Okay, so I cut my head open with a power saw today.

I had a very productive day prior to the incident, making a lot of progress toward the completion of my ongoing porch-repair project. Everything went smoothly, except that the skies became overcast and there was some drizzle. Fearing a downpour, I moved the table saw so that it was underneath the second floor porch, right in front of the cellar steps. As it happened, there was no cause for alarm, as it never progressed past a slight mist of rain. I managed to cut more than fifty balusters without injuring myself; strangely enough, it wasn’t the power-tool portion of the table saw that damaged me–it was the table itself.

After calling it quits, I packed everything away, stowing most of my equipment in the cellar, but I left the table saw out because, well, I sure as hell can’t get it down the steps by myself. So when I went back upstairs after depositing my equipment, I introduced my forehead to a metal arm of the table saw. It didn’t really hurt that much (though it’s kind of aching now), but it did, as the title of this post indicates, start gushing blood. It stopped soon enough, after some ministrations, though I felt the need to go get some of that liquid bandage stuff to minimize the chance of scarring. But looks like I’ll probably have a lovely wound to show off at Readercon this weekend.

So there you have it. That’s how I spent my Independence Day. What did you all do?

Incidentally, isn’t it a bit ironic that it’s illegal (pretty much everywhere) to set off fireworks, considering that we’re doing it to celebrate our independence?