No good deed goes unpunished

 It's 3:00 A.M.
  I am waiting for the snow to start but it's still hours away. Tonight's insomnia is not brought on by the usual busy brain, nor by excessive amounts of caffeine, but instead by a throbbing ache in my right thumb that will just not quit.
   It guess it could be worse. I was wearing leather gloves when the stupidity occurred. They cushioned the blow, and judging by the look and feel of the thumb, they are the primary reason that my damaged digit is still attached. 
      I don't think I will be playing much guitar for the next few days, at least until the swelling goes down and the soreness subsides a bit. I feel pretty stupid about doing this, but like they say, "no good deed goes unpunished".
         So at about six o'clock tonight my phone rang, It was my ex wife's daughter ,and she called me because her van had broken down.  She informed me she had been  driving to dinner with her young son in the car when her steering suddenly stopped working. Additionally, now that she had managed to pull to the side of the road, the van would no longer start. AAA told her they could be there by about 9:00 p.m, give or take three hours so there she sat, parked by the side of the road, in the dark, temperatures approaching freezing in a van that would not start,surrounded by nothing but cemeteries as far as the eye could see.
       I told them to sit tight and headed out in my truck to pick them up. After all, it's not like I was going to let them sit there for three hours in a cold broken down van and wait for the AAA guy. I mean I may be a grumpy old bastard by I am not without a heart. Incidentally, I  am not  mechanic, and I do not even play one on television, so you may be wondering at this point why she chose to call me. 
          I don't know, and neither does my thumb.
         So I drove over to where I suspected they were, since she was not sure what the street name was that they were on, and sure enough there they were. Now the  fun starts.
Not to self;  always make sure all digits are safely outside of the door frame before the vehicle door is slammed closed.
            I told them to get into my truck, curb side and that I would bring them to pick up their dinner and give them a ride home, explaining that if she was having the van towed she just needed to leave the keys and did not have to be there. Realizing the passenger's  side door of my truck was locked I reopened my driver's side door to unlock it just as a gust of wind caught the door and slammed it shut.....while my thumb was still in it. 
               The amazing part is that I did not swear, curse, or use profanity when it happened. Maybe it was because  there was a child present, or possibly  I might have been in shock from  the instant rush of pain. It actually hurts more now than when it happened. Usually when things like that happen to me I curse  like a longshoreman possessed by a truck driver with Tourettes.
          My thumbnail, now blood filled and discolored to a lovely shade somewhere between a dark bluish green and purple is amazingly still intact. My actual  thumb itself has swollen to the point that it appears cartoonish, about two  times the size of it's brother thumb that's attached to my left hand.  Lucky for me, the bag of frozen mixed vegetables seems to be helping a bit, or maybe it's just making my damaged thumb forget  the pain of being caught in the door of my truck about nine hours ago. so it can focus on becoming painfully cramped from being numbed by the cold. Either way, it's time for a couple of more Tylenol.
      Oh, did I forget to mention, just as they were getting in my truck to go get something to eat,my ex wive's first ex husband just happened to be driving by and stopped when he saw her van, so I was dismissed to head back home and assess the damage to my thumb. Like I said, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished".

                                                                                                                           Safe travels,
                                                                                                                            Hugh