Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Snow Hero

While I wait for KS to finish his work, I will now elaborate yet another episode of Eric’s Misadventures. This one involves snow when he was working in the USA.

There was this girl that Eric liked back then. She lived in a cabin near the lake and one hard winter, she was almost snowed in. So she called on Eric’s help.

Immediately seizing the opportunity to help a damsel in distress, Eric geared himself with thick gloves, jackets and a beanie. Upon reaching her place, he was faced with several feet deep of snow which he had to shovel off her driveway.

Our hero took on the task gamely and set about clearing the path. Of course, being inexperienced and the sole worker, it took him many long hours to complete the task in the freezing winds. By the time he was done, it was dark, his fingers numb with dripping cold and all she said was, “Thanks!”

Trudging back home, he removed his sodden apparel and thought nothing of it. The next day at work, he felt his left ear stinging but didn’t act upon it until it started oozing pus. Frightened, he quickly then went to see the doctor.

The doctor was shocked to see his condition and diagnosed it as frostbite. If he had delayed any further, he would have lost his ear. However, since the natives are well aware that they should be wearing muffs to protect their ears, the doctor couldn’t resist but to ask him to wait while he called in his nurse to come take a look.

Turned out, a whole bunch of nurses tagged along for they have never seen a frostbite case. They all fussed over him, “Oh you poor thing!” while treating him like some small kid who should have known better. One of the nurses then proceeded to bandage his ear but because of the lack of experience in such cases, the bandage was wrapped AROUND his head.

By the time the doctor came back in, Eric was bandaged as though he was about to be ritually mummified. The doctor gasped and quickly untangled him. Eric ended up with a huge bandage wrapped around the ear so it protruded like a big mushroom growing from the side of his head.

His colleagues had a field day thereafter.

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