On the Homefront: Dangerous Deck, and Other Calamities!

The deck disaster zone!

Yesterday I fell off of our deck.  I literally plunged face first into a flower bed over six feet below me when our railing, apparently rotted through by all of the rain we have been having, finally gave way, taking me with it.  Fortunately a poor azalea bush partially broke my fall and I only suffered some battering and bruising (I am lucky not to have brittle bones like so many women my age!).  However, my brand new, less than a week old glasses are so badly bent out of shape that I cannot wear them until I take them in and have them straightened.  Of course I am very sore today, but after dragging myself out of bed and hobbling out the door with my dogs for our morning walk I managed to work off the stiffness and now only feel a dull ache.  We have been meaning to replace part of our deck for a while now, but had to keep putting it off when other issues took priority.  Well, I think the deck has now become our number one priority, and hopefully we can get someone out this fall to do the work!

This is just the latest in a series of calamities that have befallen me this month.  Right after my donkey died (the major calamity of the year), I developed an infection at the base of my right index finger from one of many cuts on my hands that I sustained while caring for her.  I had two much worse cuts that I had been treating, so I barely noticed this one, which seemed relatively minor, until it got infected.  The infection finally cleared up, but there was still a small lump that had to be drained.  It turned out that there was a tiny chunk of wood embedded deep in the tissue that finally worked its way out when the wound was drained, and now the wound is completely healed.

I also developed mysterious flu-like symptoms which included a stiff neck not too long after starting the antibiotics for the infected finger, so I had to monitor my recovery to make sure I was not coming down with meningitis (thankfully I did not).  To add insult to injury, my doctor suggested that I take Tylenol to relieve the muscle aches, and I found out that I cannot tolerate high doses of acetaminophen.  I feel like I am on megadoses of caffeine and cannot sit still or fall asleep!

And to top it all off, I developed a bad case of poison ivy (my second this year, probably because all of the rain has made that noxious weed grow profusely).  I am in my third week of dealing with the itchy rash, and I recently read, much to my chagrin, that the rash can keep popping up even three weeks after exposure!  The worst patches are now healing, but I am still finding new small patches in places I did not think were even exposed to the poison ivy.  We are going to a family reunion over the Labor Day weekend and I just hope I am healed sufficiently so that I do not look like a (barely) walking disaster!

I am having a lousy summer.  Needless to say, August cannot end soon enough for me.  I fervently hope that September turns out to be a better month!

Another view of the dangerous deck.