Tag: fractures

Floors, Hidden Vanities, Studio, Office, Wrist & Finger

Okay, the shower is tiled, but now is covered in plastic sheeting, protected by the painter from the paint. Hidden but not forgotten as its door arrives Friday!

But what else has been happening? We now have floors. Not rugs. Not hardwood. Vinyl, 20mm thick, looks like wood and designed for dogs. You read that right: dogs. The flooring has textures so that dogs have traction and don’t go flying down the hallway. It’s actually quite nice. It feels good underfoot.

And, the vanities have arrived, but until the painter is done, they remain covered and mysterious. They need to be installed before the template for the countertops can be made, and then installed.

My studio and J’s office are beginning to become usable again. Funny how daily habits, when upset, are so nice to take up again. I like reading the news and drinking my coffee in the morning, and perusing other blogs. My cameras are back on the shelves – not all of them, but a lot of them – and I used my Nikon Df here, with the 85mm f1.8, to take some photos. I also used some film cameras outdoors … the drafting table is in place, and paints and paper and brushes are reappearing.

And, my wrist and finger are mending very well, and I am out of the finger splint altogether, but wear the wrist splint at night or when my wrist feels tires or sore. Hard to believe I went flying over Smudge (dog) 4 weeks ago.

Home, Sweet Home!

In Betwixt and In Between

The house is torn up.  The studio is empty.  The living room is filled with boxes, one corner for Josh, the other for me.  The shower stall will be done Monday.  The shower door will be measured and ordered on Monday, too.  The dogs will be boarded out Monday through Tuesday night because of the fact the flooring is going in on Tuesday day, starting at 730 a.m.  Thursday the painter starts.  Saturday the vanities arrive.  Wednesday next the painter finishes and the new toilets are installed.  Then the vanities are installed and the template made for the counter tops.  We will have a shower that works – finally!  hooray! – but we will not be able to use it until the door is installed.  We will be brushing our teeth in the kitchen sink (ewwwww!).  I go back to the doc on Tuesday to have my wrist and finger checked 3 weeks after my fall.

And . . . we have been packing, eating junk food, brewing beer, trying to have a life, and painting in between – pictures and samples of paint on the wall.

I will post photos of the new house stuff sometime later, but today, here are the things – little things, no bigger than 7×10 at the most – I’ve been painting and drawing, just to stay sane.  The painting of the barn needs a bit of help – the roof is too white, and it looks like the windows are some strange eye infection.  The meadowlark needs more contrast.  I could go on, but I need to go to work on my other stuff.

Click on a picture to start a slide show, and to see them larger.

Broken Bones & Painting: False Fronts

Two days ago I was cleaning the kitchen up, even to the point of cleaning the oven and stove top – huge job for a Sunday morning.  The other half was on call all day, so it seemed like the perfect time.  We weren’t able to join family that day, so do something useful.  All was going well until one of the dogs lay down behind me, and when I turned around, over I went.  I took a standing lamp with me, fell over the arm of the couch, smacked my arm and hand on the treadle sewing machine, and ended up on my back.  I knew my hand was messed up – it hurt!  Off to the urgent care to have 3 questionable fractures, one in the wrist and 2 in the middle finger.  Monday confirmed fractures, but only 2, both chips.  Not too bad.  But, now I am all bound up with a splint on my finger and one on my wrist.   My right wrist.  I am right-handed.  Oh, woe is me!

Happily, my dog was more surprised and less damaged than I.

Spring break and the plans are to do all sorts of fun things.  Like paint.  And that is what I have been attempting to do today.  It is not easy to draw a straight line or hold a brush, much less type, with normal dexterity.  In a way that is really good as nothing can be considered “serious” when nothing is feeling coördinated.  There is a real disconnect, like when your face is all numb from anaesthesia at the dentist.  Believe me when I say drawing in  splints make straight lines somewhat improbable.

And here are the results, pictures taken step by step as I waited for things to dry.  I was on the patio whilst painting – someplace relatively safe as the dogs aren’t allowed in this part of the yard.  The focus is on imagined shadows, not great art.  Click to see larger.

A Message from the “Officially” Fallen

It’s official:  two fractures, neither of which is especially serious.  More uncomfortable than anything, and inconvenient.  I have a splint for the middle finger, where I have a chip fracture on the joint above the knuckle.  The wrist fracture is a bigger, non-displaced chip fracture on the distal radius – the bone just below the thumb.    I have a removable splint for each, rather than a cast.  This will make bathing much easier.

I can function much better in this new and stylish black splint, even drive and draw and hold a brush.  I go back on the 24th for follow-up.  Overall, 4 to 6 week healing time.