Poor Craig

Good morning.
Sorry I missed my usual Wednesday morning post. I got distracted. Tuesday, I let Craig sleep in and went and did some grocery shopping. We're starting to buy supplies to restock the mo-ho for this seasons trips. After I returned and woke up lazybones, I made us lattes, and we were out the door. With the first real break in the weather, (it's been near 50 the last couple of days) we decide it was a good time to get back into walking. The first park we went to we discovered they weren't plowing the paths, (yes, still quite a bit of snow on the ground) so we went to another which was plowed. Just getting into our walk, there was a puddle on the asphalt path from melting snow, so I went ahead and to the side, and Craig followed. But he didn't clear the puddle completely, and quickly discovered it wasn't water after all, but black ice! And down he went before I even knew it. Spilled his coffee as he slammed to the ground. He landed on his left hand. He got up, and appeared to be okay except for some soreness in his hand. Needless to say, he was done walking. We went back to the car and finished our errands. When we arrived back home, he started to ice his hand. He could move all his fingers, but they were very sore. I decide to be productive and cleaned the kitchen. He iced his hand for 20 minutes about every 2 hours and it seemed to be better. Wednesday morning, while I was on the puter, Craig got up much earlier than usual. He came in and showed me his hand. It was very swollen. he couldn't even bend his fingers to touch his thumb. He was worried he wouldn't be able to work. I quickly googled his condition and decided a warm salt bath for his hand was in order. That was suppose to bring down the swelling. He sat for 30 minutes soaking his hand while I showered and readied for work. After soaking, he was able to bend the fingers a little bit. I said take your shower and come to work and soak them more before he starts. He notified his first client that he could do her color, but may not be able to hold a brush to dry her hair. He gave her the option of rescheduling, or drying it herself. She really wanted the color and would be fine drying it herself. After he got to work and soaked it some more, his fingers got more flexible. He soaked again while her color was on, and by the time it came to finish her, they were moving enough for him to finish her up. The hand continued to improve during the day, and he was able to do everyone. I'll be interested to see how it looks this morning when he gets up. It was still quite swollen, but flexible. I'm thinking it'll stiffen up during the night.
It looks to stay slightly above normal for the rest of the week with rain in the forecast, so hopefully by this time next week, all the snow will be gone. At least, for the time being. I'm really jealous that all my southern readers are in full spring.
In other news, our current gas bill came, and for the month of February, we used 6.7 mcf compared to last years 11.2 mcf. This trend has gone on for 3 months now. Well over a 30% decline in gas usage! Now last winter was extra cold, but even compared to 2 years ago, we're down nearly 25%. The new furnace and extra caulking appears to be paying off!
And I'm going in early today so I can stop by Sparrow labs to have blood drawn. It's time for my annual physical in a couple of weeks.
That's all I got for now!