Just an Update

So, Daylight Savings Time in the spring:  not so fun.  Daylight Savings Time in the fall?  Ahhhh, an extra hour of sleep!!!  :)

I'm writing from the frigid chill that is the Swamp River Ridge house this morning.  It's 42 degrees inside.  Yes, inside.  I've got a fire going in the sunroom, and I'm in a rocker that is, literally, 4" away from it.  The stove is stoked up enough now that I'm beginning to feel its heat on the right side of my body.  The laptop on my knees will soon add some heat there.  Hopefully.  Without the in-floor heat from the Central Boiler going this year and me being here rarely now, there's no possibility of keeping the three wood stoves going enough to heat the place up (the cats aren't very good at feeding the fires when I'm gone).  So, when I'm here, it's sooooo cold.  Even when I have all three stoves going, the house is so open and airy (normally a GOOD thing) that I rarely get the temp higher than 50.  But, the discomfort DOES help me push away from this place.  ;)  So, I'm grateful for thin silver linings at this point.

Most of you have already heard, from Mama Pea's blog, about this:

This shot, although the color's wonky, shows the swelling better:

Yeah, I've been sporting the first black eye of my life all week!  I thought the scab might leave a scar, but it fell off cleanly one night while I was taking off my makeup.  Now, I just have one line of discoloration left.  What happened?  Well, I was both stoopid and LUCKY!

Last Sunday, I loaded up the pickup with some things from outside, including a flat "bridge"-thing that I knew I could use on the low spot that fills with rainwater on the path to the cabin.  It's made out of 12' long lengths of boards.  After I did that, I backed the truck right up to the stone entrance of the front yard to load stuff from the house.  I got that done and put the tailgate of the truck back up, lifting the bridge as I did so.  Four feet of it stuck out of the 8' bed, and I knew I'd have to attach flagging to it in the morning before I drove in to work.

I finished my work in the house that night and, just before bedtime, headed out to the garage to turn off the generator.  It was chilly out, so I was truckin' along, pretty much full-bore, shining the flashlight along the ground as I went.  As I came to the stone entrance (again, moving at a good pace), I suddenly experienced a massive WHAM!  I'd been cold-cocked in the side of the face . . . out of the middle of nowhere.  I didn't see stars - I saw one, solid flash of bright light.  I knew what had happened because I was now clinging onto the bridge to hold myself upright.  I felt wetness run down the side of my left cheek.  Was it blood or . . . ?

Once I could open my eyes, I lifted my hand to my face and gingerly felt.  No blood - just tears.  (Good!)  Proceeding a LOT more slowly, I got the generator job done and went back inside to survey the damage.  A rough little spot of mashed skin was weeping, and I'd probably have a black eye.  It hurt to grimace, so I wondered if I'd cracked my cheekbone.

On both Monday and Tuesday, I made it just about halfway through the days at work before I had to take Tylenol to dull the pain from talking and smiling at customers.  Oddly enough, even the locals who KNOW me didn't ask what had happened:  I had the stereotypical marks of an abused woman.  (C'MON, people!  You KNOW no one smacked me!)

Anyway, the pain has ebbed as the week's gone by, and it no longer hurts unless I press on one area of my cheekbone (but it's not cracked, I'm pretty sure).  The stoopid part of the story is that I, obviously, forgot about the 4 feet of pain sticking out the back of the pickup as I passed it on my way to the garage.  The LUCKY part is that the board didn't hit me one inch higher (directly ON my eye) nor two inches to the center where it would have, undoubtedly, broken the hay-ell out of my nose!

So, there ya have it.  In other "body news", I came home a few grams lighter yesterday than when I went to work:  I lost a filling during the day and now have a gaping hole in a tooth.  Just what I needed!!  FORTUNATELY (and knock, knock, knock on wood!), it's not giving me any trouble yet.  No pain, no nerve exposed.  I left a message for the local dentist yesterday and hope to get in this coming week to fix it.  Not that I can afford the time nor expense right now, but ain't that just life?! 

In other news, today is butchering day for the Pea family . . . which is the reason I had to come to Swamp River Ridge last night for a quick overnight even though I'd be at their place, helping, today.  I just have two birds to add to the mix:  one ornery American Buff goose inherited from Dad and my sweet Talouse goose, Tallulah.  She's been with me a LONG time, and is SUCH a good girl.  But, being the lone goose amongst my current flock of 11 chickens won't be a good mix once I move them, so it's time for the stew pot for her.  Now I've got to suit up and head out to try to catch them!  Wish me luck!