So, today I had my second hip replaced. I had babied it for a couple of years, convinced yoga was the secret to extending its life and it certainly was, until it wasn’t. When certain poses began to hurt, like the click, click, clicking in the joint as I bent over, I decided to pay my ortho doctor a visit. Is there a discount for the second hip-job?

The doctor was able to accommodate my hope of being recovered in time for a trip in late October and I scored a surgical date in two weeks. Yikes! Normally, you have a month or two to plan and get used to the idea, but this time it was game on. I had some challenges to deal with. Like steps.

The house we live in has steps everywhere, including three down into the living room with no railing. Now this wouldn’t be an issue for most folks, unless you’re a self-proclaimed klutz like me. I’ve tripped UP these steps three times. Isn’t yoga supposed to help with balance? Anyway, we were able to find someone to install a railing that turned out beautiful. It matches the décor of this remodeled circa 1900 farmhouse that Frank’s grandfather built. One of my recovery projects will be staining the railing when the doctor clears me to bend over. Just try not to bend over for six weeks. I’m on day one and just had my first challenge with it when no one was around.

Mr. Boo (my cat) decided to come over and check on me. I

woke up to his paw touching me on the chest, probably trying to roll me over from snoring. At least that’s Boo’s story and he’s sticking to it. Boo and I talked for a bit, and I decided to make the trip to the bathroom, having to navigate the living room steps along the way. Frank and I had practiced this earlier, so I knew I could do it and I did.

Having made it back to the living room, using the light from the tv and the flashlight on my phone in the dark, I got situated on the couch. Ice pack, water, remote, computer, phone. Check, check, check, check, and uncheck. I dropped my phone on the floor with its flashlight shining up at me. “Uh oh” I thought. “How do I pick it up without bending over?”

Then I remembered the “grabber” I bought from Amazon. I’d paid my due diligence and read the reviews and bought the more expensive one because they said it would pick up smaller items. Gratefully, my grabber was where I could grab it, so I did.

I fished around on the floor trying to get the claw on the end of the grabber around the phone, but guess what, wasn’t wide enough to grab it. “Now what?” I asked myself. Adding insult to injury, the flashlight shined right into my eyes whenever I tried to look at it to figure out a strategy. Shielding my eyes with my left hand, I realized I had a pop socket on the back of the phone. For those of you that haven’t discovered the pop socket, let me tell you, it’s a must have for your cell phone. It’s a round 1.5-inch button that sticks to the back of your phone. You pop out the button part, and it sticks out enough to slide one finger on each side, so you can hold onto the phone without dropping it (somewhat klutz-proof until the Klutz drops it at 3:30 in the morning).

“Maybe I can just grab the sides of the pop socket,” I thought. Shielding my eyes from the flashlight, I reached the grabber’s jaws around the sides of the button and pulled it up only to drop it in mid-delivery. I laughed out loud when it reminded me of one of those silly claw machine games that grab your money charging you $1 to try and grab a 5-cent stuffed animal. I wish I had half the money my late husband, Jeff, poured into those claw machines during rainy vacation days on the Ocean City boardwalk.

Wanting to fuss but just giggled instead when I realized how funny this was, I laughed again when I retrieved my phone on the fourth try. Turned out the grabber was a pretty good $16 investment. The way I figure it, I recouped 25% of the grabber investment if the iPhone been stuck in a claw machine instead of dropped on the floor. Maybe I should post this blog as a review on Amazon for Mr. Grabber (he’s my hero right now and deserves a real name). I’ve learned to keep him close but discovered one problem. What do I do when I drop Mr. Grabber to the floor and can’t bend over to pick him up? Well, It happened and timing is everything. Frank walked in the front door and saved me once more.

So, instead of trying to sleep, I’m writing this to hopefully make you smile at a memory of your own. The iPhone is worth much more (until you try to trade it in) than any stuffed animal we ever fished out of those machines, but the memories are priceless.