My problem is when I do something stupid it usually leads to me doing something even stupider. For example, a couple years ago the "Foothills Folk Society" group I belong to was putting on a benefit show at a local campground/canoe livery to raise money for the local food bank. As I write a lot of songs about paddling rivers and camping, I was asked to be one of the featured performers which meant I needed to do about a 30 minute set. I arrived the evening before with my guitar and camping gear, set up my tent and joined some folks sitting around picking and singing. It was getting dark and someone said we needed to build a fire. I had a flashlight, some matches and fire-starter in my cook bucket sitting on a picnic table so i reached in the bucket to retrieve them. A filet knife had come out of its sheath and sliced the tip of the middle finger of my left hand - right where a guitar string would get in the wound while playing. After finally stopping the bleeding I taped it tightly and tried to play but the bandage kept deadening the adjacent strings.
The next morning I thought I would have to bow out of the evening performance when I remembered I had a tube of super glue in the glove box of my truck. Glue was used to close wounds during the Vietnam War and I figured it would work on my finger. I retrieved the glue but the cap was stuck. I bit down on the cap and tried to twist it off it wouldn't budge. I twisted harder and broke off a tooth instead. I finally got the cap off with pliers and applied glue to the end of my middle finger. A couple drops had fallen on my ring finger and before my brain kicked in, I licked off the glue only to stick my tongue to the roof of my mouth. Now I had to pry my tongue loose which resulted in some skin ripping off from my tongue and blood coming from the corners of my mouth like in some horror movie. I played that night although some of the lyrics had a slight lisp to them. During the last song the glue came loose and I had blood running down my hand but finally got through it. Later I was talking to some folks in the audience and they thought it was all part of the act.
The next morning i woke up with a sore finger, sore tongue and missing tooth. At least the crowd was generous and we raised a good bit of money and food for the food bank.
DE
I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs