Before the pain (Day 937)

Without the demands of a bathroom fit to deal with, we had a bit of a later start this morning, and I wandered up the hill with the dogs in daylight. I didn't really mind the drizzle, it was just nice to be able to see where I was going.
I had a customer to visit in Stromness and arrived at her house at the allotted time to find the all the curtains in the house closed, and no reply at the door. Slightly concerning when the customer is an elderly lady. I returned home via Coldomo, where I looked at a job for Ally and Ej. I phoned my customer who was embarrassed to have missed me, but thanked me for my concern.
After lunch my beautiful wife and I headed to Skaill with the dogs. It was lovely to walk along the beach without much wind. We spotted a stone which was ideal for a carving commission I have to do for Christmas. Using a selection of straps and ropes, we hauled the stone over the rocks to the bottom of a long slope of pebbles. We used piles of seaweed to make it easier to slide the stone up to the top of the slope. It was tiring but worked remarkably well.
Once we had the stone at the carpark, and having realised that it was too big to go in the car (it is about five feet long) we headed home and returned with the van. It went in the van really easily and back at home we got it out and onto a sack barrow without much difficulty.
I pushed it into the carving shed and was propping it against the wall when it toppled over and trapped my finger between it and the wall. I thought that I had lost the tip of my little finger, and told HV to take me to hospital.
The A&E staff were brilliant and dealt with me immediately - one of the great things about living in Orkney is that there is rarely much of a wait for emergency treatment. I was dosed with some morphine, x-rayed, then had my finger anaesthetised before the doctor cleaned it up for me. It looks a bit grim, it is very sore, but it should heal ok. It is badly cut and torn but it could have been much worse. I have added some extras of the damage, but avoid looking at them if you are squeamish....
I am going to buy a hoist for moving stones around with.