One Brick at a Time

Sometimes you have to be selfish and take time for yourself. Sometimes, you do something so totally stupid and hurt yourself, that you are forced to slow down a little. Or to at least pretend.

There's two stories in this picture. I'll tell you how I hurt myself, and then I'll tell you about those bricks. See that cement lil wall thing that those bricks are sitting on? It's shaped like an L if you can't gather that from the photo, and it's empty on the other side (now that the bricks are out.) We're not sure why it's there, except I have a theory that it was built to keep rain from running down the backyard hill into the barn.


Up until Sunday, it was filled with those red bricks. On Friday, that wall was just there, with nothing stacked on it. I was busy painting the porch. Working on the ceiling. First coat of primer I think it was. Anyhow, I heard my neighbors dog barking, and I've been putting him outside after lunch, so I stopped to let him out. When I came back, I realized that I should put my dog out. Her run is to the left of that picture (looking at it) and I decided to take a well needed break from painting and have a little sit down on the wall for a few minutes while she did her thing. She lay down in the sun and the bell chimed 2pm and I stood up to go in and paint.

And I fell. I don't know how, or why.. but my right leg caught on that retaining wall.. my left hand impaled on a rotting stump used to chop firewood, and then my head bounced off the barn wall. All in a matter of seconds. My head is better. My hand has healed on the outside, but the inside and the muscle (under the left pinky, you know that big area) are so incredibly sore. And my leg.. well my leg is an ugly mess of bruise and red and healing skin. Think road rash x 200.

I think of that every time I see this photo. I took the photo.. to show you those bricks. Someone who lived here before us, must've had some kind of patio area, or walkway or something near our back door. It actually comes out of our guest room, and heads towards a large window in our family room that was a door when this was a Dr's residence.. which leads me to my belief. Anyhow.. there are bricks buried in my yard. Some of them are slowly seeping to the surface, and some of them are yet to be discovered. Those ones that you can see there, I pulled out a few years ago (2002) when I put in a slate walk coming out of that same back door. It's not a big walk. If it wasn't raining tonight I was going to take a photo of it to show you, but alas some showers came roaring in and blew that idea. I've had those bricks stacked inside that retaining wall for 4 years. My neighbor wants them to build a walk, so they are there, ready to get moved across the street. I told him he is more than welcome to the rest of the bricks in the yard. Could probably build a walk to China.