Sticky Toes
originally published on October 7, 2023
2023: Making Plans, Toronto, CA
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men… to use a line from Robert Burns’ poem, “To a Mouse”.
Yo, Christina, what have you been up to?
I have been waiting for facilities to be fully open again so I could get back into creating film-captured and darkroom-printed photographs. I have been trying to find vendors for the reproduction and shipment of prints. I have been contemplating how best to allocate my limited funds:
Should I change my website into an ecommerce site while continue ordering third-party suppliers’ test prints of artwork
consequently producing the need for ($$) a digital camera to capture high-res-for-sale-product images
consequently requiring more dollars for incidentals
Or, ought I purchase film and props for commencement of photo creation alongside renting a darkroom?
Anyway, let me recount how my toes came to be sticky.
During the usual weekly cleaning, I was attempting to pull out of its storage, a case, when BAM! I began to sweat. Everything appeared dim and very bright at the same time - sharply focused tunnel vision. Looking down to the origin of pain, I saw blood oozing from my big toe while the toe nail was raised off the toe bed.
The case brimming with photography books somehow acquired its own momentum and slammed against my foot.
Concerned about the toe becoming infected due to the questionable protection of the nail - I was unsure if the nail had completely dislodged or was still clinging on (maybe I should say “Klingon”?) - bandaged up toe-wise - I hobbled down the street to the clinic.
After waiting with a whaling child, ladies in conversation and incoherent individuals, I was seen by an amiable physician who expressed regret, but answered my many questions. He didn’t want to remove the nail as it was hanging on to one side of the toe and nail regrowth require considerable time.
Throughout the spring and summer, I sported either band-aids or tape on said toe. Sometimes the adhesive dressing would loosen or turn outwards and become friendly with, and, paste itself to the nearby toe or the floor. Sticky toes.
In between worrying about the nail ripping off with ensuing bleeding, I would spread my toes then squeeze/stick them together again; this was my first time experiencing sticky toes.
Akin caring for babies: cleansing, drying and feeding castor oil to the toe prior to re-bandaging has become my daily routine.
Was this universe intent upon presenting solutions through means other than plain words? Was it necessary that Life Library’s of Photography books hurled themselves unto me?
As fate would have it, only sufficient funds were available for purchases of a bulk roll of film, props, along with darkroom and its accouterments rental. Alas! A fitted resolution, since I prefer creating photographs and the darkroom more than the social or marketing aspects of it.
… go aft awry and leave us nothing but grief and pain, for promised joy!
- a fellow aqua, Robbie Burns
