A sticky floor. Vibram soles. Caught myself-ha-on my left forehead. Whack on the dining room floor. Ouch. Looked over at my right hand. You know how fingers look. My little finger’s top two joints pointed away from my hand at a 70 degree angle. Well. That didn’t look right. What the nurse said in the E.R. Doc Miner, too.

I will be happy to put 2026 in memory. Not been a great year. In this visit to the ER, required due to my head banging, I felt no pain. Until. Dr. Miner got a syringe full of lidocaine and stuck a needle in the soft tissue of my injured little finger. He worked the needle around the bone. OMG. That hurt.

After he picked up my hand in his. “That’s done.” Sure enough, I had a straight finger. Easy. If you ignore the fall, the ambulance ride, and that damned needle.

Also. CT scan. No skull fracture. No brain bleed. No neck injury. Time to go home. So glad I’m at Elk Run.

Same day. After I was back in 308. The mail. A thick card. Who’s this from? My fellow docents of the class of 2005(I think.) had written messages while having a lunch together. Unexpected. Sweet. Couldn’t have come at a better time.