Little Boo Boo, Big Problem

I am a writer, and writers write.  Primarily, I type.  But last Tuesday I was cutting some pork chops for supper, and I was going too fast with the knife my husband had recently sharpened at my request.  No one noticed when I was suddenly standing in front of the sink, water from the faucet diluting the blood that was running down the drain.  My husband noticed when I was kneeling in front of the sink, my hand still dangling over the basin, choosing to sit before I fell.  My kids noticed when I ordered them to pause their TV (they've never watched anything that wasn't either on DVD or DVR) and get off the couch, because Mama needed to lie down.  Tom brought me the blue bucket that is better known for catching throw-up than mopping floors, just in case.

Fortunately the bucket wasn't put into service, Tom finished cutting the pork chops, and the cut on my finger, though deep, didn't require stitches (or even a trip to the emergency room).

But it did make it very difficult to type.

OK, so the picture makes it look like just a little boo boo, but believe me, it bled and it hurt!

My boo boo wound was located on the tip of my left index finger, exactly where I press down on my old, somewhat heavy IBM keyboard.  If I twisted my finger enough to avoid hitting that part of it, all the other fingers on my left hand missed their keys.  So I had to take a short break from most of my writing.  The fact that I couldn't type well enough to write a new blog post wasn't a big deal, since I only blog sporadically anyway, and a two-week or more gap between posts is not unusual even under normal circumstances.  But I'm frantically trying to get a large cushion of devotions for my May 19 relaunch of Quiet Devotions on www.QuietPublications.com.  The goal I've set for myself is to write at least seven each week, preferably ten.  Last week I wrote two.  I've fallen behind again this week, but hope to catch up.

On the other hand (or perhaps I should say 'with' the other hand, if I'm going to be literal about it) I've been getting a little more done on my novel.  While most of it is typed in a Word doc on my desktop, I also keep a copy of it on my phone for reference.  And I keep a little notebook and pen in my purse, for when I have some extra time and don't happen to be near my computer.  Or, in this case, for when my computer keyboard closely resembles a medieval torture device.

I'm able to type better now, but it does still hurt after a few minutes.  So I'm writing this post and I'll try to catch up on this week's devotions, but I'm going to wait a bit before I type up the new handwritten pages for my novel.

And I've been a lot more respectful of that knife!