Let's Break Something

 Oh darn!

Have you ever broken a toe? We all know how fun that can be. I did when I was a kid and ran around the corner of our old 2 room cottage barefoot and split that little toe off a door frame.

I was probably only 8 at the time and I hollered and fell to the floor. Mom came along and told me to cut it out. Stop being a baby. 
I sucked up those tears. One learned never to cry in front of mom. She wasn't exactly Miss Empathy. 
That toe turned purple and I limped around for part of that summer. But oh gosh, that pain!

After being up most of the night with Fred, the mule, I decided to take a nap. I had been thoroughly chilled and thoroughly exhausted.

I was sound asleep when I heard pounding on our back door. No one pounds on our doors. No one except maybe a delivery that needs signing by UPS. But I always track packages. I burst up out of bed and flew towards our bedroom opening...

Oh, you guessed it. That same little toe decided to go up against the frame. I hopped and continued to the back door. There was the neighbors from across the ridge with their annual Christmas bag of treats. Incredible dried apple slices and some candies!

I guess I was bleary eyed with no glasses and my hair probably sticking up all over the place...

"Oh did we wake you?" I tried to smile politely. I'm sure it looked like something between a frightful grimace and a crooked sneer. 
I explained and they decided not to stick around and chat. Besides it was still below zero out.

I must have looked a fright, trying to peer at their blurry faces and be pleasant while I was really tempted to just start screaming at the fire in my little toe.

I waved goodbye with a mental reminder to text them thank you for the treats and then sat down on the kitchen floor and rocked back and forth holding my foot.

All the ruckus woke up Rich and he walked in wanting to know why the heck was I on the floor? Charlie licked my face.

I cannot believe what incredible purples a toe can turn! So pretty! 

I admired the different hues of purple and red as I iced it that evening. Putting that toe into a boot for chores was even more fun.

At least the weather was cold and I didn't have to go anywhere.

Rich was ever so helpful. He suggested I sit outside and stick my toe in the deep cold snow. Yeah baby, it was -12 F that night. 
At least he still has his wicked sense of humor.

It's the small things in life that make
you smile 
or
cry.

Knees, Appts, Creativity.

So.

The knee has not resolved itself at all. I just figured I'd get out and 'walk it off'. I went to CrossFit a few times last week and even did the 22WOD. Eh. That may have been a mistake but I was careful. It felt great to do it with my good friend and partner. She is awesome and strong!

The swelling in the knee is gone. For the first time in my life I can really understand what it feels like to have knee pain. See, I didn't want to acknowledge the injury and just figured it would go away like the other time I smashed it against a boulder.
I'm mad at my knee. It should have gotten better. Really.
If I go outside and pull my pants down and yell at it, will it help?

Okay, bad image, right?

Today is going to be one of 'those' days. Calling the VA Community Care folks to see where the claim from 2018 still stands. The hospital just sent a nasty letter which is normal for them. They are a huge conglomerate and of course all phone calls are handled by a person who is 'not' in charge and 'doesn't' know anything.
These phone calls require at least 20 minutes on hold and many transfers.
I think I need an office assistant just for dealing with appointments and care.

Rich is doing mildly better so that bump is resolved for the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some fun with editing photos.
Since I am not out hiking at the moment...
I am studying some funky photo effects and editing.

Dispersion Effect:
I really want to nail this down as I think it would be fun. I think instead of 'chunks' of dispersion, I like the birds more. Using bat brushes would be fun too.

Double exposure ~ done in camera:
I need much more experimenting, but it is sort .. of neat!

Pencil sketching skulls:
This is part of my skull collection. I like it, but dislike the white edges that Painter does.

Pencil sketching mixed with the original photo:
I really like this one a...lot. 

Well, off to work. The mules want to eat!

Stupid things

Hold the scythe...
There won't be any war on burdock for the moment.

The other night I decided the windows in the upstairs bedrooms should be closed. So I charged up the stairs without turning on the lights and had stuff in both my hands.
Do you see where this may be going?

I apparently did not remove the little fan that blows the A/C air down the stairs and I forgot about it until I tripped on it and the next thing I know is I feel a crush against my chest and even with both hands that flew out and dropped stuff...I landed on the fan. Against the ribs on the left side.

So at first I just stayed still to see if I could still breathe. I could but the contact points where I landed felt like I'd been kicked by a huge mule. Then I wondered if I'd awakened Rich. I didn't. He never heard the noises I'd made.
Next I slowly pushed myself in a seated position so I could see if I could sit up.
I could and I was able to still breathe.
Well, I could breathe fine, just not huge deep breathes.

I stayed sitting and wondered how I would have handled it if I'd really hurt myself.
Well.

I turned on the lights, noted that I didn't break the fan. I shut the windows and carefully went back downstairs. I found some pillows and a blanket and made myself a 'nest' on the couch with an icepack.

How embarrassing, how stupid. How dumb. All thoughts that ran through my head. One little thing. Of course in the middle of the night I was thinking how just one small little thing like that could cause a life changing event.

Oh. And I was pretty sure I'd bruised the ribs and all the muscles in that area. Bummer. I wasn't going to CrossFit until they healed up.
Funny how the mind works in the middle of the night.

I went to see a doctor at the clinic. I didn't go the first day, it was too painful to drive. At the urging of my husband and a few of my CrossFit friends texting...to ask 'What did the doctor say?'
I went.
I was able to see a nurse practitioner who was a CrossFit nut like myself. She isn't currently doing it but we know all the same people. She was empathetic and understood my disappointment at hurting myself.

Xrays. No broken bones.
The treatment is the same for fractures and bruising. Though I don't have any skin bruises which surprised me. But that may be because the fan was plastic?

Anyway, the intrinsic muscles all the way down my left rib-cage are strained and sprained. Ice/heat, Tylenol, and a muscle relaxer were what she suggested.

So I may have to put the war on Burdocks on my list for later or not at all.

So what did I learn? Well turn on the lights? Don't rush?
You can bet that I won't do that again.
Well.
Not for a while.

I may have to take the Killer Fan and dispose of it.

Dixie ~ How can I help you?

Morris watched me get dressed with only mild curiosity.
I sighed, I miss the little dog that would literally spin himself inside out any time he saw me getting ready to go outside and hike.

I dearly dread the day when he will leave us. However he still provides us with fun doggy dementia moments that we instantly feel awful for laughing at.

I gave up all thought of hiking with a tripod this time with Dixie. I wanted to just enjoy a nice hike along the creek after the recent snowfall. I took my Tamron lens on the older Nikon. It is like dragging a ton of bricks compared to the Olypmus Mirrorless OM-5 I normally take. Of course I had the Lumix pocket camera too. The Pink Fugly camera had been misbehaving since its last submergence in mud before deer season.

I headed out with Dixie who gave me one huge bark of joy and then began to walk alongside of me. She kept touching my gloves with her nose as if to make sure I was still coming.

We headed down into the valley. I admired Mother Nature's handiwork.

Dixie seemed to be all work. Her nose was on supercharge.

She did end up finding a mouse nest. I must say, that nose is incredible.
We admired the beauty of the creek and then came out into the open valley.

When I lifted my camera to take this shot it literally took my breath away. I was stunned. I guess you had to be there. But to me it was incredible. We'd just busted through a narrow tangled cluster of willows and thorn bushes to come out to blue sky and pure white snow.

I walked down to the snowmobile crossing. We haven't had enough snow this year for the snowmobiles to run at all. I stepped down next to the creek and took a shot of the water blasting through the culvert.

I then turned and made a huge mistake. I glanced up and behind me to look at the old cottonwood tree against the sky and my foot slipped. I have no idea how I did it but I landed on my left side with a horrid lurch and it was hard!
In my right hand I held the snow splattered camera aloft. It appeared that I saved the camera and lens but damn!

And then the pain hit me. My elbow burned and my leg hurt something awful. I did what any good woman of my age would do in that situation.
I let out a yowl and started cussing as loud as I could. I was hurt, I was angry at myself for not looking and I was really really mad!

I would have sat in the cold snow next to the noisy creek for a long time ... but...

my screeching brought Dixie on the run. The next thing I saw was her big huge snow covered face with frozen slobber across her snout. She stood between my legs where I sat and wobbled her jowls while trying to decide if I should be licked or nosed. The look on her face was as if she were saying.

"You called? How can I help you?"

I started to laugh, still holding the camera aloft, ... now to keep the slobber nose off from the lens. Dixie started to wag her tail furiously. She shook her head and frozen gobbers flew across my glasses. I couldn't help it but laugh harder.

I eventually sorted it all out and decided that I hadn't broken anything or damaged myself too seriously.
I had frozen dog gobbers on my glasses, my upper leg hurt like hell and my elbow was protesting.

Dixie had given me a once over and decided I was over my fit. She went back to hunting interesting smells while keeping an eye on me.
I hobbled along the creek and to the old oak.

I decided to come back to this spot without Dixie next time and set up along exposure if we still had snow.

Then I turned and headed back towards the trail home. Suddenly going home seemed like a dandy idea.

No way to get lost on the trail home. Dixie retraced our footsteps and guided me as if it were now her duty.

I walked past the 'elevator' and decided to follow the creek upstream to another spot that I could climb out.

Dixie went ahead on our frozen creek through the fresh snow. I'm sure she was checking on the safety of the area, assuring herself that there were no obstacles for me to trip on again.