Pending Well, I suppose the sociable thing to do is say "Hi!" and maybe dish out some knowledge about myself

Hi, guys! I hope you're all well?

I'm Phantom, *takes a bow*, and I'm meandering mindlessly across the internet to see if I can discover a community that I may call Home for a while....or at least the cyber equivalent of a mate's settee for a few nights.

I'm old, not ancient, but getting there. I have 2 kids who are my reason for being here. My wife, (ex-wife), left me on 4th July 2014 and yes, I'm aware of the irony, roughly a year later my town had a "Procession" on, where floats drive down the main street through town. I promised my daughter I would see her on her float. 5 minutes before going out to wander to the top of the road for viewing, I fell, (I'm disabled, have to use a stick to get around), bouncing off my daughter's bike 2 or 3 times. The cogs for the pedals ripped into the underside of my upper arm. 3mm away from by Brachial Artery. The gash was so deep it went dark purple and black for about 2 weeks before starting to lighten a bit.

The procession had been on for 15 minutes, through the high street that goes along the top of my road......3mm and the ambulance/paramedics wouldn't have gotten to me in time to stop me bleeding out. I landed as I was trying to twist away from the pain in my arm, landing a little skew-whiff on my side/back. It took me about 4 or 5 minutes, but I got up, went out of the front door and hobbled up to the top[ pf my road to watch my little girl on her important day on the float. It turned out that when I landed I fractured my spine and misplaced 5 discs. A tad painful, I can't recommend it. 3 are still misplaced to this day. 2 and a half months goes by and I get chest pains, so I went to the GP and he immediately sent me to A&E to rule out a heart attack.

They X-rayed my chest and ribs as one of the absolutely veritible cornucopia of intrusive examinations they were currently enjoying putting me though and it turned out that when I fell 10 weeks prior, (Procession Day! YAYY!!!), I suffered a collapsed lung. The pain was from the bottom of my lung rubbing against the bottom of the cavity they usually call home, causing an infection that was, at this most excellent of times, trying to work it's way into my heart valves.

So, yeah, a little Hello, a lot of mindless drivel and you come away knowing that, if I promise you something, you can be God-damn sure I'll keep my word!!