{"id":1840,"date":"2020-01-23T13:45:36","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T18:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2020-01-23T13:45:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T18:45:36","slug":"life-has-me-by-the-ankle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1840","title":{"rendered":"Life has me by the ankle!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Life Has Me by the Ankle!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/AlanaClimb_Brokvistxsm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1841\" src=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/AlanaClimb_Brokvistxsm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Josh was not what you would call an adventurer. So everyone was surprised when he accepted an invitation to go rock climbing at Yosemite. The truth of the matter was that Josh\u2019s hearing wasn\u2019t what it used to be, so what he heard instead of, \u201cDo you want to go rock climbing at Yosemite?\u201d\u00a0 was, \u201cDo you want to go to a mock trial on integrity?\u201d Being into simulation games and a practicing lawyer, that was a no brainer. He responded, \u201cDefinitely, you can count me in, looking forward to it.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, once he realized what he really agreed to, he was too proud to admit he had heard it wrong. So here he was one week later ankle totally twisted up in his climbing rope, who knows how many feet hanging upside down above the hard ground, wondering whether he would live to tell the tale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Josh tried his best to control his breathing. He heard voices above him and below him, screaming to let go of the rope. Were they out of their minds? What kind of friends are these that actually want him to fall. He was smart enough to keep his eyes closed so he wouldn\u2019t see what was going on. Pulling on the rope wasn\u2019t helping, it just made the tangle of rope on his ankle tighter. Hanging upside down blood rushed to his head, he was beginning to lose it. He felt himself slipping lower and lower in short spurts. Was the rope beginning to fray? If the rope broke\u2026 His life was not supposed to end like this. He had so many things left to do; after all he was only 28 years old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suddenly he felt strong hands grab hold of him. He heard a voice in the distance say, \u201cJosh it is time to cut you loose.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As he slowly opened his eyes he asked in a quivering voice, \u201cIs this heaven?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo,\u201d replied his friend Roger, \u201cWe\u2019re still here at the practice wall. Unfortunately for you, the way your ankle looks, it doesn\u2019t look you\u2019ll be going with us to climb Yosemite tomorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes life throws you a curve when you\u2019re trying to live your life to the fullest. And sometimes mistakes you make create events that turn out to grant you wishes you never thought would come true. Ain\u2019t life grand?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life Has Me by the Ankle! Josh was not what you would call an adventurer. So everyone was surprised when he accepted an invitation to go rock climbing at Yosemite. The truth of the matter was that Josh\u2019s hearing wasn\u2019t &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1840\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[67,101],"class_list":["post-1840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-stories","category-story-writing","tag-harvey-heilbrun","tag-writers-prompt"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}