Day 146
I am the proud owner of a very puffed yet oddly flat, very purple ring finger. I am also very lucky I have a finger that is puffed and purple and flat. I was airing out the dining room the other night and thought I had the (very heavy, 1920’s, broken rope/pulley) window UP and put my hand on the sill to get the dowel that I am using (until I can get that window fixed) to hold it up, when the window came crashing down … on my ring finger. In the split second it took me to get the window up and pop my (still intact) finger in my mouth … these thoughts went through my head:
If the finger is chopped off – do I stick it in my mouth, in milk or in a baggie and drive to the ER? If I put it in my mouth – what happens if I swallow it? Do I have baggies?
Luckily, I didn’t need answers to any of those questions. I had an intact, though bleeding and immediately purple and very flat, finger still on my hand. Phew!
Fires … I’ve mentioned it before … Colorado is literally on fire. I’m sure there is 24/7 coverage going on back there … but here I am lucky if I can find 14 seconds of coverage on any of it. I saw footage (finally) of the Colorado Springs fire and it is too horrific to grasp. As Sam said, it’s something like out of a disaster movie. How do you evacuate 32,000 people? And the smoke was so thick and yellow that visibility was vastly diminished. How horribly scary and traumatic for those people and families. I think of all the animals affected. Those in homes where people couldn’t get to fast enough … those in the surrounding wild areas. All the loss and all the devastation. It’s all too horrible. The pictures now look like a nuclear blast site. And of 10 houses on one block how does fire completely destroy 8 of them and leave 2 completely unscathed? And the heat! Denver has had 5 or 6 days now – in a row – of over 100 degree temps … maybe that many also of over 90. They’ve had 2 days of 105. That is unheard of out there. We usually have days and weeks and sometimes MONTHS of 90 degree heat over the summer months. But nothing like what they are experiencing now. It’s horrible. And Florida is underwater. Makes you think.
Chicago was under a heat index warning yesterday … areas reached 110. I found it miserable. How do people function in heat like that? I’d never make it in Sumatra. We hit 100 (or 101) and that was the highest since late July 2005. I personally think someone is messing with the record books because Chicago is always hotter than Denver. Or so it seemed. Surprisingly, not. Just more humid and miserable. Good thing the small room a/c unit was installed the other day. (Thanks Dad.)
Popsicles … I wrote a thank you note tonight (as if Moby had written it with misspellings and backwards letters) to the triplets who live across the street. It was attached to a box of Popsicles … a small token of appreciation for them corralling Mobes when she decided to escape from the confines of the backyard the other day (of course, while I was in the shower). I stepped out to a woman yelling into my front door, “Are you in there … your dog is out!” I arrived on the scene (hoping once outside that the clothes I threw on me were actually arranged properly over certain areas) to find the kids on their bikes surrounding the dog and bringing her back home. It reminded me of the scene from E.T. when the kids are taking E.T. back to the forest and they are on their bikes, flying over the woods at night with the big moon in the background. I don’t know why this reminded me of that … cuz it was daytime and obviously there was no moon, they weren’t flying and the dog wasn’t in anyone’s bike basket … but it did! In any case, they got her for me and I was very grateful. When I dropped off the box and note tonight you would have thought I had brought them riches from another land they were so thrilled! Made me wish I was 12 again!
In any case, it’s late and I’m rambling …