Raise your hand if you had a whirlwind of a week.....ok, I can't seem to find an icon that resembles a hand but know that mine is raised high! I haven't posted anything on here for a week because, as those of you who follow this know, I took a job in Bozeman on Monday and spent the week over there without a computer. That is where my week started, by finally finding a job after nearly two and a half months of unemployment and self loathing! I got the call Monday morning and was asked to start that afternoon so after an quick lunch with my very happy wife, I headed East. We were both thrilled about the job, even if it brought with it a weekly commute.
Once I met the office staff in the afternoon, the project manager gave me the plans to a new office building going up in town. I couldn't believe that just a few hours after getting hired I was going to be running a job! I was thrilled!! Tuesday morning brought with it a brand new attitude from me, once again I felt the gratitude of earning a good wage in each drop of sweat rolling down my brow. Then, as I was carrying more materials inside the building, my feet went out from underneath me on the slippery snow covered job site! I attempted to catch myself with my left arm but the fall was too much for it to handle on its own and it bent at the elbow, the wrong direction! I picked myself up off the ground and as another worker asked if i was ok form across the site, I struggled to keep form passing out. The initial pain was excruciating but within minutes, as I was examining the damages, the pain went away and I had nearly full range of motion. The elbow began to swell immediately though and I knew that even though nothing felt broken, something was definitely wrong. So I made the appropriate phone calls to the office to report the accident and explained to them that I felt ok and I would go into urgent care after work and have it looked at. I dug into my bag of tricks and improvised an ice pack out of a sandwich bag and a hand full of snow, then duck taped it around my arm. I'm pretty sure survivor man's got nothing on me!
They x-rayed the arm at urgent care and decided that it did not appear broken so I was to wear a sling as much as possible and rest the arm, followed with more x-rays next Wednesday. I "rested" my arm as much as could be expected considering I just started a new job and was working alone all week. Some of the tasks at work were fairly challenging but I was productive still and while driving home last night for the weekend my arm was starting to feel a little better.
When I got home the girls, all five of them, were happy to see me! Even Tula, the cat who hates me with a passion, seemed to be glad to see me. When I hauled my stuff in through the back yard I must have accidentally left the gate open and about an hour later when I went to put the dogs to bed there was only one, Duchess had slipped out. The gate had been blown shut by the wind also so I franticly searched all of the yard and tried to wrap my head around just how she would have gotten out. Kelli was in bed by the time I came in to tell her what had happened and she got out of bed and watched the front porch while I drove around the neighborhood. Duchess got out one other time last year and she just showed up on the front porch a while later so we were both hoping she would do the same thing this time.
When I returned to the house Duchess hadn't shown up so Kelli and i decided to both take separate cars out to look for her. We drove everywhere! While driving around my mind continued to race, how was I going to explain to my new boss that I can't make it to work next week cause I can't find my baby! What if she went up the mountain and ran into another animal who is far hungrier than she is and I never see her again! What if she wandered the short distance to the interstate and got in the way of the traffic! I stifled all of these thoughts with a short silent prayer that we would find her. Not more than two minutes later Kelli called me and told me she had found her! She was in the alley behind our house and Kelli said as she drove down the alley she noticed a black thing in front of the car and she stopped to look closer at it. Upon realizing it was nothing more than a shadow, she felt an urge to look to her right and Duchess was standing there right outside her passenger door staring at her! Thank God Kelli followed her hunch and looked to the right!
So as I write this, with all dogs present and accounted for and with one and a half good arms, I wonder if anyone else has weeks like this as often as I do. I'm sure everyone does I just seem to have them on a more frequent basis. The next time your having a bad week at work or at home though just think about me. I may have set a new record by filing a workers compensation claim 4 1/2 hours into my first day on the job and then got to cap it all of by nearly loosing my duck commander!
Remember, life would be boring if we didn't have a few bumps in the road to navigate!
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