Clotheslined in the Piehole

Have I said how much I love running in the backyard with my dog in the evenings? It's a lot. It's almost worth me going to work (and him slumping in the windowsill all day), letting the minutes of the day pile up like pebbles on our chests, just so we can zoom across the grass together and blast them all off. It undoes everything, and I forget everything.

Yesterday, for example, I forgot about Vince's run, a hundred-foot span of cable that goes from the back of the house to the telephone pole at the edge of the yard. There's a cord attached to the line with a little pulley, and the other end clips to his collar, so he can truck around outside unattended until we can afford a fence. It's a pretty good system, I think.

But yesterday, as Penelope watched from the patio, I picked up Vince's football-sized plastic egg toy, ran with it in a football-inspired manner as he gave chase, and, just as I was tucking it under my arm and charging upfield, caught my face on the cable. I don't remember it very clearly, but Penny saw the whole thing, and she says it was terrible. I guess my legs kept moving as my head jerked back at initial contact, then I leaned forward again, still running, and took up the slack in the cord, just before whipping backward again when it went taut. I flew up off the ground when the cable pulled back into my mouth, and I was rolling on the grass before I knew what happened.

Oh, and I fumbled.

I got up and started walking toward Penny, my mouth filling with blood, and she gasped. I felt with my hand to make sure all my teeth were still there. Vince just kind of looked at me. We all went inside and I rinsed my mouth out, counting the punctures where my teeth pierced my lip and trying to get a look at the tear where the cord slid against the corner of my mouth. That part still hurts.

The first thing I said when I got up was, "Wow, I bet that looked funny!" Penny says it didn't look funny.

It's healing up pretty fast, though, which is almost as good as being funny. Tonight I'll be more careful.