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Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The Pain of Yesteryear


Today in work I was alone for about five hours. A guy popped into the office to let me know that one of the feral cats from our salvage yard had broken its hind legs and was dragging itself back into the yard. I went to investigate - the german sheperd and timber wolf have been on a hiatus with the boss upsetting sheep in his country retreat so it was vital to track this unfortunate before their imminent arrival. Our yard is a veritable labyrinth for the cats and the sectioned off plot of land that my boss has up for sale is over grown with weeds. This is the section the cat was last seen dragging itself into , in my search I nearly missed my footing and managed to break my fall via some wooden pallets but my left hand was not so fortunate as it went into a bunch of nettles.

The last time I knew pain like this in my left hand was when I had an accident to which I refer to as ‘the day I turned into a cartoon character.’ Briefly what happened was , I had just moved into my flat, which was my grandfathers who had recently died. I was just getting my bearings from the ordeal of having left Leicester, broken spirit in tow and dealing with my wonderful grandfathers death. I had asked my sister over for dinner. I had planned for home made soup and pizza. I called her an hour before she was due to knock off work and since she only worked around the corner from where I lived, told her to give me a call so I knew when to start heating up the soup. The oven was old and rickety but it seemed ok. Little did I know that the pilot light didn’t work very well. The pizza had been in the oven for about 30 minutes on a low heat and the soup was warming on the pan. When I opened the oven door to check the pizza - yep you guessed it a gust of gas came out of the oven, infused itself with the lighted gas from the stove and BANG! Luckily for me, and I do mean luckily I somehow managed to cover my face one hand gloved with an oven mitt the other was not. Whole chunks of my hair was singed badly and I was lucky I had most of that tied back. But the whole back of my left hand was blistered and raw. I remember frantically waving my hands to douse my hair out. I was a mess. I had never felt so utterly helpless and alone in that moment when I looked in the mirror and seen my distressed face, my hair and burned hand. Thankfully it didn’t scar and there for good grace go I it could have been so much worse. But when I look back on the memory I can see any amount of cartoon character scenarios with the oven door/gas explosion scenario…


Getting back to the cat and my buggered hand, I had to nip over to the chemist to get some salve for the nettle burn. Its slowly returning back to itself . I think having my hand in a bucket of ice cold water for an hour helped, as for the cat well Ill keep a watchful eye out for him and hope for the best. But for now Im going to find out what exactly is the function of a nettle sting in the plants ‘greater agenda’ of its existence. I think I have found another item to put into Room 101.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh dear! I hope you are feeling better by now. I can't imagine the pain that oven gave you. See, right there is why I hate cooking. naw, I actually like it when it's for a dinner party, just not the mundane and ordinary.

Back to your hand, I'm so sorry. Hopefully the meds are helping adn youve come up with some good pain reliever. Off to look up nettles and burns.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deech said...

Woah! Lucky isn't the word for your experience. Do you believe you may have had an angel watching over you? I am glad to hear that nothing more serious than what happened...happened.

Stay Safe!

Flyinfox_SATX

Judith said...

Pool
I got some anti histamine cream- thanks your a dear..

Fox
Something or one was watching over me, my hair was the worst part, I had to wear a bandana for four months. Thanks!

Glamourpuss said...

Poor kitty. How awful - it must be in so much pain. And poor Judith. Hope your hand feels beter soon.

Puss

General Catz said...

I was lucky to never have a meeting with nettles, but i heard they can be nasty. I hope you heal up soon and can then sort out the cat. You know you'll have to put it down or adopt it, right?

Be glad you weren't here, with all the cactus and everything. One cactus i have outside has the usual obvious needles but also these little invisible white ones. When you get them on you they hurt but you can't see them to remove them! And we have a cactus here (cholla or jumping cactus) that will actually cling onto you with the slightest brush. Seems like there's so many things on this planet that just waiting to get you.

Judith said...

Puss
The poor old cat was found by the dogs around 5pm their instincts took over Im afraid .. My hand is more or less ok save for a few stingy patches..

Catz
I have a bit of a cactus collection in my kitchen window box - they can be nasty little bastards when I take them down to clean the window..

slaghammer said...

Ha! The same thing happened to me back in ’77. It didn’t look that bad in the mirror until I rubbed my eyes causing most of my eyebrows and lashes to crumble into dust. I found that it is much more difficult to communicate with people without the context eyebrows provide. Regarding your cartoon character moment, I occasionally do something called the wasp dance. When being attacked by them, I levitate while flailing arms and legs in random arcs. Because I always loose my cool, they sting me at will. Dirty little bastards.
By the way, I finally received my winnings from your caption contest. Yay for me! I’ll be posting my loot in the near future. I noticed the wrapping material as soon as I opened the box. I love reading old newspapers or newspapers from far away lands. More on the goodies later.
Last but not least, I heard getting whipped with nettles will help alleviate arthritis aches and pains.

Judith said...

Slaggy
Yay! Youre back! Welcome back old chap!Glad you enjoyed the winnings. Ah fire, Scourge of Prometheus! Toaster of marshmallows! Eradicator of deadwood. It seems to be your friend and foe in your line of work.

As for nettles though there are some ejits -especially in the jackass format of tv who roll around naked in them and eat the stinging bastards uncooked, there is of course a term for these people if one opens the dictionary and looks up the word pervert.

* (asterisk) said...

Oh, I was hoping for better news about the cat. That's very sad...

Judith said...

*asterisk
It was my boss went beserk at the dogs even though its been explained to him they where simply acting on their instincts , my boss deems them intelligent to know better... Yes it was very sad - even more so because it was a fairly young cat, poor blighter!