Pedley's Ponderings

Parenthood is an exercise in fruitless repetition. I was reminded of that recently by our energetic 3-year-old, Oliver.

As he’s prone to do, the boy was bouncing off the walls one day and climbed atop our living room couch. He grinned wildly and flashed me a crazed look, which told me all I needed to know.

“Don’t do it,” I said coldly. “You’re going to hurt yourself…”

The boy jumped, promptly hurting himself and causing a mini-meltdown. After comforting him, I offered a bit of advice that I hoped might stick somewhere in his rapid-fire brain.

“The next time you think it’s a good idea to do something like that, just remember what stupid feels like,” I told him.

I don’t think it stuck, but I was reminded last weekend I need to heed my own advice more often.

I was making progress on my house-scraping project Sunday before heading inside to put a pork butt in the crockpot. We wanted to invite a few people over for supper, and the slab of swine would fill their bellies and leave plenty of leftovers.

I entered our garage and opened the door to the entryway. We recently installed new flooring there, and the door sticks pretty bad because the bottom is too tight now. I’ve remedied this by grabbing the side of the door right above knob and throwing it shut when I come and go most times, but the key to doing this successfully is dependent on letting go of the door.

On Sunday, I forgot to let go.

My fingertips crunched into the frame as the door attempted to shut around my flesh. The pain was immediate and blinding, and I saw fireworks. I sprinted up our entry stairs and into the house, but the words wouldn’t come. I couldn’t breathe. The pain was unbearable and I didn’t want to look at what had become of my fingers.

I felt them first before looking. Once I finally gave them a gaze, I saw the tip of my left hand’s ring finger had been obliterated. The nail was already turning purple and red, and I had sliced my skin pretty bad. Surprisingly, blood was minimal.

Kaity came inside and gave it a look. She then called her mom, a nurse, who told me to go to the emergency room. I thought that was over the top – I got cut and destroyed my fingernail, big whoop.

An hour later, I was getting an x-ray, three stitches and a splint. I broke the tip of my finger, and now I have to wear this metal cocoon for three weeks while it heals. Using a keyboard has been a joy.

The most annoying part about all this is that I’ve done this before, albeit not to this extent. I’ve caught my hand in that door several times much less forcefully, and each time I’ve mentally reminded myself to simply use the knob next time. Idiotically, I never have.

Doorknobs were invented for a reason. This splint and these stiches are what stupid feels like, and I don’t think I’ll be forgetting that anytime soon.

Nick Pedley is the news editor of The Hartley Sentinel/The Everly-Royal News.