I could sue

My mail forwarder is in Quartzsite. So when I’m in the general area I place any needed online orders and have them delivered there. A shipment is supposed to arrive tomorrow so I drove up from Yuma this afternoon. (I could have waited until Monday or Tuesday, but I was ready for a change of scenery.)

As I pulled into town I decided to take a shower at the laundromat. It’s not my favorite place to clean up because the shower rooms have only a shower. No sink, no toilet, no electrical outlets. But it’s convenient. Since I was last there they’ve installed hand-held shower heads, which I prefer. And these had a quick on-off button which was also nice. The water pressure was barely acceptable, but you can’t have everything.

Whereas most shower places provide a terrycloth bathmat, the laundromat offers only a paper one, which immediately sticks to your feet when you step from the shower. So I’ve learned to stand on it while I dry the rest of me, then throw the towel on the floor as a mat.

But this time things did not go as usual. As I stepped out of the shower my back foot slipped on the wet stall floor. As I instinctively tried to shift my weight forward, the paper “mat” slipped under my front foot. I flailed and dodged the glass shower door, landing hard on the top of my left tibia where it sticks out below the knee cap. OW!

The last part of the slip-and-fall could have been prevented if there had been some kind of grab handles instead of just the door and doorjamb. And if there had been an actual bathmat.

If I were the litigious type I could sue the laundromat. Or at least threaten legal action and see if I could get a refund. I thought about asking them how they got away with not having grab handles. And what about grippy strips on the stall floor? Isn’t there some sort of public safety ordinance requiring them? But I let it all slide. No skin was broken, no bone chipped. My knee still worked smoothly. There might be a bruise later, but that’s no biggie. I just won’t be going back there.