Bunny rabbits, closing wound, Lynx, Monica and Dairy Queen ice cream: what a marvelous day, skimpy chocolate notwithstanding!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 3:28PM ;)
What an amazing day yesterday was for me! After breakfast, I went walking and traversed up and down hills without giving it a second thought. When I reached the house, two wild, feral, domestic bunny rabbits scurried past one of Caleb's two old broken cars, then I went into the house to take my shower.
When I do this, I never want to look at my ragged, thrice-unraveled surgical wound. I just don't like to peer through that big hole at what most recently had healed enough to begin look like raw steak, brushed in glaze. I always do look of course, but usually not until after I get out of the shower, then I stand in front of a bedroom mirror. Day after day, it remains a hideous sight - the length and width never seeming to shrink.
Margie helps me change the dressing twice a day and each time she does, she grimaces, shudders, and shakes her head in something akin to horror. I ask her how it looks. "Horrible! Just the same!" she shudders.
So I got into the shower without taking a look at it. I gently wash it when I shower by lightly running a bar of soap up and down over it and then I thorougly rinse it out with the removable shower head attached to a hose. I shudder a bit as I do, because I feel the edges of the wound - close to two inches apart by width and over three inches by length, and the raw, exposed, meat in between.
But yesterday, I was surprised to discover it felt like the upper layer of skin on the left side had somehow pulled itself to the right to cover up a section of what had all been uncovered, raw, meat the previous midnight. After I dried off, I looked in the mirror. Yes! Somehow, the skin to the left had somehow pulled its self to the right. The two inch gap was now no more than half-an-inch wide.
My wound had suddenly begun to close!
;)
I felt new level of energy, the likes of which I have not experienced or felt in such a long time. I think perhaps this was in part because I had actually gotten some sleep the night before. Since going off the drugs, I had hardly been able to sleep at night. I had taken no naps. Earlier in this healing process, there were days I probably slept for more than 16 hours, in broken patches spread throughout the 24.
My sleep had still been broken. I had probably woken up every hour to three hours - pretty good for me even in the most normal of times, but each time I went right back to sleep.
So I had slept, and now I had new energy.
And I squandered it all.
I have so much work to catch up on, so much to do. Yet, I did no work at all. I just goofed around - a lot of it on the computer, visiting unproductive websites I had never seen before. It will be okay if I never see some of them again, but it was fun to just let go and waste time and to feel energetic and happy doing it.
Plus, I had actually worked pretty hard over the previous few days and had accomplished something significant. So I felt justified.
As to the image, I'm not sure how it happened, but Lynxton and Caleb's girlfriend Monica have bonded. Lynx has a blast with her. Sometimes, she makes him so happy and causes him to laugh so hard he regurgitates.
;)
I guess I did accomplish one thing. The fact that I have a new contract and with it the promise of income coming soon does not actually mean we have any money right now. We don't. Wells Fargo was blasting me with messages. They were adamant that I pay our overdue mortgage - right now. They had added on penalties. They gave me an 800 number. I called, anticipating a most unpleasant conversation.
The lady on the other proved to be very nice. I explained to her what I have been through. I told her about my new contract. She gave me until September 4 to come up with the money and also knocked off the penalty.
In the evening, Margie cobbled together a dinner from rice, left-over hamburger and summer squash covered in a goodly amount of ketchup. It did the job, but afterward I wanted something fun, too.
I wanted a Dairy Queen soft vanila cone, dipped in chocolate. Sometime last week, Margie gave me two $10 bills. I still had one of them. So off we went to Dairy Queen, Margie at the wheel. She ordered a baby cone dipped in chocolate. I splurged and ordered a small cone dipped in chocolate.
I love those cones, especially when the chocolate is thick, hard, dark, and crunchy. That is the expectation I take to Dairy Queen with me. When we went last week, I had a hankering for a hot fudge Sundae. Somewhere in my mind, I had a memory of having had one at DQ once and that in that memory, it had been delicious, covered in thick, hot, dreamy fudge dripping from the top to pile up at the sides. My very favorite DQ item is a banana split, which comes with three soft-ice creams, one also topped with hot fudge, another with strawberry and the other pineapple - all sandwiched between the two-halves of the split banana.
SOOOOOO superb... that thick, hot, fudge, coating its peak, pooled up at the side, seeping out to blend so deliciously with the strawberry and pineapple.
So I had anticipated hot fudge of this nature smothering the soft ice cream. Instead, I got a sundae that, unlike the picture, had absolutely NO hot fudge poured on the top or dripping down the side. There was a skinny ring of fudge a bit below the top of the clear plastic cup, but it was so skimpy - I doubt it totalled more than a half a teaspoon. And it was not hot at all.
I might as well have just ordered soft vanilla ice cream. I was so disappointed, I decided not to order any more Sundaes from the Wasilla DQ. I would stick mostly to my chocolate dipped cones, which I love so much, plus the occassional banana split and maybe a milk shake or a blizzard now and then.
Well... as you can see, the chocolate dip was not thick, hard, dark and crunchy. It was onion-paper thin, the ice cream showing right through it. Maybe it was just a rare fluke and coincidence that I got shorted on chocolate during two consecutive visits to DQ, but it also makes me wonder if managment has a new policy of skimping on chocolate?* What will happen the next time I order a banana split? Do I dare even order a banana split? I do not think I could take the disappointment if I did and there was but half-a-teaspoon of chilled hot fudge on it!
As Margie drove away, my first bite into the thinly-coated ice cream disappointed me greatly, but then I thought about what a wonderful day it had been, how marvelous it felt to be doing things I could do not do so short a time ago and how good the Dairy Queen ice cream is even without chocolate. I decided to just enjoy it. And so I did. Every bite.
I should stress that the young server treated us marvelously. She was pleasant and happy.
*Sharon, the manager of the Wasilla, DQ, assures me they still strive to maintain the quality of old. As for the chocolate dip, they melt it just as they receive it from DQ. I believe her, which means the thin coating must be a fluke.
Reader Comments (5)
So glad you had a good day!! And how perfect it is that the bunnies are running past Easter baskets. :)
Wonderful news, Bill...about everything. You all deserve to have things remain moving in the right direction! Continue to get better, and prosper.
i'm glad you are healing and also for the other things that are working out...love banana split myself , and that is what i usually treat myself with when we visit DQ
Just had to think of you:
"McDonald's Hot Fudge Sundae Attack: James Davis Wilson Convicted Of Assaulting Employee"
http://tinyurl.com/8zcv83p
Shaela - an unplanned for, shooting from the hip, added bonus for sure!
Deven - thank you Deven. You prosper, too.
Twain - you've got me convinced. I think I will go back and get a banana split - as soon as I get my first check from this new contract. Or maybe even before if an unexpected check appears in the mail. When you are a freelance photographer, this sometimes happens.
Albert - Hmmm... asks for ten cents back, gets a dollar and now has to pay $1050 for a net loss of $950.. Damned expensive sundae.