Friday Was NOT A Good Day

Last Friday was moving day for Pam and I.  We had purchased TODD the Trailer to unload our 10 x 20 storage unit into, and to store tools and construction stuff.  We picked Friday to move because it was the hottest day of the year, close to 100 degrees.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a good day when lunch came around.  We were working pretty hard, and Pam offered to swing by Mickey D's to pick up some pink slime burgers while I drove our two cylinder underpowered U-Haul truck up the mountain.  There are places where I had to get out to push.  When Pam finally arrived, she had two Italian subs.  Pam got to McDonalds at 10:45 and they were still serving breakfast, so she stopped at the Frustrated Chef and picked up subs instead.

So what's wrong with subs, you ask?  Nothing.  Except they forgot the oil and vinegar.  That's the whole reason we eat Italian subs, the oil and vinegar, especially when it soaks into the roll.  Eating an Italian sub without oil and vinegar is like eating a bowl of shredded wheat without milk, or corn on the cob without butter.  It's just not done

It took two trips to unload our storage unit.  The last thing off the truck was my motorcycle, which hadn't been started in years.  I got on it and coasted it down the ramp, Evel Kneivel-like, to park it.  That should have been it, but it wasn't.  I kicked down the kickstand right into my sneaker.  In my efforts to get it out, I lost it and over I went with the motorcycle on top of me.  My leg, with the kick stand firmly implanted in my sneaker, was trapped.  I couldn't move.  Even though she was laughing hysterically, Pamela lifted it off me.  I'm glad it wasn't a Harley.

I don't know how, but our 10 x 20 storage unit filled the 8 x 48 TODD the Trailer.  Of course, we didn't pile things to the ceiling.  Part of it was in an effort to get organized, part was exhaustion from the heat and lack of a breeze inside the trailer.

So you'd think that would be the end of it, wouldn't you?  Nope.  I had a screen that I rescued from the old trailer on the property and I went behind our rental Unabomber Cabin to see if it fit the back kitchen window, which has no screen, and it would be nice if we could open it to get a cross breeze.  The back of the cabin is overgrown with ferns and pricker bushes, so I swiped my feet side to side to make sure that I wasn't stepping on glass or snakes.   The screen was too small.  So I was swiping on the way back when I felt a sharp piercing pain in my left foot,  I fell, into pricker bushes, writhing in pain.  I had stepped on a nail and I could tell that it was a big one.  Did it go right through my foot?  I tried to push the board off with my other foot but it wouldn't budge.  Finally, I kicked it hard and it came off.  

I hobbled into the house.  I pulled off my sneaker and sock and looked.  The nail got me right square in the arch of my foot.  It hadn't come out the top of my foot, but it must have been close.  When I told Pam what had happened, she said I had to go to the ER right then and there.

OK, let me take a shower first.

"NO!  Just get in the car, we're going now!"

But I smell like a water buffalo.

"Get in the car!"

So we went to the local ER where they gave me a tetanus shot, soaked my foot in some kind of an iodine solution, and took xrays to make sure I didn't chip a bone.  They told me not to walk on it for a few days, and then sent me on my way to walk out to the parking lot.

The ride home was excruciatingly painful.  Every little bump jostled my foot and caused extreme discomfort.  This was the most painful thing I've ever endured, even more so than when I had knee surgery and the surgeon sent me home without pain meds.  I thought I didn't need any since it didn't hurt at all, but then the pain deadening anethesia wore off.

Back home, I took two tramadol and washed them down with straight gin.  

The next morning, just to put the icing on the cake, we had a power failure.  No internet, no telephone, and no blog.  Not that I would have written one anyway.  It's hard to be creative when a body part is throbbing.

The above photo is the board with the nail protruding near the top.  I had sense enough to pick the board up and lean it against the house before limping inside so no one else would step on it.  Can you make out how long that sucker is?  My sneaker sole was all the way down on the board.

So not much will be happening on our property for a bit.  Not until I'm healed up good enough to work the clutch on Dumpy the Dump Truck.

But there will be a blog tomorrow all about boating on the Great Sacandaga Lake.  Watersports are part of Adirondack life and why so many Adirondack Americans choose to live here.