I am not crying wolf.
Give my recent slightly-evil, largely-successful, possibly-cruel attempt to lead you all to think that I had been attacked in a parking lot (“Cutthroat”, 4 May 2014), doubts about the following story would be entirely reasonable and totally justifiable. I assure you, however, that what I am about to tell you is completely true………..no embellishments added (which, for a Noel married to a Hislop, is miraculous!)
Fire. What a paradox. Forest fires ignite without effort or intention (or crumpled paper) while all but the most patient can use an entire box of matches (and a ream of crumpled paper) trying to get a campfire started.
Chick is not patient.
The large pile of dry and semi-dry limbs and branch in the upper corner of our garden needed to be burned. Tired of watching his piles of crumpled paper turn to ash without lighting the burn pile, Chick turned to gasoline. He doused the wood. Really tired of watching his piles of crumpled paper turn to ash without lighting the burn pile, he doused the wood again…..and again. Satisfied that the wood was saturated, he lit his pocket lighter and leaned in and……….
BOOM!
The wood caught fire. So did the vapors rising from the wood. So did Chick’s arm.
He immediately dropped and rolled in the dirt, effectively extinguishing the fire. He also very effectively ground soil into the wound; it was a mess of charred, muddy flesh.
“MOM!” I heard Grace yell, “Come quick! Chick burned himself BAD!”
Blessedly, the burn was not nearly as bad as we all feared. Second degree burns covered a healthy (or unhealthy, as the case may be) portion of the dorsal side of his forearm, starting at the base of his t-shirt sleeve and extending to his knuckles. Gray gobs of seared skin peeled from the arm but the burns did not extend past the dermis layer. Even more blessedly, only his arm was burned. His hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows were scorched but his face and eyes were unharmed.
We went to Urgent Care where they scrubbed the area and wrapped it in a sterile dressing. Today he will go to his final pre-mission interview with the stake president and to his Seminary graduation with his right arm wrapped mummy-like in white gauze. I imagine he will get loads of attention. (A mummified arm may be as effective a chick magnet as a baby lamb….) Is the accompanying pain worth the resulting attention? You will have to ask him.
While you are asking, ask Miles about his Krypto competition. He was on fire this week as well, though his fire was only figurative and much more fun. He completed in the Weber County School District Math/Science Olympiad, as a member of Midland Elementary’s fourth grade Krypto team. They won 2nd place, an improvement over last year’s 3rd place finish. He wore both medals 24/7 for days.
Tanah also experienced a burn lately………..a long, slow burn. Following the (stupid) tradition of making a dance date an all-day affair, the young man who asked her to a dance told her they were doing a “choir thing” and asked her to be ready at 9:30 a.m. “Choir thing” indeed. He took her to his state choir competition……on the school bus! She spent most of the day sitting ALONE on the U of U campus while her date and his choir friends sang competitively. At that point, it would not have taken gasoline to ignite her temper. She was already fuming.
I may go up in flames…..or melt down. Time will tell. Actually, I am quite optimistic that all is well. I am in God’s hands.
We’ve been praying for financial help; multiple surgeries, wisdom teeth extractions, several dental crowns, a trashed rental requiring thousands of $$ of repairs, and upcoming mission expenses have my monetary worry-meter in the red (not to mention our bank account!). Working full time at OPA was not the answer to our prayers (“Who Will Bring the Lambs?”, 19 January 2014) but, it seems, that working for the Electronic High School (EHS)again is. Starting in July I will be working ½ time for EHS, 2/3 time for OPA, and full time for Lance and the children. I am also doing time for the Lord. My guess is that the “doing time for the Lord” part is the piece that will make it all possible….something about the refiner’s fire……gold comes out in the end, right?
Sure love you,
Teresa
Give my recent slightly-evil, largely-successful, possibly-cruel attempt to lead you all to think that I had been attacked in a parking lot (“Cutthroat”, 4 May 2014), doubts about the following story would be entirely reasonable and totally justifiable. I assure you, however, that what I am about to tell you is completely true………..no embellishments added (which, for a Noel married to a Hislop, is miraculous!)
Fire. What a paradox. Forest fires ignite without effort or intention (or crumpled paper) while all but the most patient can use an entire box of matches (and a ream of crumpled paper) trying to get a campfire started.
Chick is not patient.
The large pile of dry and semi-dry limbs and branch in the upper corner of our garden needed to be burned. Tired of watching his piles of crumpled paper turn to ash without lighting the burn pile, Chick turned to gasoline. He doused the wood. Really tired of watching his piles of crumpled paper turn to ash without lighting the burn pile, he doused the wood again…..and again. Satisfied that the wood was saturated, he lit his pocket lighter and leaned in and……….
BOOM!
The wood caught fire. So did the vapors rising from the wood. So did Chick’s arm.
He immediately dropped and rolled in the dirt, effectively extinguishing the fire. He also very effectively ground soil into the wound; it was a mess of charred, muddy flesh.
“MOM!” I heard Grace yell, “Come quick! Chick burned himself BAD!”
Blessedly, the burn was not nearly as bad as we all feared. Second degree burns covered a healthy (or unhealthy, as the case may be) portion of the dorsal side of his forearm, starting at the base of his t-shirt sleeve and extending to his knuckles. Gray gobs of seared skin peeled from the arm but the burns did not extend past the dermis layer. Even more blessedly, only his arm was burned. His hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows were scorched but his face and eyes were unharmed.
We went to Urgent Care where they scrubbed the area and wrapped it in a sterile dressing. Today he will go to his final pre-mission interview with the stake president and to his Seminary graduation with his right arm wrapped mummy-like in white gauze. I imagine he will get loads of attention. (A mummified arm may be as effective a chick magnet as a baby lamb….) Is the accompanying pain worth the resulting attention? You will have to ask him.
While you are asking, ask Miles about his Krypto competition. He was on fire this week as well, though his fire was only figurative and much more fun. He completed in the Weber County School District Math/Science Olympiad, as a member of Midland Elementary’s fourth grade Krypto team. They won 2nd place, an improvement over last year’s 3rd place finish. He wore both medals 24/7 for days.
Tanah also experienced a burn lately………..a long, slow burn. Following the (stupid) tradition of making a dance date an all-day affair, the young man who asked her to a dance told her they were doing a “choir thing” and asked her to be ready at 9:30 a.m. “Choir thing” indeed. He took her to his state choir competition……on the school bus! She spent most of the day sitting ALONE on the U of U campus while her date and his choir friends sang competitively. At that point, it would not have taken gasoline to ignite her temper. She was already fuming.
I may go up in flames…..or melt down. Time will tell. Actually, I am quite optimistic that all is well. I am in God’s hands.
We’ve been praying for financial help; multiple surgeries, wisdom teeth extractions, several dental crowns, a trashed rental requiring thousands of $$ of repairs, and upcoming mission expenses have my monetary worry-meter in the red (not to mention our bank account!). Working full time at OPA was not the answer to our prayers (“Who Will Bring the Lambs?”, 19 January 2014) but, it seems, that working for the Electronic High School (EHS)again is. Starting in July I will be working ½ time for EHS, 2/3 time for OPA, and full time for Lance and the children. I am also doing time for the Lord. My guess is that the “doing time for the Lord” part is the piece that will make it all possible….something about the refiner’s fire……gold comes out in the end, right?
Sure love you,
Teresa
| 
|
RSS Feed
