My Body Must Hate Me (and other updates)
Yup. I'm pretty sure that my body hates me. Particularly my left leg, as it has been taking most of the brunt of my misfortune/stupidity (emphasis on the latter).
It all started about four weeks ago when I was going to work at Gary's and a black cat ran in front of my car. I thought, "Boy, it's a good thing I'm not superstitious!" Thus began my downfall.
It began innocently enough. That day, I was tearing down a field-stone 'wall' (only about a foot and a half tall) in order to replace it with landscaping blocks. I kicked a stone to try to loosen it a bit, when I felt a sharp pain on the back of my left calf. I look down, and there's some strange foliage on my leg, but I don't see how that can account for that pain, so I raise my foot to kick again. The same pain comes from my right ankle. This time, when I look down, I see three or four wasps hovering about my leg, and one on it, preparing to attack. I run away like a little girl. Apparently some of those bloody wasps build their nests underground, and they were less than pleased at me kicking rocks right next to their nest.
For the rest of the day my left leg, below the spot of the sting, feels sore. The next day, when I started working on it again, it downright hurt. It also became quite swollen (The picture doesn't do it justice).
The happy ending is that, with the assistance of some wasp spray, the nest was decimated. That's what they get...jerks.
Fast forward about a week to Wednesday, Sept. 1. I am, again, at Gary's. A day or two earlier he had gotten a little carried away with a chainsaw and cut down about 6 trees, and every low laying branch he could reach. It was then my job to cut them up into pieces that would easily fit into either a mulcher, or a fireplace.
Well, there I was, making good time, when I tried to pry a branch up with my foot so that the chainsaw wouldn't get pinched. It was a rather large branch, so some force was required. Unfortunately my foot slipped, and even more unfortunately the chainsaw was still spinning from my last cut. The results:
Thankfully my shinbone stopped the cut from being too deep, no major blood vessels cut, no muscle tissue severed, and no chipping of the shinbone. It did, however, lead to many stitches. 5 or 6 internal, and 23 external....which I took out myself a few days ago.
Well, that was a bit of embarrassing carelessness, but nothing too bad. It never really hurt, I could still move about, etc etc. Well, I took Thursday off, but planned to go back to work on Tuesday (Monday was labor day, and Kyle and I had planned to ride at Ft. Custer. After the ride, there was to be video games, steaks, and a bonfire.
The only slight problem with those plans is that all summer we had been accumulating a large amount of sticks/debris that needed to be burned if there was going to be room for a bonfire. And it was a bit rainy on Monday. Well, Kyle got back from our ride, and with the vision of video games in the imminent future spurring us onward, I, with the help of Mr. Gasoline, decided to take care of that brush pile.
Did you know that it's not so much gasoline that's so explosive, but the fumes? Yeah. I did not. So without giving the fumes any time to dissipate (and being what I thought was exceptionally careful) I doused the pile in gas, made a small trail about three feet away, leaned down with a lit match...and WHOOSH! I'm in the middle of a fireball. Honestly, at first I didn't panic. It felt like a heatwave that was just going to go right by, maybe singe a few hairs, no big deal. But it didn't go right by. I mean, it was probably over in less than two seconds, but apparently that extra second and a half is all it takes.
I got burns on 24% of my body...basically wherever I wasn't protected by clothes. My face was a bad first, my arms a moderate first, and my legs a solid second degree burn.
These are the pictures the day after. As you can see, the gauze bandage I was wearing protected my chainsaw cut. You can also see, with startling clarity (particularly on my right leg) where my socks and shorts ended.
Here are my legs one week into it. Believe it or not, most of this is considered 'healed' by doctor's standards.
And by popular demand, or at least that of my mother, here are pictures of Aundrea.
She is a very motivated baby. She loves to hold her head up, and even stand. She is, unfortunately, not in the least bit content to just lay around. She needs constant stimulation if she's awake............................
Another crazy thing about this girl, something that has us quite perplexed, is that she will sleep all night...from, say, 11p.m. to about 8 or 9a.m. That in and of itself is not that all surprising, and is in fact quite welcome. The really strange thing is that in the morning, if the diaper is wet at all, which sometimes it isn't, it is only somewhat damp, and there is never #2. Of course about 30 min. after she wakes up she has a massive blowout, but still, neither Steph or I have ever heard of a baby doing this. (She does hate having a dirty diaper...if you don't get to it quick enough, she'll start to cry. And she LOVES having her diaper changed. Even if she is being really fussy, and screaming constantly, she will stop and get downright giddy when you start changing her diaper).
But yes, unfortunately with me being sidelined with various injuries, there's not much else to report. Haven't been up to too much. But there you have it. An update, and pictures of the baby. What more could you ask for?
It all started about four weeks ago when I was going to work at Gary's and a black cat ran in front of my car. I thought, "Boy, it's a good thing I'm not superstitious!" Thus began my downfall.
It began innocently enough. That day, I was tearing down a field-stone 'wall' (only about a foot and a half tall) in order to replace it with landscaping blocks. I kicked a stone to try to loosen it a bit, when I felt a sharp pain on the back of my left calf. I look down, and there's some strange foliage on my leg, but I don't see how that can account for that pain, so I raise my foot to kick again. The same pain comes from my right ankle. This time, when I look down, I see three or four wasps hovering about my leg, and one on it, preparing to attack. I run away like a little girl. Apparently some of those bloody wasps build their nests underground, and they were less than pleased at me kicking rocks right next to their nest.
For the rest of the day my left leg, below the spot of the sting, feels sore. The next day, when I started working on it again, it downright hurt. It also became quite swollen (The picture doesn't do it justice).
The happy ending is that, with the assistance of some wasp spray, the nest was decimated. That's what they get...jerks.Fast forward about a week to Wednesday, Sept. 1. I am, again, at Gary's. A day or two earlier he had gotten a little carried away with a chainsaw and cut down about 6 trees, and every low laying branch he could reach. It was then my job to cut them up into pieces that would easily fit into either a mulcher, or a fireplace.
Well, there I was, making good time, when I tried to pry a branch up with my foot so that the chainsaw wouldn't get pinched. It was a rather large branch, so some force was required. Unfortunately my foot slipped, and even more unfortunately the chainsaw was still spinning from my last cut. The results:
Thankfully my shinbone stopped the cut from being too deep, no major blood vessels cut, no muscle tissue severed, and no chipping of the shinbone. It did, however, lead to many stitches. 5 or 6 internal, and 23 external....which I took out myself a few days ago.Well, that was a bit of embarrassing carelessness, but nothing too bad. It never really hurt, I could still move about, etc etc. Well, I took Thursday off, but planned to go back to work on Tuesday (Monday was labor day, and Kyle and I had planned to ride at Ft. Custer. After the ride, there was to be video games, steaks, and a bonfire.
The only slight problem with those plans is that all summer we had been accumulating a large amount of sticks/debris that needed to be burned if there was going to be room for a bonfire. And it was a bit rainy on Monday. Well, Kyle got back from our ride, and with the vision of video games in the imminent future spurring us onward, I, with the help of Mr. Gasoline, decided to take care of that brush pile.
Did you know that it's not so much gasoline that's so explosive, but the fumes? Yeah. I did not. So without giving the fumes any time to dissipate (and being what I thought was exceptionally careful) I doused the pile in gas, made a small trail about three feet away, leaned down with a lit match...and WHOOSH! I'm in the middle of a fireball. Honestly, at first I didn't panic. It felt like a heatwave that was just going to go right by, maybe singe a few hairs, no big deal. But it didn't go right by. I mean, it was probably over in less than two seconds, but apparently that extra second and a half is all it takes.
I got burns on 24% of my body...basically wherever I wasn't protected by clothes. My face was a bad first, my arms a moderate first, and my legs a solid second degree burn.
These are the pictures the day after. As you can see, the gauze bandage I was wearing protected my chainsaw cut. You can also see, with startling clarity (particularly on my right leg) where my socks and shorts ended.
Here are my legs one week into it. Believe it or not, most of this is considered 'healed' by doctor's standards.
And by popular demand, or at least that of my mother, here are pictures of Aundrea.
She is a very motivated baby. She loves to hold her head up, and even stand. She is, unfortunately, not in the least bit content to just lay around. She needs constant stimulation if she's awake............................
Another crazy thing about this girl, something that has us quite perplexed, is that she will sleep all night...from, say, 11p.m. to about 8 or 9a.m. That in and of itself is not that all surprising, and is in fact quite welcome. The really strange thing is that in the morning, if the diaper is wet at all, which sometimes it isn't, it is only somewhat damp, and there is never #2. Of course about 30 min. after she wakes up she has a massive blowout, but still, neither Steph or I have ever heard of a baby doing this. (She does hate having a dirty diaper...if you don't get to it quick enough, she'll start to cry. And she LOVES having her diaper changed. Even if she is being really fussy, and screaming constantly, she will stop and get downright giddy when you start changing her diaper).
But yes, unfortunately with me being sidelined with various injuries, there's not much else to report. Haven't been up to too much. But there you have it. An update, and pictures of the baby. What more could you ask for?
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