Finger Winger

What can I say?   I now have over half dozen stitches in my most useful finger.

The middle finger of my right hand.

Sure, its suffered from over use (cracking myself up).

That finger has served me so well over the decades.

So, I have been in allergy hell.  Not only is everything dumping massive amounts of pollen out in a sexual reproductive frenzy here in the valley, but my dryer had lost its efficiency, due to a clogged vent tube, so I was venting lint right into the garage on a temporary basis of course.

Don't worry, its an electric dryer not gas.

But I have my chair in the garage and I read out there, drink coffee, relax, away from cats when I can.  And the lint floating around had severely clogged my sinuses and caused me spasms of coughing sneezing and drippage.

Tuesday was the day to clean it out completely and restore my nose to normality.  I had delivered Baby, the young black tux mother cat from Lebanon, to the Salem clinic to be fixed.   I had returned the 8 Lebanon cats and fed the park cats and the wood lot cats.  Now to get to the dryer vent business.  I hate dryer vents and everything associated with them.

I decided to start inside, with the dryer itself, vacuuming under it, behind it and inside it.  I used a screwdriver to loosen the hose clamp holding the vent tube to the back of the dryer.  I'd already removed the lint trap to clean it.  It's on the top of the dryer.

After removing the vent tube, I carelessly tossed the screw driver up on top of the dryer.  Varoom!   It went straight down the lint trap opening into the bowels of the dryer.  Shoot darn!

Now I have to get it out.  I unclip the top of the dryer and tilt it up but there's no way in from there.  I then take the back off the dryer.  It's a large sheet metal piece held by tiny bolts to the dryer body.  I had a lot of trouble finding a tool to use to remove those.   I finally did, got the back off, but then had to also remove the back of the lint tube. When I did, I found the screwdriver, vacuumed it all out in there while it was off, then put the back back on.  Except, I dropped the last screw/bolt, whatever, and it rolled under the back of the dryer.

This didn't seem a big deal.   I leaned way over and extended my right hand under the back edge of the dryer to feel for that screw.    YOOOOOW!   That sheet metal edge is razor sharp and sliced my middle finger!   It bled like a fountain.  I grabbed a dish towel from a pile on the washer and ran for the kitchen.  I was trying not to yell out loud. I always try to muffle myself when I get hurt.  I don't know why.  I leaned over the kitchen sink, water running over the gory finger, huffing out screams I silenced before they came out.

I decide it looks bad enough to probably need stitches.  I wrap a towel around it, grab an ice pack and head for my car.  However, a woman returning traps pulls up behind me, intent on returning them, even though I quickly point to my bloody hand and say I'm headed to Urgent Care.  She continues talking however.  She wants to keep a third trap to still try for the female.  I finally tear myself away from the conversation and head off to Urgent Care.  I realize at some point she is following me in her car.  When I get to Urgent Care she  pulls up next to me.  She'd forgotten to give me the cage cover towels and wants to talk further.  I finally drag myself away from this conversation too, and go inside.

The doctor seems high school age to me.  I must be getting very old.

He tells me he has bad news.  "You will not be able to pursue a career as hand model," he states, dead pan.   "No!"

He's a Zoolander movie fan.  Remember the "world's greatest hand model" scene, with David Duchovney?

The doctor had me laughing over and over.

Anyhow I got the stitches and was out in time to make it to the clinic to pick up Baby and even got the dryer back in working order later on, although it was yesterday I finally cleaned the vent tube in the garage, to outside.

The dryer is back to drying clothes efficiently again.   And my finger is healing already.

The upside in all this is I found most of my missing socks behind the dryer.