Santa's Knee

It has been snowing a lot here lately. The snowblower has piled snow up past the the height of the doors of my car on each side. I have a narrow driveway, so there's barely room anymore to drive down between the walls of snow.

The other night I was working in the Pediatric ED, when I happened to glance over at the adult side. There, in room 19, was a man in his 60s wearing a t-shirt that tugged at his beer belly, red suspenders, and blue jeans. His long white hair snaked past his shoulders and he had a full scruffy beard. Both hands were bandaged with gauze and were obviously now reduced to bloody meat as blood was ominously spreading across the dressing. As it turned out, he'd stuck not one, but both hands into his snowblower.

For only a brief second, I thought about grabbing the closest screaming tot and plopping him/her down on Santa's lap. Perhaps AG and I should start with a dog...