareness of traffic okay, i.e. I've never missed a traffic signal, or collided with anybody (though I don't read in congested pedestrian flows where you have to weave), but obviously if you read you can't pay attention to uneven pavement plates. And it wasn't even very bad pavement (like I don't read if the pavement is some sort of cross country obstacle course), but clearly it does not take much to destabilize our precarious bipedal balance (and no tail either! I bet this would not have happened to a kangaroo).

And naturally now a few hours later I hurt more, in particular my bruised knees, even though I iced the bruises earlier. I expect I will be more sore still tomorrow, as is the way with these things. *grumble*

So not what I had planned for today. And now I will have to go ereader shopping too, because by now I would miss it too much if I went without. :(

Obviously it could have been much worse, like broken bones or broken teeth (quite financially ruinous in comparison to a broken ereader), but I can't help feeling disgruntled and somewhat put upon.

[lilacsigil]

Ouch! I hope your knee is okay. I guess I should feel lucky that my vertigo prevents me from reading while moving at all, or this would be me!

[ratcreature]

I read an article about a study recently that showed that even young and healthy college students trip and almost trip quite a lot. They asked students to notice each instance of not just falling but also stumbling and catching themselves over the course of some days, and the scientists concluded that we aren't adapted to bipedal walking very well yet and that it is still quite precarious for us.

I should probably aim for something like "mindful walking practice" or something when I feel the urge to utilize transit times better. I mean, I don't read when I walk in nice places like nature or parks, but I read while I'm on public transport, and then of course sometimes there isn't a good breaking place when I get off, and then the temptation to just continue reading is pretty great.

My knees are okay in the sense that they both remain fully functional and moving them doesn't make them hurt worse, however as far as superficial damage goes, they both show impressive bruising today, so things like kneeling on them or other pressure is painful. So it sucks a bit but assume it'll be gone in a few days.

Actually the most aggravating pain this morning is this kind of ridiculous small scrape where I tore off the skin at the side of my little fingernail a bit. Nothing dramatic like tearing off the nail or anything, but when I cleaned my wounds I had to widen it a bit to get the dirt out, and now it's seeping a little bit, and of course fingertips are disproportionately sensitive. :P

[sealie]

did you take out any insurance? or if you bought it with a credit card does that have any accidental damage cover in the small print?

also, potentially, the breakage of the e-reader actually meant that your wrist didn't break?

[ratcreature]

No, I didn't pay for it with a credit card, and unfortunately I'm only insured if I break other people's stuff accidentally, not my own. (ETA: Except for my glasses, but extra insurance for those is cheaper than the insurances you are offered for gadgets, and they cost more than e-reader so a better deal.)

I had the same thought about it absorbing some of the impact by wrist might have taken otherwise, kind of like the crumble zone in cars. If so, I'm grateful for its sacrifice.