I’ll make this quasi-confession as brief but thorough as necessary.
Forgive me, readers, for it has been nearly a month since my last post. That’s too long to leave you out in the cold world, all on your own without my wit and wisdom.
Okay, I’ll stop there. [insert screeching car sound F/X]
Also, there is a photo of my finger injury, so you may want to stop here!!!!
The truth is that I have been occupied with all kinds of fascinating (and some debilitating) events.
First: While chopping a fennel bulb — one of my favorite vegetables — the bulb slipped and so did the knife. I accidentally sliced off an angled section of the outside tip of my left index finger and fingernail. It was about 1/4’’ deep. I was so quick to grab my finger, apply compression, and hustle to the bathroom to run it under cold water that I didn’t realize I had sliced the flesh completely OFF, I just thought I sliced INTO. I might have (if I’d had the stomach to do so) turned over the large, very sharp chef’s knife to find the tip and press it back on. Regardless, this injury made typing — and pretty much everything else that requires two hands — impossible for a few days until I got over the initial pain and learned to adapt my other fingers to all my left-hand activity.
Let me just say this about injuries and accidents:
If you have one, which is BAD, make sure that all of the circumstances surrounding it are GOOD. In my case, I knew to immediate apply pressure to the wound and then to get it under cold running water to stop the blood flow.
Also, Ron just happened to come home for a few minutes to get some equipment, and he helped me to bandage the wound.
My first music student that afternoon happened to have a mom who is a nurse, and she said that I was doing all the right things. Then, the next night, we had Axe to Grind, and one of the guitarists is also a nurse. He felt compelled to step in and look at the wound and then helped me redress it.
The following week, my husband and I took our truck and travel trailer to Arizona to visit my dad, who will be 85 next month! It was a fabulous adventure. We dry-camped the first night off the I-10 and it was extremely windy and very cold. We had to cook and eat inside the RV. In Arizona, the RV park where we stayed for three nights was small — only 15 spots! — and the hosts were very lovely, kind people. One afternoon, I was able to finally take the bandage off my finger and let it get some air for about twenty minutes in the sun.
Our last night of the trip was in Reche Canyon in Riverside County, California, on a HipCamp property. We got to walk the owner’s hand-carved trails by day and see wild donkeys by moonlight. It was very inspiring and energizing to be out in Nature, especially since the fauna is green and flowering once again.
Back at home, we hit the ground running. I have been cooking and teaching/making music (singing, but no guitar, flute, or piano). Our Wednesday night Axe to Grind music club is going strong! I picked up where I left off with my Va-Va-Vegan food clients (I’m their part-time personal chef). It involves a lot of planning, shopping, chopping, and cooking/baking.
This weekend, I acquired five 12” tall heirloom tomato plants (thanks to Leslie & Richard!) and a few bags of high quality soil blend. My goal was to plant them all today, but we ended up with four different sets of friends visiting us here at the house, so it’s looking like planting will happen sometime this week instead.
As my finger wound heals, the swelling is slowly going down. The finger is starting to want to join the rest of my left hand again, instead of pointing to Jupiter or wherever, haha. I’m happy that the healing process is going well — with the flesh actually regenerating — and that my body is intuitively just doing it’s thing, for lack of a better description (it’s late and it’s been a long month).
So there is my confession as to why I have not finished editing and uploading my Part 2 of “Tonic Masculinity.” I have been editing the article in all my free time, haha.
As always, I wish you all excellent health and well-being!💖
Maybe Aloe Vera on the wound. Nice picture. Be careful and take care please. Time to slow down and relax! 💖
Hope your fingers heal well.