Making of a Breaking part 4 of 4 (I think)

This is my blog and I can bitch if I want to! Ok... hmmmm... something to bitch about...

politics? Nope, this ain't a political blog besides I'm very happy after the US elections.

religion? Nope, couldn't care less.

The Drought? Nope, our water bill was 1/3 of what it was last year so hats off to water conservation!

The Ashes? Nope, the series doesn't even start for another 11 days, 17 hours, and 10 minutes. Oh, I'm for the poms to kick the butts of the crims --go Barmy Army!

$? Nope, that's covered.

Car? Nope, she's running fine.

Panther? Nope, no maulings lately --at least not of me, and that's all that matters.

Gardening? Nope, I won the looper battle and cooked the snails.

Dang! Nothing to bitch and wine --oops, whine-- about. Ok, I guess I'll just go directly to part 4 without passing go but I will collect the $200 just cus I can.


Makee Breakee Part Quatro

Last we left our intrepid little show-off ice skater he had been fitted with an air cast by a teacher at the school. Remember? I'm not gonna give you a synopsis, just scroll down to part 3, sheesh.

Mom came from work and picked up little dave from the school --no ambulance ride --But don't worry, dave had one in college-- and took the crying little kid (still no pain killers, kids were tough back then) to some sort of Bone and Fracture Clinic type place. Don't ask me for particulars about it, I was 9 years young at the time.

I do remember getting x-rayed, and waiting a bit for them to get done. Still no pain killers, but my natural endorphins and adrenaline were working juuuuuust fine. As long as the break didn't move a fraction of a millimetre then it didn't hurt --It hurt lots of times during the xray.

The doctor came back with the xrays and showed them to me and my mom. Both the radius and ulna were snapped completely through about an inch up from my wrist. The bad thing was that my muscles and tendons had tightened up (I'm one of those people with that lean, wirery type strength) so the broken part of each bone from the wrist side had been pulled towards the elbow and wedged firmly between the two bones from the elbow side.

Setting it was not going to be easy... the doctor said so... I believed him...

Shots... Ahhhh! Blessed painkillers! Salvation! BULLSHIT! I was informed I needed to have TWO (2) shots to kill the pain during setting. A. Shot. Directly. Into. The. Marrow. Of. Each. Bone. The needle seemed a tad bit long... and scary... and long... and thick... Did I mention it was very long?

I mentally braced myself, gritted my teeth, and thought it couldn't hurt as much as breaking the bones did. As the first needle slid into my arm I turned away. As the needle pierced the marrow of the first bone I felt PAIN much worse than the breaking of the bones. Ummmm.... OUCH. Oddly enough, the pain went away after a second or two.

I glanced over as the doctor was preparing the second shot... Another long, scary needle... I turned away... took several deep breaths... mentally prepared my little brain for the utter anguish of the needle stabbing into the marrow of the second bone... I told the doctor, "Ok, I'm ready for the second one."

"Oh, too late, I already did it."

Woo-hoo! I was so numbed up from the first one that I didn't even know the second had been done! COOL! One happy little kid, I tells ya.

Now comes the setting. I remember it cus I was there! Actually, since every single iota of any sensation that even thought of resembling pain had been removed from my arm, I was quite fine watching the procedure.

A nurse had to help. My upper arm was flat on the table with my totally numbed forearm sticking straight up (hmmmm, my wrist and arm sure do look funny all broken like that...). The nurse held my humorous (upper arm) and elbow joint with all her weight and held onto the part of my forearm closest to the elbow, while the doctor pulled up on my hand and wrist with all his strength to un-wedge the broken tips of the bones from each other. I couldn't feel a damn thing! Hmm, I wonder what that odd grating sound is... thought little dave as his wrist and hand moved moved up. Hmm, I wonder what that odd grinding sound is... thought little dave as the doctor lined up the broken bits of bone.

It took the doctor and nurse over five minutes. They were both out of breath, sweating heavily, and trying to get the circulation back in their hands afterwards. I later learned it was one of the hardest sets he's ever done. Hey, I'm famous for something!

I ended up with a cast that went almost to my shoulder and totally encased my hand except for the fingers. He said normally he wouldn't put on a cast like this for this type of break except that mine was pretty severe and he wanted it totally immobilised.

I got EVERYONE in class and most of the hockey team to sign the cast, little kids love signing someone else's cast.

A week later I had Doug (older brother) help me lace up my skates good and tight so we could go skating, cast and all --my parents still don't know we did that so don't tell em!



Food time!


Snails with Rosemary and Wine

Note: this is NOT a French recipe for an escargot dish. If you've had escargot in the states, I can guarantee that it's not this. This I got from the island of Crete.

What you need:

1 kg snails
½ cup red wine
½ cup flour
½ cup olive oil
salt, pepper, rosemary

What you do:

First, you need to prepare the snails:

Put the snails in a big bowl filled with water and leave them there until their heads come out (30 to 45 minutes) and clean them thoroughly. Throw away all the snails whose heads have not come out. Put the snails in a saucepan half-full with water and when the water comes to the boil, add 3 tbsp. salt and half a glass of vinegar and boil them for 10 minutes. Then throw the water and wash them very well with cold water.

You can then use the snails for many different recipes.

Here's what you do for the rosemary and wine recipe:


Salt the snails, flour them and cook them in hot oil for 3 minutes, with their openings facing the pan. Add the rosemary, salt and pepper, stir them and 2 minutes then add the wine. Let them come to the boil and they are ready to serve. Another option is to prepare a batter, using flour, salt, pepper, oregano and garlic (optional), fill the snails’ openings with this mixture and fry them in the oil and rosemary.

Enjoy!