It helps to know where things are.
Y’all know I recently moved to Florida. (Well, okay, it’s been two years—but that’s recent when considered as a percentage of years I’ve been alive.)
What some of you may not know is that I was born here. And the area to which I moved is the same area I spent many a summer when I was much, much younger than I am now.
And therein lies this Monday’s Miracle.
Because Saturday night, the MotH* got a fish hook stuck in his thumb. We’ll set aside all the nonsense about how I didn’t respond quickly enough when he told me he wanted me to come out to the garage—because, really, who would think just telling me what the problem was when I asked would take any more time than yelling about how I should just do what he said? We’ll set that aside. Mitigating circumstances, and all that. A fish hook in the thumb can be pretty painful. So he gets a pass on that—although I would like to point out, for future reference, that I respond better in an emergency if it is clear to me that something is an emergency and what the exact nature of it is.
And let’s consider, when we are adding up my crisis management skills, that I did manage to cut the lure, thereby releasing him from the fish, at least, without fainting at the sight of blood. That’s something I’ve never been sure I was immune to since the one and only time I’ve ever fainted was during a first aid lecture. (Mitigating circumstances there, as well. Long story. Maybe some other post.)
And let’s consider that I got him to the emergency room pretty quickly.
That’s the miracle. Not that I got him there, exactly, but rather that I know where an emergency room is around here. It’s not like I scope out all urgent care facilities whenever I go anywhere. (I know some people do that. I’ve never been sure if they are taking that scouting motto of “Be Prepared” —or hypochondria—to a whole new level.)
I don’t think it has ever occurred to me, in anything other than a vague ‘it might be good to know this’ kind of way, to acquire that kind of data. It’s possible I always had a vague idea that an emergency needing an emergency room would also need an ambulance, and I feel 99% certain that the ambulance driver will know where to go.
So, this could have been a bad thing. I might have had to call that ambulance.
But I spent a lot of time here intermittently many years ago. I know where a hospital is! I know the way well enough to find it in the dark! (And I hate to drive in the dark.) So this is a miracle.
And the thumb is fine.
* MotH = Man of the House
