Mike’s Musings: Conducting business while under the knife- that was my week

For many last week was spring vacation, a time to take a trip or just enjoy family. For me it was a whirlwind of activity I will never forget.
I underwent surgery on Wednesday, as the result of falling off my bike and breaking my hip. That was quite a scene. There I was laying in the road with traffic stopped both ways. I couldn’t move. Thanks to many good Samaritans I was able to be carried to the side of the road.
So I went to the hospital and received the worst news. My hip had been severed. These old bones could not withstand the fall. I was admitted, along with my laptop and keyboard and worked the normal 10-12 daily hours I put in from my hospital bed.
But of course, as fate would have it, all haywire broke loose. Many of you know I own a newspaper in Alabama, and that city was targeted by severe storms and rain. Overnight roads became impassable and those in authority issued an emergency order that all citizens must stay home period. Road conditions are unsafe.
On top of that, the lake which if the major source of water for the city had breeched. Water was overflowing and damaging the equipment used to purify water. Residents were told they couldn’t drink the water period. Pallet after pallet of drinking water was carted into a central site for residents to pick up.
In the meantime, my editor at a Michigan newspaper was under fire for misrepresenting a document resulting in a story that was not totally accurate. Council people and lawyers were calling him voicing their displeasure. Readers were emailing and calling me. We had to backtrack, with a new accurate piece on social media but that didn’t quell the whole storm. Anger towards the editor and the newspaper proliferated from reader keyboards. Hey we all make mistakes, but when we do it is important that we fix them, and we did.
At the same time in another city a city councilman was being censured by his peers for his behavior at a previous council meeting. It was a wild meeting. The councilman threatened his peers physically. He shouted, he screamed. My editor had never seen anything like it. After the censure, he reached out to us and wanted to provide his side of the story. Our editor and I offered to listen, which we did, remotely of course. Now we have to determine what we feel is fair and balanced. But in order to do that it takes much discussion between he and I. Discussion that would probably be better served when I wasn’t under anasthesia.
I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me. I chose to become immersed in my businesses to the point I often answer the phone. I chose to expand my publishing empire because I love the business. Its just kinda weird, but typical, that hell breaks loose when you least expect it.
We managed to muddle our way through all the issues- of course there were human resource and paper delivery issues as well, despite being under anesthesia and pain meds for the entire week. If I answered the phone and seemed a bit short, this is why. If I didn’t immediately return an email, again I apologize. If this column seems a bit disjointed and out-of-sorts, know that my brain is still a bit foggy.
Rest assured; I will not be riding my bike for a long while. Now I get to feel firsthand how an artificial limb will hold up to my active lifestyle.