My Boating Hand!

This is one heckuva Ben story, so I thought I'd share it with the world! We have been spending the past few weeks looking at stuff for our backyard - patio furniture, plants, decorative business, you know... Anyway, about two weeks ago we drove all the way across town to the Blue Diamond Nursery or Cactus Joe's (about a 45 minute drive to nowhereville Nevada). We stopped at different nurseries along the way, and we were particularly excited to get to this one. The strange lady at the gas station really talked it up (mentioning these colorful pieces of glass - foreshadowing anyone??) So we arrive after a few u-turns, and are immediately drawn to the place. There are kitties everywhere and really interesting deserty knick-knack stuff. We were chatting with one of the employees and she explained that they rescue animals, and there are 4 dogs, ten cats and a pot bellied pig running around the 7-acre nursery. SOOO COOL! We got through maybe 5 minutes of looking around, and happened upon these piles of bright colored rocks. They were the most vibrant colors, and the lady explained that these are Guatemalan lava glass - the volcanoes errupt and sand is melted and creates these beautiful pieces of glass. (yes, glass). In any event, Ben and I are so taken with these things, we start looking around, and I point out a beautiful bright sky blue one - Ben reaches down to pick it up, and neither of us notice anything - then all of a sudden, there is blood dripping down his hand and onto the other pieces of Guatemalan death glass. We realize he's cut himself, and he sets the piece down. The lady, yells to her co-worker, 'We've got a cut! it's a big one!' - and Ben proceeds to pour blood all over everything. ew. The ladies put together a hap-hazard bandage and cleaning system for Ben, which was pretty entertaining. The older of the two kept saying, 'Wanna spray some windex on it? that'd clean it' - Obviously she has a weak spot for My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Long story short, Ben made me take him to the hospital to get stitches (I told him he needed to just get over it, but then looked at the cut I saw the inside of his hand) we made it to the emergency room and had the time of our lives... not. (my name borat. I like, very nice) I will say Ben was very popular with the staff. They were all stopping in the room to see the wound and make sure his fingers were still functional. I kept telling them not to worry because even though the cut was on his right hand, he uses the wrong one for everything else, so it all worked out. The PA who did our stitches had a goofy sense of humor, much like Ben's and they were fast friends - discussing Chuck Mangione and whatever else came to their random minds! The saving grace for me was that I got to watch his stitches put in - which was awesome! Lots of blood and flaps of skin - always fun... Ben kept getting mad at me, because supposedly I was gasping and saying things like "Oh man", "Woah", "awesome", "can you do that again?", etc... When we were finally done, and Ben had gotten sewn up and stuck with a tetanus shot, the ladies at the desk asked if he worked there (what an odd thing to ask), because everyone was talking to him. And Ben responded with, 'I guess I'm just easy to talk to'. hah!


To make a long story a tad longer, Ben decided in a moment of tipsiness to take out his own stitches. He actually did a great job - But, dang! Taking out your own stitches with kitchen shears and a toenail clipper? Pretty awesome - Now the wound looks really good and is healing nicely (as seen above, post Ben's home surgery). It is certainly a reminder of an interesting saturday afternoon in the good ol' desert!