Work, stitches, birthdays and more

Our neighbors made Rick a beautiful birthday cake! Another year older and if you continue to read this post, you will understand why I am not saying another year wiser too. :)

Yesterday, Rick and our worker, Melvin, were going to start pruning the coffee trees. This is the best time of year to do it.

So, as Melvin and Rick start working, Rick suggests to Melvin that he should sharpen the machete, so it is easier to take off the little limbs and it can go into the chipper/shredder easier. After Melvin sharpens the machete and Rick tests it out on a limb, it bounces back and slices open his arm by his elbow.

At that moment, Melvin is in the middle of the coffee field cutting trees, I am painting the ceiling of our new guest quarters and Rick is frantically trying to stop the blood loss.

He finally comes to me with some attempt at a rag around his arm and we find our medkit and temporarily bandage him up. I get my keys and we take Melvin home then head to the doctor.

What I forgot to mention, which would have had no bearing on the day except for our trip to the doctor, is that a car had an accident and knocked down a power line causing a city-wide blackout. The accident happened at 7:30am (Saturday) and we were on our way to the doctor about 11:30am.

I have no idea if Rick went into shock or is just crazy, you would think I would know after being married to him for so long....but as I find parking semi-close to the doc, Rick has me stop to take a picture of a fire hydrant. Okay, so he was a firefighter and always finds them interesting, but he thought his friends back home would appreciate it. So....I take the picture seen below.  :)​ Oh, and yes that is blood on Rick's boot from his still bleeding arm.

We walk into the clinic and it is dark and empty. Oh yeah, still no power in the city. A nurse comes out of the doctor's office and we tell her the problem. The doctor overhears the conversation and comes out. He tells us, he is not happy to hear about the location of the cut and he will examine it to let us know if he can stitch him up or if we need to drive 45 minutes into David to go to the hospital. At least he was willing to look! The nurse gets some portable lights and the doc gladly tells us he is able to stitch it up. $110 dollars later (we had to go to the pharmacy for antibiotics too), only 4 stitches and 35 minutes later, we are back home. It kinda seemed a little expensive, but still cheaper than what we would have paid back in Oregon. By the way, the blue bandaging below was my handiwork. :)

We get home and I make him a cracker, cheese, meat snack so he can take the antibiotics. Oh yeah, no pain meds from the doc, just a recommendation to use Advil.....Rick is pretty sure he hit the bone, because the pain is more than just a cut would be.
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Then it is off to cleaning up the trail of blood that Rick left everywhere when he was looking for me and the medkit.  :)

After being home for a little bit, Rick starts getting antsy that our list of projects is so long and he is getting nothing done. So, he decides that he can replace our kitchen lights, which would not hurt his arm too badly. Below is:

• The before picture (ignore the ceiling that still needs to be painted)
• The wiring he found when he removed the old lights (no electrical tape, just duct tape, the wires were not secured....his list of what was wrong was too long to remember)
• The mess afterwards
• The new lights 

The good news... the power came back around 2pm and the weather was beautiful all day! If you look closely, there is a rainbow behind the trees and you can see barely see the moon starting to show.