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injured right foot and a four-leaf clover
Monday, May 30 2022
location: 800 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
It being Memorial Day, I didn't have to work and would've been happy to stay into the evening before driving back to Hurley. But Gretchen had her usual bookstore shift, so we'd be leaving for Hurley early this morning so she could be in Woodstock by 11:00am.
Last weekend, I'd noticed that all the running up and down the stairs between the wetsaw (which was outside) and the upstairs bathroom had made part of my right foot sore. The soreness seemed to be inside the foot, perhaps at a joint connected to the second-smallest toe (the right foot's "ring toe,", if you will). This soreness quickly disappeared over the course of the work week when I was going up and down stairs much less frequently. But it returned again this weekend, despite needing to make many fewer cuts with the wetsaw. Perhaps it had been additionally aggravated by my stubbing that same "ring toe" against one of the pieces of bluestone randomly strewn between where we park the car and the cabin's front door. In any case, by this morning that part of my foot was as bad as it's ever been, forcing me to limp a little with every step. I looked at the foot and saw that it was noticeably swollen at the first joint of the affected toe inside the foot itself. As for the toe, it was now somewhat discolored. It has the purplish color of a nasty bruise.
Gretchen got up a little before 8:00am and we proceeded to putter around doing the usual straightening up and cleaning that we like to do before we go. Gretchen was in a bit of a mental fog and couldn't decided whether or not we should stop at the Tile Shop on the way back to get that remaining ten pounds of overpriced grout in that color she now hates.
Just before leaving the cabin, we took the dogs on a brief walk over to the building site of our nearest neighbor. His name is Shane, but we generally (and probably unfairly) refer to him as "the redneck" just because he comes from more of a fishing/hunting worldview than we do. After the dogs had pooped and pissed, we could finally get on the road, this time with me driving.
As we were about to get onto I-90 in Amsterdam, Gretchen noticed that the gas station across the street from the Thruway entrance included a Dunkin Donuts. "Do you want to go there?" I asked? Gretchen said yes, which was what I wanted to hear because I was already beginning the process of caffeine withdrawal (I hadn't had any at all yet today). There were a lot of people working in Dunkin, but nothing seemed to be happening very quickly. And of course Gretchen felt the need to strike up a conversation with the cashier about veganism. The cashier (a middle-aged white lady) said that she'd lost 150 pounds by going on a keto diet, so it's possible she was as much of an evangelist as Gretchen is. I then heard her make a very covidy cough, which she did into her hand. Lovely! (Neither of us were wearing masks, and nobody in the store except the gas station cashier was wearing masks either.)
Eventually we had our coffee drinks (mine was an oatmilk cappuccino) as well as little bags of hashbrowns that were only $1.30 each.
Back in Hurley, Powerful was out somewhere (probably related to the latest graduation of Bard prisoner-students) and the cats were starving for affection. Gretchen soon left for Woodstock, and I jumped in the bathtub hoping hot water would be good for my inflamed toe.
After a long nap, I awoke feeling so groggy and lethargic (as one often does after a nap) that I made myself a french press of coffee. In the process of walking out the garden at some point I stepped on a bee and was stung in the sole of my right foot, the same foot with the fucked-up "ring toe" and evidence of having dropped something heavy on the nail of my big toe. On the plus side, though, I found a four-leaf clover in the part of the lawn I have found them in earlier years.
When Gretchen came home this evening, she was wondering rhetorically what there was to eat. She then suggested that if I made something, she'd eat it. So whipped up a quick dinner consisting of fried onions with tempeh, a can of black beans, diced tomatoes, and a whole plastic container of Trader Joe's organic baby spinach. This ended up being filling for some very good tacos, which we ate in front of the teevee while watching two episodes of Jeopardy!
Stone in the yard as of this morning at the cabin.
Click to enlarge.
Our deck-rail-based cabin garden.
Click to enlarge.
My injured foot as it looked before the bee stung it. That's the four-leaf clover. Click for a wider view.
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