Falling in Public and Other Summer Fun

Yes I am having fun, can't you tell?

Lets just say this has been one of the most interesting few weeks I have had in a very long time.  First off I have been trying for weeks to write but was taking a medicine for chronic pain that left me feeling mentally dead and unable to write or even come up with things to write about.  That was like losing my soul so when it stopped working for the pain I was happy to stop taking it.  I have always thought that stuff was brain poison anyway and you should have seen the doc's face when I called it that.  Let's just say he didn't find funny but oh well.

Anyhow, the day after my last dose of the brain poison I decided to go to the local farmer's market and while stepping up on to the curb, I caught my toe and fell in front of EVERYONE full force onto my right hand. (Uhg...why is this kind of thing always in front of a crowd?)  As I layed there unable to get up I looked at my poor hand.  Yup...this was not good.  There was what looked like a bone out of joint or something sticking up on the right side of my hand above the wrist joint and I could not turn or bend it.  I waiting wondering if anyone was coming to help and felt like people had just evacuated the sidewalk when I fell...that was a really weird feeling.

It took onlookers what seemed like forever to figure out I could not get up on my own and those who helped were so sweet. I was laying there on my back and they were all trying to help me up not knowing I could not get up from a sitting position.  It was a circus of kindness but they finally got me on my feet. (Thank you to all of you who helped...whoever you are.)

I was in shock for about 15 minutes and given a comfortable chair and some ice for my wrist and then I drove myself back home and wrapped it up and tried to not use it.  That was interesting.  Try not using your favorite hand for an evening and see how you do.

The boat cast the doc first put on my hand that lasted 24 hours

By Monday I was at the Urgent Care clinic, x-rays showed it was indeed broken and my paw was set in a boat cast (a type of splint that is made up of the lower half of a fiberglass cast).  I got to stand along side the doc and read the book on how to treat this type of injury.  I now know the names of th bones in my hand...well some of them and in my arm too. (I'm a nerdy girl and eat this stuff up).  My doc was not very up on how to treat my injury and I knew it but gave her the benefit of the doubt.

By Tuesday morning I was ready tear the boat cast off my hand and throw it through our front window after a night of constant readjustments and rewrapping the darn thing.  It just wasn't staying where it needed too and the nerve pain it was causing was ridiculous.  The first thing I called the doc who told me I definitely didn't need a cast (yippee I think) and I could use a store bought splint but it needed to be a firm one and that I needed to be able to move my fingers "a lot".  I am a notoriously bad patient when it comes to not using my hand as I have discovered too.

So here I am...it will be 2 to 4 weeks stuck in a splint before I am back to being able to using my hand freely again and typing with a single finger is honestly a drag.  No gardening, no crafting, I can sort of cook but can't chop veggies so what fun is that?  I should get a video of me trying to dish up food...that is laugh.

At this point I am painfully aware of every curb or step I cross and am getting board out of my mind.  So how's your summer going?  I hope you are all staying safe, remember to pick up those feet when you step up on curbs and thanks for listening.  If you have a funny story you wanna share here, feel free.  I could always use another reason to laugh.

Weedy Wednesday: Plantain By Any Other Name Is Still A WEED!

When does a weed become a desirable plant?  It happens you know.  All it takes is some plant addicted person finding a weed that is sporting something unusual, like variegated or reddish leaves instead of just green and suddenly we find that plant marketed as the latest coolest thing and rocketing to garden stardom.  It will be found in magazines and in the gardens of plant collectors and addicts alike.  That is exactly where I found Plantago major 'Atropurpurea', AKA Purple leaf Plantain the first time I saw it, in a well thought of national gardening magazine.  I think every magazine featured it at one time or another.  Resistance was futile.

Early in the season in my good friend Rae's garden.

I remember when I first saw it in that photo, grown so perfectly, so lush looking, I moaned with desire.  At that moment it seemed all self control fell away and that feeling that I had to have that plant or I was gonna die came over me.  So the first chance I got I bought one for some ridiculous price.  Yes, I paid money for a weed! Then as luck would have it, somehow I managed to kill my designer weed!  Can you believe it!?!  Why doesn't common Plantain that grows everywhere in my garden die?  Why does it have to be the designer version that I PAID for!  As I've said before, Murphy, the one who wrote those laws, he works in my garden evidently.

Another cousin, Plantago lanceolata in the Hell strip at the end of the driveway.

Because this plant by nature is really no different than its weedy cousin, it will more than likely haunt the gardens of the future.  I knew this before I planted it but felt sure I would be able to control its bad habit and I made sure I gathered the seeds.  But I couldn't just throw them away!  Being a good plant addict I shared them with my gardening pals too.  I figured if I missed a few that was all right too because I'd have starts to share next year at plant swaps.  What was I thinking?  I shared weed seeds and plants with my buddies!!! Ugh...

Up close and playing well with others it seems to be so benign.

The American Indians have a name for Plantain...“White Man’s Footprint”.  They named it that because it grew where ever white men had been which gives us a HUGE clue as to how it spread across the country.  You think we would take note of such historic monikers but oh no, not us.  We plant addicts are an odd breed and because we/I distinguished it's progeny as desirable and even fashionable and usable in our gardens we ignore such neon warnings.  Its glory days are numbered though and it will be a fond memory for some of us and for others...just another weed.

This brings me to this thought; when it comes to plants, one man’s treasure is another man’s curse and so I can see quite easily how this designer weed will someday be added to the "plants of my ongoing suffering" list.  Just look at how history has proven that to be the case.  Will we ever learn...probably not, history says we are who we are and plant addicts are quite visible in every generation.  Well, at least I'm in good company.


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