I searched Google this morning for “what to do for a broken toe” and confirmed what I thought, that there’s nothing but wrapping it to the adjacent digit. We don’t have any medical tape, so I just put my sock on carefully and put on my boots. That hurt, so I switched to my tennis shoes. That hurt even more, so I switched back to my boots. They seemed to have a little more toe room.

I downed a couple of Alieve and headed for work. It’s a good thing I leave myself ten minutes to spare because it was so foggy. Well, my toe isn’t hurting so much, I thought as I parked the car. Then I walked across the parking lot. The pain was excruciating. I didn’t know how I was going to work.

I raided the first-aid cabinet in the break room and tried taping up my toes, but I didn’t have much time before having to clock-in. I tied my boot back on and hobbled down to the other end of the warehouse to clock-in, then immediately took my boot back off and ripped off the tape. It hurt worse with the tape than without it.

So I grabbed my first stack of stickers and my cart and limped down to Educational Books. Fortunately, I don’t do much walking. I stand in front of a shelf and pull what I need, then move on to the next section. By keeping my weight on my left foot, I could manage fairly well.

But then a funny thing happened. Three hours later when it was time for our first break, I realized I wasn’t limping anymore. In fact my toe didn’t hurt much at all, a dull ache, but nothing debilitating. I took another Alieve, in case that was the magic bullet, but I didn’t take another one until our second break in the afternoon, but it wasn’t hurting any worse then either. It was amazing.

After that morning, my toe didn’t slow me down a bit. I even pulled 247 pieces an hour for a department whose standard is 220. That’s a whole lot FASTER than I have to go!

We finished pulling for the stores early today, so I started stocking while everyone else did something I haven’t been trained to do yet. Suddenly, an announcement came over the loudspeaker telling us all to assemble in the break room because of a weather alert. In Oklahoma that only means one thing. We gathered outside the warehouse manager’s office, as he poked his head out the door periodically to tell us where the storm cells were and where they were heading. One was six miles to the north but heading east. The sirens were going off outside.

The loudspeaker came on again, but this time with music… somehow fittingly, a bluegrass version of “I’ll Fly Away.”

Finally, the all clear was issued, but our managers told us we were free to go home if we wanted. There was another storm heading through Norman, so they all but ordered me to leave. I should have stayed and waited out the storm, but later there were several accidents on roads I traveled, so maybe it’s a good thing I left early.

It started raining as I got into the car, and it was hailing like mad by the time I pulled out of the parking lot. The drive home was pretty miserable with the rain and the water all over the road, but I made it home alive. By then, Norman was sunny and dry.

Weather in Oklahoma is so weird.

I wonder if my toe will start swelling up when a storm is coming.