Just what you did this year. Me, I stabbed myself in the hand with a wooden skewer while trying to thread red potatoes onto it in order to make Grilled Garlic-Rosemary Potatoes from the August issue of Cook’s Illustrated. The potatoes turned out wonderfully, by the way. Next time I’ll remember not to hold the pointy end of the stick in my hand while shoving with the other. The bleeding finally stopped…
Oh, and you really do have to soak those skewers a full half hour in water…I rushed the process and two of my skewer caught fire and burned up…
So, what injuries are the rest of you experiencing? I saw a bright-red lobster boy at the grocery store earlier…forgot the sunblock, apparently…
I have so far escaped unscathed. I can’t say the same for my parents, though.
We were cooking some pork ribs in a roaster, as it rained nearly all day and thus wasn’t grilling weather. Mom took the lid off the roaster and reached in bare-handed to adjust the rack, which was nice and hot, having been in the roaster supporting the ribs all that time. She called for Dad to come help her, and he reaches into the roaster in the exact same way.
I have one now. I was out tidying up the flag, which had gotten wrapped around its pole, and I stepped in an ant nest that I didn’t realize was there. A few dozen ants decided to express their displeasure at my stepping on their home by biting my right foot. Luckily they weren’t fire ants.
The Princess took a tumble off the easy chair and hit her head and arm. She cried for about 20 seconds, then settled back on the chair to watch the Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends marathon. Right now we are just waiting for it to get dark enough for fireworks. Let’s see what happens - last year the neighbors down the street nearly burned down somebody’s garage.
I rode my bicycle into a thorn bush and scratched up my arm. It had nothing to do with 4th of July, unless you can claim I was subconciously distraught at having to work on one of my favorite holidays.
First: I spent the day working a community event at a small town near the city I live in. My job? Entice passing people into chucking tomatoes at my face. I am all too good at antagonizing people, and all too poor at ducking; it will be interesting explaining the black eye at work tomorrow.
Second: I liberally applied sunblock to every inch of exposed skin and some not-so-exposed skin. I grew up in Arizona; I know how to handle sun! Except, for whatever hare-brained reason, I didn’t put any on my face. It will be interesting explaining the lobster-like appearance of my face at work tomorrow.
Third: One of the firework crew I was helping at one point thought it would be funny to shout “Watch out, she’s going to blow!” just as I was exiting the truck with a heavy box of tools. Which I dropped. On the back of my ankle. You see, I’d turned to dive for cover… It will be interesting explaining the limp at work tomorrow…
About 10 years ago I was hit in the side of the face near my right eye with a small bottle rocket. My neighbor decided to let her 5 year old light one and he knocked it over after the fuse lit. The bottle rocket shot under a car then flew another 40 feet or so then went off just as it hit me. I still have the powder burn on my face, a nice reminder of that night.
When I was a kid we would hold “ladyfingers” (tiny firecrackers) in our fingers until they went off. It was some kind of stupid bravado. Leaves you fingers numb for quite awhile.
No injuries, I almost got busted by the fire marshall. I was at a neighbor’s house, chatting with him while he was shooting bottle rockets illegally. My two boys were about a half block away at another neighbors, playing with sparklers and the like. So, the fire marshall pulls up, my neighbor with the bottle rockets runs around the back of his house, and I instinctively follow. We went in the back door and hid in the basement, giggling, while the fire marshall, and by now, the cops were banging on the door (they knocked on doors at the surrounding houses, as well). They eventually went away; my other neighbor had taken my boys back around the corner to my house. My kids thought I was going to get arrested or something. Everything turned out OK, though.
Jesus, I’m a 17 year old trapped in a middle aged man’s body… :o
Somehow a glob of my 8 year-old’s mega sparkler fell off at initial ignition and dropped down between and under my left big and second toes. Where it kept burning. I have a blistering burn there and a melted spot on the sole of my teva.
Thankfully I was able to shake it out very easily, so it could have been worse. I’ll wear closed toe shoes doing sparklers from now on, though.
I was working on my truck, and tried to use my bare hands to take out a busted turn signal bulb. I now have a cut on the tip of my finger about 1cm across and about 2mm deep! It bled for a good hour, even through two band aids!
