big girl panties

I spent the weekend (and the 3 days prior to the weekend)

fencing in the front yard with the help of my dad.

Well, let me be more specific

Dad fenced the front yard in and I helped.

I'll post some pictures when the rain stops and there is daylight

(2 things that are currently impeding my picture taking abilities at the moment)

I am absolutely thrilled with the results 

and can't wait to get out there and tidy up the garden in the front.

The whole process went very smoothly

until the last day...

You have to picture this now:

me, watering flowers

dad, at the table saw cutting the post caps

the dogs, lounging in the sun.

I looked over (ironically) to where he was cutting

and at that moment the saw blade hit a knot in the wood.

I will spare you the gorey details,

 fortunately it was the wood that jumped up and hit his hand

as opposed to the saw blade

but can I just say that I had no idea that blood could travel so far

and make such a giant mess in such a short amount of time.

And can I also tell you that my dad never cries.

Never.

Its incredible.

He paced and swore a blue streak, dripping blood on everything as he went,

 but that was it.  

Now you're thinking, Candice how lucky that you live with a nurse.

(In fact I live with 2)

They however, were nowhere to be found.

One was in Hawaii, and the other was out shopping for aisle runners for her wedding.

Drat.

There was only trusty little me to deal with the aftermath

and I am so not good with blood, or people in excruciating pain, for that matter.

I wanted to faint, to vomit, or to run and hide under my bed.

Unfortunately neither of those 3 things were options.

In the words of my friend Kym, I had to put on my big girl panties

and deal with the situation.

First things first, I turned the saw off.

I got a bowl of water, a towel, and gauze.

I kept my lunch down.

We wrapped his finger

(indescribably gruesome)

and I strongly encouraged a trip to the hospital.

He shrugged me off at first because he wanted to get the rest of the pieces cut.

Uh huh.

He wanted to turn that saw back on and go right back to chopping wood.

That is my dad people.

He's a handyman grizzly bear.

He eventually relented on the hospital trip and I went to pick up his girlfriend to drive him.

When we got back he had finished cutting the last of the caps and put away most of his tools.

Unreal.

He took the next day off as he needs to let the hole where his finger nail used to be 

heal up a little.

I said, no problem.  Take all the time you need.

And thanks for building us such a stellar fence.

Dad.