This Is Not the Post I'd Planned

 

John Lennon once sang, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." That is indeed what happened here this weekend. Even though I didn't have a three-day holiday weekend to look forward to, I was at least expecting this weekend to be the usual mix of chores and fun. The weather was predicted to be nice, so I figured I'd be able to go for at least one run and one long walk, and I had a book to finish and plenty of knitting and spinning to do. And I'd hoped that by the time I sat down to write this post, I'd at least have finished spinning my purple Rambouillet singles and maybe even have started plying. But none of that happened.

Before I tell you the story of the last few days, let me start out by reassuring you that everyone is okay, so you don't have to get too stressed out. But it was an eventful weekend.

On Friday, the Mister decided to take the day off from work to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take a long bike ride around the city. Rainbow was at school as usual, and after I got back from my run, I settled in for a quiet afternoon, as it was the first time in a long time I'd had the house entirely to myself. Just as I was sitting down after lunch, though, I got a text message from the Mister asking if it was an okay time to call me -- his way of preparing me for a serious phone call. The short of it is that he'd gotten into a bit of a bike accident. As he came to a trail switchback, the gravel making up the trail caused him to lose his balance a bit, and though he stayed upright on the bike, a branch from a nearby bush poked him in the cheek, just below the eye, and had punctured the skin. Luckily someone who lived nearby saw him and gave him a bag of ice, and he was also very close to a riverside restaurant, so he was able to stop the bleeding with some napkins and even get some lunch while he waited for me to come get him (he wasn't that far away, but it would have been a long and painful bike ride back home).

We are very lucky to live pretty much around the corner from an excellent hospital, so I dropped him off at the ER on the way home; he thought he might need a stitch or two. I then picked Rainbow up at school, and when he still wasn't done by dinnertime, we went to parents' as we usually do on Friday nights, figuring when he finished he'd walk home and drive over to meet us.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Not long after we finished, I got a call from him saying that I needed to come get him and take him to another hospital, because they'd done a CT scan and discovered that he had pieces of the branch embedded in his sinus cavity. He ended up spending the night in another ER before finally being moved to a room at the hospital, and when I woke up yesterday morning, he still hadn't been told when the surgery would happen. But he was allowed to have one visitor/support person with him while he waited, so I went over shortly after.

He finally ended up being taken into the OR yesterday afternoon and was discharged yesterday evening. The surgeon, who came out to talk to me after the procedure was complete, described the injury as "one in a million" -- the branch had managed to hit the one section of sinus bone that is eggshell thin. But the removal went perfectly, and the important thing is that the Mister is now home and slept in his own bed (well, on the sofa bed in the den, so that neither of us would disturb the other last night). He's swollen and a bit numb on that side of his face, and he has to take various medications for a week or so, but all things considered, he was pretty lucky, and he'll make a full recovery. I am so very grateful for that.

So I didn't really get the relaxing weekend I'd hoped for, but at least with all the sitting around at the hospital, I was able to finish my 50th book for bingo, completing my second card, and I finished knitting a sock, so it was not a total waste. Plus, I wouldn't have been anywhere else, especially considering that he's been there for me the two times I was in the hospital. COVID certainly made it an unusual experience, but as everything had a good outcome, I am not complaining, and I am so, so grateful for the amazing doctors and nurses who helped to make him whole again.

The photo at the top of the post is all the fiber I have left to spin for this project, and I'll be chipping away at it this week. By next week, I am confident, you will see it in yarn form!