The Kayak...

I had quite an "adventure" over memorial day weekend and this kayak is to blame for most of it.

Almost 2 years ago I got Joe a kayak for his birthday.  But because his birthday is in September he didn't get to use said kayak for the first time until last summer.  Mostly he would take the boat out on his own for fishing but occasionally I would join him.  The only issue was that we always needed to rent a kayak for me.  After a few trips Joe realized it would be more cost effective for me to buy my own instead of constantly renting, thus started the search for the perfect kayak.  After almost a year of searching he found a suitable boat at a suitable price and suggested I stop out & buy it this past Saturday.  I knew it would make him really happy so I made sure to work the store into my plans that day. 

One of the errands I had accompanied my mother on that same morning was having a rack installed on her car for her kayak so what better time to try it out?!?  We met Joe at the store, looked over the boat & decided to buy.  I also picked up a package of straps to secure the boat to the rack with.  Once the money had been drained from my account we moved out front to load up and head home.  Joe worked to get the boat on top of the car while I used a pocket knife to cut the zip ties on the package of straps.  Unfortunately I slipped and cut my left pinkie & ring finger.  Now if you read this blog with any regularity you may have noticed I'm a little accident prone...  I didn't panic when I saw the blood, just put the cuts in my mouth hoping to stop it.  After a few tries I realized this may be worse then I thought.  I grabbed a handful of napkins leftover from our breakfast and applied pressure, so much pressure that my finger tips turned purple, lol.  I asked my mom & Joe to finish up with the boat and not to worry but after they saw my hand all loading ceased.  My mom announced we were going to the emergency room and Joe said "jesus dear, it's to the bone."  Thankfully things weren't as bad as they could have been.  All that pressure stopped the bleeding and by the time I saw a nurse in the ER the cuts didn't look so bad.

Instead of stitches they used glue.  I've had stitches in my pointer finger on that hand before (if you look closely at the pictures you can make out the scar) and they're no fun.  The ladies in the ER took pity on me, I was supposed to wear 2 splints, one of each cut finger but because my fingers are so tiny we made them both fit in one (way less embarrassing & awkward).  It felt like we were there forever but from the time I cut myself until the time I got home was only 3 hours.

The bigger issue for me was that we were hosting a BBQ that evening and I hadn't cleaned the house or taken anything out and we were now only 2 hours away from our friends & family showing up.  Thankfully I have the best neighbor in the world!  When I told Nicole I was in the ER she immediately offered to go to the house, straighten up and get things ready.  Seriously she's a lifesaver, I owe her like my first born or something. 

I ran into another issue when I got home though.  I hadn't showered yet that day and was feeling super gross after everything that had happened but wasn't allowed to get my hand wet.  After debating whether or not to shower I decided go for it & outfitted myself in a Home Depot bag and duct tape.  Worked like a charm.

I bet you thought that was the end of my story...  Not quite, remember we hadn't gotten the kayak home yet.  On Sunday morning my mom and I returned to meet Joe at the sporting goods store.  We tried to strap the kayak to the rack again but just couldn't get everything lined up correctly.  I was pretty sure we could make it fit inside the car so we gave that a try next.  Everything was looking good until Joe slammed the gate closed.  Why is it that men find it necessary to slam & punch things?  The force of the door closing pushed the kayak into the windshield and cracked it!  We were all pretty frustrated so I asked Joe to just go back to work while my mom & I figured out what to do next.  We tried to close the door again, but this time gentler and it worked!  We got in the car and hightailed it out of there.  On the ride home I called Safelite & my mom's insurance company, I believe her new windshield is being installed today.

We drove back to my house, unloaded the kayak & relaxed on the couch for a while talking & joking about the events of the past 2 days.  You see, my mom and I have a different way of dealing with unforeseen circumstances, we tend to stay very calm instead of panicking or getting angry.  It's obvious Joe and I handled this situation differently and we did take some time to talk about it and get back on the same page.  I really think it was a good growing experience for us.  I'm not thrilled that the "great deal" kayak has now cost me close to $800, but such is life, that's what the emergency fund is for I guess.

My hand is feeling better everyday.  I even took the splint off on Monday afternoon (it was getting pretty gross).  I'm hoping to change the dressing tonight with Joe's help and maybe even give my fingers some breathing time not taped together.  It's harder then you'd think to live and work with only 3 working fingers on your left hand...

 ps...I'm sort of loving that my kayak is bigger then his, even if his is fancier :-P