Injured Reserve

Luckily, I un-stressed myself right before injuring myself...which during our tight timeline surely would have sent me back into the abyss. We were having a great couple of days.  A fantasy football draft party, a few visits with friends and a few bbqs and engaging dinner parties.  All after long days in the shop, but with less stress and urgency than before.

I admit to being fairly accident prone, but had been priding myself on not having an injury requiring an actual medical expert for several decades.

We showed up to the shop looking to be uber-productive and check a ton of things off the list.  The shop however, had other ideas.  We got a speech about cleanliness (or lack thereof) in our workspace and were instructed to clean “for safety and the general present-ability” of the shop.  Cleaning isn’t really in my list of enjoyable activities, but since we’re good friends with those in charge we hopped right on it.

On the upside, our space looked great an hour later- on the downside my running record without doctor visits has now started over.  While tidying up our space a steel plate fell, collided with my shin and filleted the meat off an inch or so below.  Ouch.  That's gonna leave a mark.

So much for a clean shop being a safe one...and so much for that productive day we had planned.

A few trips to urgent care and a row of stitches later and I had successfully ensured that my production for the weekend would be almost zero.  On the upside it was also week one of football season, so i ended up with a fairly solid excuse for sitting on the couch for the weekend.   On monday we were back at it...finishing up the wood and metal work for 4 stools, a table, 2 chairs and a partridge in a pear tree.  Things were coming along pretty well, so we also pulled out the teardrop trailer to attempt finishing the last remaining items that never got accomplished last summer.  Mostly just another coast of varnish, some latches and other small details, but it will be nice to actually call it finished soon...  probably right before we list it for sale.

Between my injury and a few days with the table saw down at the shop i’d swear the universe was testing my newfound stress radar...but we tried to keep an even keel as thursday rolled around and we packed up to head for Montana to pickup Jen’s mom.

We loaded a few bags into her mom’s minivan, made sure our place was clean for the AirBnB guest checking in this weekend and headed west before 8am.  14 hours later we pulled into Ft Benton, parked the van on the outskirts of the parking lot and fell asleep to the sound of geese honking from the dark river beyond.  In the morning we woke with the sun, played a little packing jenga trying to fit all the boxes (and one extra passenger) into the van and headed back westward toward portland.  All in- 28hours of driving in 36hours. Whirlwind!

Definitely not our usual travel mode as our mission wasn’t exploration but more of a fetch and return.  Luckily, her mom is now back in portland, recovering at home where she should be, and seems to be doing a great job of it.  By Friday night we were back in portland and preparing for a trip to vegas we had booked long before.  Vegas is known as the place people go to slow down and relax right?

They say gambling should be played for fun and not for investment...but as two people without income it kind of seems like a bit of both (if we win of course). Wish us luck!