Getting older is sometimes the pits. Lately, our dog, Amber, my husband and I are playing a new game called, “Who is Worse Today?” The game consists of comparing insults and injuries to our bodies and then declaring a winner for the day. There are no prizes – just care and commiseration.
Several weeks ago, Amber got hurt mysteriously on her morning outing. She had a badly skinned place on her head, skinned places on her legs, and she was limping badly. We still don’t know if she was clipped by a vehicle in the road at the bottom of our driveway, a cow kicked her, or what. She obviously was the winner for several days. She is fine, now, by the way, is happily jumping into the back seat of the truck again, running around barking at ghost gophers, and happily taunting us with her ball.
I was the winner for a couple of days, getting bitten/stung by fire ants on my arm. Apparently I am mildly allergic, swelling up fairly dramatically, hurting and itching at the same time, etc.
Today it is my husband’s turn to be declared the winner –
He made a new pvc pipe thingie to attach the newly rebuilt planter to the irrigation system. He found that one of the hoses needed to be replaced. In that process, we boil water to get the hoses onto hose barbs, etc. Anyway, somehow, he lost his balance and fell down into the planter. We had trouble getting him up, but finally managed it. He scraped one leg and knee, and will probably have bruises, scabs, etc. for some time to come. He acted as though he were more insulted and embarrassed than hurt.
We got his wounds cleaned, put antibiotic ointment on, got him into clean clothes and into his recliner with a glass of cold tea. He is relaxing and reading there now.
I really wish we could forget this new GAME of ours. It really isn’t fun. I AM really, really thankful that so far, no one has broken bones or had injuries that were life-threatening or life altering.
We keep talking about trying to be more careful, paying better attention, etc., but things happen too fast sometimes.
I’m glad that we have good air conditioning, a nice comfortable chair, food, tea, and hopefully a nap to offer the winner for today.

