In my Boot

Yesterday morning I headed down from the garage apartment I now call "Home," to the garage below.  At the bottom of the stairs I pulled on my "outside shoes," the boys size four/hiking/work boots I got at Walmart a couple of weeks ago.  Before putting them on, recalling that Saturday I had felt a pebble or a piece of gravel in them or something, I turned each upside down and shook it out.... I CAN walk with a pebble in my shoe, but WHY???  Nothing came out, so I imagined it had made its escape the night before when I withdrew my foot from the confines of the boot.  So I slipped on the boots and proceeded to my chores... feed the animals, climb the stairs in the old farmhouse to the room that currently houses my eBay merchandise, fill the orders, etc.

With my first or second step toward the first chore, I felt that sharp rock, once again jabbing in my foot.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't particularly pleasant.  I fed the animals first and then I sat down on a chair in the garage and removed the offending boot.  I looked inside, and saw nothing.  I turned the boot upside down and nothing fell out.  Finally, I stuck my hand inside the boot and felt the insole, where my foot was getting the discomfort vibes.... and there it was... tiny... sharp... not a rock, not a pebble, not a piece of gravel... but a nail.  Yes, the sharp addition to my oh-so-comfortable work boots was a thin paneling nail, apparently acquired when I was cleaning out the old-u-haul-truck-turned-mobile-storage-shed on Saturday.  Once identified, and with Joe's expert skills with the nail-removing-snub-noses pliers, the "thorn in my boot"was removed.  I was amazed, first at how LONG it was (over an inch), and second that it had not pierced the skin of my foot.  The soles of those new work boots were JUST thick enough to prevent harm!

This, is where I got the Nail, I suspect

I was reminded of my childhood days when we vacationed every summer in New Bedford, MA, in the tiny little "home" in which my father was raised.  The only indoor plumbing was a hand pump at the kitchen sink.  Water had to be heated on the stove for baths in the large metal tub they placed in the middle of the single large family/living/kitchen/dining room for all of the children to bathe in on Saturday nights.  And to use the "bathroom" required heading up the hill to the "down below"-- the outhouse.  The memories of these times at the "Pond House," (the draw to this old place was her water-front lot on Long Pond) are mostly very good ones.  There was plenty to explore, lots of fun fishing, cousins and grandparents who joined us there each year, and FANTASTIC food (Grampa was a chef).

Early Fishing Days on Long Pond

Still, there were the typical "dangers" of the basically run-down, now used only for summer vacations, place.  Old stuff was lying around under the house, and as an explorer, I was there exploring.  One day, in my explorations, I managed to step on a nail.  I don't recall whether it was under the house or in the yard... anything was possible.  What I do recall is the PAIN.  I recall looking down at my foot, thinly clad in the very inexpensive, thin white sneakers (we called them "may-pops") and seeing the white of the sneaker turning red with my blood.  The nail was, of course, expertly removed, and a tetanus shot endured, and a sore foot kept me down for I dunno, 24 hours?  But I was a little more careful walking/running around that place after that!

So yesterday's nail, which was tiny in comparison to the one when I was eight or whatever, was actually "captured" by the sole of the boys work boot... the $16 boots I had been waiting since last FEBRUARY to see Wal-mart stock once again on their shelves... yes, I know they make work boots for women, and that they are lovely, I'm sure... but they always COST more, and I'm just going to be getting them mucked up here at the old farmhouse.... So, boys boots are fine for me, and I only hope now that the nail, now removed, did not leave a hole through which I will have to endure WATER... because, there is NO DOUBT in my mind, winter will bring us plenty of "wet."

Delivery of 20 Tons of Road Dirt... More Roads Ahead

Last "die-hard" of Summer --
Still blooming, now more than four months!