landing on my feet

[maradydd]

Tuesday night: sat down in a chair on a somewhat slippery patio without looking back to confirm that the chair was actually there. Chair was not there after all. Lost balance, fell into brick windowsill, scraped hell out of right shoulderblade. (Happily, did not rip shirt.) Back muscles now all knotted and achy.

Wednesday night: was carving a piece of Mexican kingwood with my brand-new set of chisels, wood rotated unexpectedly in my hand, chisel slipped. Carved inch-long gash into the base of my left thumb. Did not sever anything important, and bleeding stopped after less than five minutes of direct pressure. Was able to see the underside of my own skin, which is pretty neat-looking; did not, alas, take photos. About then, the burgers came off the grill, so I ate dinner with my left hand on top of my head and then went to the emergency clinic about ten minutes before it closed. Three stitches. Left hand now sore and a bit itchy.

Today: slept a lot.

I'll be in Houston through Saturday afternoon if anyone still wants to get together or anything. Dallas, alas, is probably not happening. Sorry guys. :(

Comments

[geekosaur]

What is it about people on my fiends list (including myself) and 3 stitches in the hand? You're something like the fourth, including me.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Like, in the last few days or something?

[geekosaur]

Since early June.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Weird. What did you do?

[geekosaur]

I had a leek slip on me while I was chopping it into rings on a mandoline in early June. Another friend sliced his index finger open on a can of tomato paste in late July. I forget who got himself a couple days after jss1113, but the "3 stitches somewhere on the hand" has been pretty consistent.

[mutiny.livejournal.com]

3 stitches is the lightest injury you could sustain that would actually require stitches.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Huh. The doc at the clinic thought about doing just two on mine, but added a third just to be careful. It would have healed without stitches, but it would have left a nasty scar that would have probably made moving my thumb much more difficult.

[enochsmiles.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I agree with mutiny on this -- if you need stitches, three is the least you can get away with. The reason I had been betting two on yours was that, while it would have scarred pretty badly, and would have needed to be treated well to avoid infection, stitches weren't essential and one could have closed it up with two.

(The "third for good measure" was possibly because the doctor isn't used to doing less than three without problems, and really, an extra stitch doesn't hurt anything.)

You had a fairly unusual injury, though. It was deep, but not hat much skin was torn -- almost like a puncture.

[mutiny.livejournal.com]

They open up so easily without stitches too ow.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Yonks! Glad to hear you're essentially all right, though--safe, prompt, and efficient travel!

-- Lorrie

[deza.livejournal.com]

I've always heard that the best wood carvings will extract a blood-price from the carver.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

This is only something like the second piece I've ever carved, and it's rather harder wood than the ash I was working on before, but the grain is gorgeous and I'm hoping it will look really cool once it's carved down, sanded and polished.

[ivy]

What were you carving? Glad that your damage didn't turn out to be too bad.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Assuming I don't somehow destroy it during the carving process, it will be a dip pen. (Mom gave me a huge set of calligraphy nibs as a belated Christmas present, and while I do have other dip pens, I like the idea of making one of my own.) It's still going well so far. enochsmiles and my dad were cheerfully giving me shit tonight about not knowing when to quit, but as I pointed out, when a horse throws you, you don't just give up. Kid sis and accomplished horsewoman briaer had my back on that. *grin*

[arvindn.livejournal.com]

hope you get better soon! it was good to meet you in leuven. weird you're in TX :)

[kekhmet.livejournal.com]

yeeouch! seeing the underside of your own skin on your thumb due to an attempt by the wood to get you to to chisel yourself rather than it is rather more impressive than the time the pepper I was chopping decided it was time to add some vegetarian to the vegetarian omlette ;-P

glad you are ok.

[roadknight.livejournal.com]

Ergghh...please be careful. Malawi was not entirely injury-free for me either. I fell into a (dry) drainage trench while testing the VOIP network I built and scraped the crap out of my shin(There is a story behind that. Its basically down to the scab peeling off(and itching like hell as it does) at this point.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Oof. Good thing it was dry -- would have meant a lot of alcohol and hydrogen peroxide otherwise. :-/

[roadknight.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention that as that's what I ended up doing anyway. I was low on water I trusted, so I gave it a couple squirts with water that had gone through my LifeStraw and then just gritted my teeth and applied an alcohol pad from the First Aid kit, followed by pouring a betadine pouch over it.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Bugger. We don't have any way to get down to Houston, either, because of the Czarina's schedule. Sorry.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Entirely understandable, and besides, the on-and-off torrential rain here is getting to be a bit annoying. I miss the old days of driving back and forth to Iowa, darnit.

Y'all should come out for Maker Faire next year, though! I can't make Austin, because I'll be in Belgium, but there's plenty of time to plan for next spring.

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

i wish i could see you but job #2 is hampering my social activities this week. :/

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Boo, work. Where is job #2? Maybe we could come into town just to say hi.

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

i'm in the old macy's at the galleria. that's kind of a long way from k-wood. :/

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

That is a bit of a haul, yeah. But we're about to head into town to hang out with mycroftxxx for a while tonight; if you're awake and up for doing anything, feel free to give me a call. If not, next time.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

You know what's nearly creepy? I injured myself with a chisel two days ago. I was carving a throne...


Though to be fair, my injury is very minor. I just tore some skin off.

Ouch though. I've cut myself with chisels like that before. It's scary. Hope you heal up soon!

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

I think I'll be okay. It's a lot less sore today unless I poke at it.

[nibor.livejournal.com]

And, of course, I was back home 2 weekends ago, and will be there again next weekend for labor day. (My parents went and moved...to elsewhere in kingwood? Crazy kids.)

Try to keep yourself in one piece. Robotic body part replacements aren't really up to snuff yet.