Off Topic

I’m going back to bed for the rest of the month. According to my horoscope, Sept. 2 is supposed to be one of my best days. Well, so far today, I’ve managed to make a valiant effort in ripping my left ear in two and now I have six stitches holding it all back together. According to the nice doctor whose nimble fingers did the work, I exposed the cartilage and everything.

It was pure, unadulterated carelessness, but I would rather hurt myself than hurt someone else by being careless, and I would rather me hurt me than be angry at someone else for being stupid, if you understand me.

I have new shelves that I put up to see how they’ll look. Then I decided to finish painting that wall, so I took down the shelves, but left the brackets. You know the kind with the little point at the end so the shelf doesn’t fall off? Yeh. Them. So I got my paint and my brush and a thing to sit on while I painted the stone outlines, and I bent over and sat down–and caught my ear on the little point of the bracket.

I’m not terribly lightweight, nor horribly heavy–about 173 pounds–and all that weight was headed for the seat and there was no stopping it. Do you know when you injure your ear like that, you can *hear* it ripping? It’s one of the most horrible things I have ever heard in my life.

I stood up, put my hand to my ear, realized it was torn and walked out of the room and down the hall to the living room. I put the paint brush on my computer table, grabbed two tissues, jammed them against my ear and went outside to the fella who just happened to be here this morning doing my yardwork. I gave in and hired someone, you see.

He looked at me, standing there with the tissues pressed to my head. I asked if he could drive me down to the doctor’s office–no thought of its being a holiday today. We got there, and the door was locked, but the receptionist saw me with the tissues and let me in. This is *not* my doctor, by the way, but the only one right here in my village.

Bless his heart, he was in doing paperwork and took me right away instead of sending me to the doctor on call. He’s an extremely decent human being, believes in alternate therapies (his brother does ear acupuncture), and often refers people to me for back pain, headaches and such.

I told him I had engaged in a little self-mutilation as a bid for sympathy and attention. He laughed, had a good look at my ear and told me the cartilage was exposed. I said I didn’t like doing things half-way and he said, “Well, you certainly didn’t go half-way with this.”

Six stitches and antibiotic powder later and I’m home again. I might even take a pic to show you. Heh. However, if this is one of my best days, I’m going back to bed for the rest of the month.