In the middle of our week in Walt Disney World, we had to do some laundry. The resort, (Caribbean Beach), has a few pay laundry rooms scattered about for guests, and we brought detergent and a roll of quarters for this. It’s been a very long time since we used a laundromat. The prices are $2 per load nowadays, for both washer and dryer — that’s $4 per load total! Wifegrit and I put two loads in the washers, and then later Calfgrit7 and I went to move the clothes from the washers to the dryers.

I cleaned the lint filter for the upper dryer, then filled it up with the first load. Then I bent down to clean the filter of the lower dryer, and WHAM! I smacked my forehead on the coin slot thing sticking out of the front of the dryer.

This damn thing:

“Son of a . . . mother . . . god . . .” I stammered and barely held back some serious cursing because Calfgrit7 was with me, and there was a woman in the room doing her own laundry. It hurt so damn bad. So incredibly bad. Really, I mean that smack to my forehead friggin’ hurt! After a few moments I gathered myself and calmed down. The woman in the room showed some concern — I don’t think she saw what happened, she just heard me start shouting unfinished swears. When she was looking at me, I pointed out the coin slot and said, “I just smashed my head on that.”

“Oh dear,” she said, “that must have hurt.”

A few more moments to recover from the shock, and I went back to the washer to move the clothes. When I finished, and was putting the coins into the dryer slots, Calfgrit7 said, “Dad, you’re bleeding.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I can feel it.” I looked at my reflection in the window of the snack machine beside the dryers, and sure enough, I saw some blood trickling down. I had smashed my head pretty solidly. Once I started the dryers, I said, “OK, let’s get back to the room and fix me up.” My little boy took my hand and we headed out of the laundromat for our room.

While walking back, I texted Wifegrit, “Get out the first aid kit.” She always brings a good kit for emergencies on our vacations. She’s a good nurse. When I walked into the room, she said, “Oh my!” She cleaned me up, and this was the revealed wound:

Two cuts. I applied ice to prevent bruising and swelling, and she applied antibiotic ointment to prevent infection. The pain was gone, and I was feeling no after effects of the injury, but I was very concerned about having a scar or two in the center of my forehead. I was afraid the cuts were deep and traumatic enough that they’d leave permanent marks. But only time would tell about that. For then, I just had to keep them clean and protected, so I’d have to wear band-aids on my forehead. At Walt Disney World. For three more days. Sigh.

I bought a ball cap and put on my sunglasses to try to conceal the band-aids. I think I did a fairly good job of it:

Now it’s a few days later, and I’m about to go to work today. I won’t be wearing band-aids, or a hat and glasses to conceal the wounds. But they have started healing, and so aren’t bright red anymore. Wifegrit says they are fading and aren’t as noticeable, but I see them easily and obviously right there in the center of my forehead. And having to continue keeping them moist with antibiotic, (or Vaseline), to keep them from scabbing over just makes me feel like they are even more “right out there.”

I feel very self-conscious about these marks in the center of my head. And I’m still concerned that there will be permanent scars left after the healing. Dammit. I went to Walt Disney World and I got a head wound.

Bullgrit

Those of you who have been following this blog over the years know that we take a family vacation to Walt Disney World every September. (Except for one time we traded September for December.) This year’s WDW vacation starts this Saturday when we leave home, and lasts till next Saturday when we come back.

We’ll be driving this year — it’s a 10-12 hour trip. We drove for our first family time at WDW, 5 years ago, but then after that we flew each year. The combination of expensive tickets and ridiculous airport security has made us decide to try driving again. We have a DVD player, various Disney movies, Nintendo DSs, and some travel games to entertain the boys. We’ll have packed snacks and lunches, but we’ll still stop several times to at least get out and stretch. I’d like to stop for meals, but I’d rather get to the resort sooner rather than later, so we’ll eat on the road. We plan to leave first thing after waking up, (probably 6 a.m.), so we should be in WDW by 6 p.m.

I’m partially looking forward to the drive, the experience of the long family road trip. I remember taking long road trips as a kid with my family, and our boys are now old enough that they’ll remember this excursion. But I’m also dreading the drive, the looooooong monotonous sitting in one place for hours. We drove to the Great Wolf Lodge back in March, but that was only 3 hours. This coming drive will be 3-4 times longer. I’m feeling some trepidation.

This year, both boys are tall enough for all the rides, and they’ve both said they want to ride all the rides. In past years, Calfgrit7 was too small to ride some, and even the ones that either boy was tall enough for, they weren’t adventurous enough to try. Was kind of disappointing. But this year may be more fun in that regard. Also this year, we’re going to the water parks. They enjoyed the Great Wolf Lodge slides, so I think the Disney water parks will be a hit. I know I’m really looking forward to the water fun.

Well, this will be the last post for me until after we get back. So now . . .
TO THE MINIVAN!

I have Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You on my iPhone. I’ve always thought Dolly’s version from The Best Little Whore House in Texas was better than Whitney Houston’s version from The Bodyguard because in the movies, Dolly’s character has had a years-long relationship with Burt’s compared to the days-long relationship Whitney had with Kevin. So Dolly’s version just seemed to have deeper feeling than Whitney’s; Whitney’s seems shallow.

Anyway, listening to the song the other day, I wanted to watch the scene from TBLWHIT again. I haven’t seen the movie in many years, but I remember that it was pretty good. So I searched YouTube for the scene.

While I was watching that video, an ad popped up for “Find Gay Men.”

That cracked me up. I know some Google ads are determined based on browsing history, but as I’ve never searched for gay men, (especially not from my work computer, where I watched that video), I assume there is something inherently gayish about the video itself for that kind of ad to come up as relevant. So that means, somehow, there is a Google algorithm that equates a musical movie with gay interests.

Bullgrit

Is it just my kids, or is this normal?

There were a couple of goldfish crackers on the kitchen floor. I asked the boys who was eating goldfish, and was told Calfgrit7 was. I asked him to come pick up the crackers and put them in the garbage. (Yes, I could have picked them up, but they need to clean up their own messes, even minor ones.) So CG7 starts walking towards me to pick up the crackers off the floor. Satisfied that he was going to do what I told him, I walked away.

A few minutes later, I walked through the kitchen and noticed the crackers are still on the floor. What the hell? When I left, CG7 was three feet from them and closing on the crackers. But somehow he missed and didn’t follow through. I had to call him back and stand over him to make sure he actually picked them up and put them in the trash can.

Later, the kitchen table was covered in plates and bowls. I asked who put all the stuff on the table. Calfgrit7 again. I told the little guy to please clear the table of his mess. So he walked over, picked up a plate, took it and put it on the counter, then ran off to play again. I called him back, “CG7, that was just one thing. Clear all your dishes, please.”

“Oh,” he said. He picked up one bowl and put it away. Then he ran off to play again. There were still  two more bowls, a spoon and a butter knife on the table. (What he had been doing with it all, I have no idea.)

“CG7!” I said, “clear everything away.”

He threw his hands up, “I didn’t know that’s what you meant!”

We both got into a frustrated argument over what “clear the table” means.

Calfgrit11 is also blind to stuff like that. We can put a laundry basket of clean clothes in the middle of his room floor, and he’ll play around it all day. When we ask him if he’s put away his clean clothes, he says, “What clean clothes?”

I have even put the basket in his doorway so he can’t go into his room without moving it. He pushes it to the side, and still, later he asks, “What clean clothes?”

If either boy is missing a tiny piece of a toy, on the patterned den carpet, they can find it in a few moments. But a non-toy or a chore sitting right out blatantly in front of them, it’s invisible. Is this normal?

Bullgrit