My Apologies

I had yesterday's Wordless Wednesday blog post ready and pre-scheduled to go live at 7:00 AM as per normal.  For some reason Blogger did not post as it was scheduled which has happened a couple of times in the past.  I usually make it a point to check in the morning to be sure all scheduled posts actually were posted but life got in the way yesterday.  Thank goodness this is a only a minor glitch that happens on the rare occasion.  At any rate yesterday's post is now live.  I'm really sorry as I know many look forward to the Wordless Wednesday posts.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - On the Wall

On the Wall

March 23, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Butter Fingers

Butter Fingers

March 27, 2011

We have a small twenty-inch wide counter between the refrigerator and stove.  It is my coffee and tea making station with the upper cabinet holding my collection of teas, coffees, hot chocolate and the breadbox.  The area is home to the espresso maker, the only kitchen appliance other than my KitchenAid stand mixer to stay on the counters.  Tucked on the side by the refrigerator, I have a small glass butter dish.  The electric tea kettle sits just in front of the espresso make when in use but otherwise it is put away. 

I have been on an herbal tea kick the last couple of weeks or so.  I put an empty herbal tea box in front of the butter dish closer to the edge of the counter to put any of the tea wrappings as some of the herbal tea bags are individually wrapped.  Somehow and I'm not sure how but suspect the house gnomes were having a wee bit of St. Paddy's fun the box and butter dish got switched around with the butter dish closest to the edge of the counter.  Well you can guess what happened as evidenced from the mess pictured.  Most of my kitchen food storage is glass so occasionally breakage it to be expected.  I was a bit ticked that there was about a quarter of a pound of butter wasted.  However, I was very thankful the thick glass bowl did not hit my foot.  It landed about an inch from my foot on my injured leg!  My foot is already swollen and painful from the drainage in my leg so having the butter dish fall on it would not have been a good thing. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Online Social Games

I've played a lot of games over the year.  For the most part aside of slots, most games are social at some level.  As previously mentioned I recently started playing FrontierVille and CityVille on Facebook.  These are social games in that to get the maximum enjoyment from them you need neighbours, lots and lots of neighbours.  Hundreds and gazillions of neighbours.  Each game has a multitude of quests to complete for various rewards.  For example completing some quests in CityVille rewards you with businesses you can't buy.   In order to complete these quests you need neighbours to bug the snot out of requesting various items from them.  If they send you an item they get something back in return.  Adding to the neighbour issue is certain parts of the game can only be unlocked if you have X number of neighbours.  Well that is just fine and dandy if you are the social type interested in giving a gazillion people you don't know access to your Facebook wall.

I'm on Twitter so have a lot of followers that I don't personally know.  I choose to keep Facebook private and intimate limiting access to those people I have an actual relationship with aka family and friends.  Call me anti-social but I want to keep Facebook that way without adding a lot of people I don't know.  Unfortunately that means I won't be able to finish some quests but that's ok.  The neighbours I have on both games are friends and family. 

In pondering my dilemma, I went to Zynga's forums to see what others are doing about this situation.  Apparently many are not happy they have to keep asking friends to click for gifts and few are happy at having to have a lot of neighbours.  So I'm going to do like many of them, enjoy the games for what they are knowing there are some quests I can't complete.  Oh well!  I've managed to get a few items from the forums which is a nice surprise.  I will likely buy a few credits to complete some of things that having neighbours would do but I have no intentions of spending more than $10 in a month.  It's cheap entertainment for the time being.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Hanging Tough

All in all it was a somewhat good but stressful week once again.  External stressors were the focus of my husband's week with them coming to a climax late in the week so hopefully that is the end of that matter.  He's working long hours right now so really doesn't need that kind of hassle from such juvenile folks.  I went to my doctor's mid-week for another check-up on my leg.  The hematoma is still quite large with swelling and bruising now settling around my ankle and bottom of my foot.  According to her it wil be quite some time before the lump fully dissolves.  Isn't that special but the good news is I am able to get around the house so I'm a happy camper.  We had the hassle of showing the house a couple of times this week.  I'm seriously gritting my teeth waiting for the current real estate contract to expire!  Honestly, I would hate to see our real estate agent use good old fashioned, face-to-face communication.   The real theme of the week was hanging tough...and this to shall pass.  That simple mantra was a blessing this past week.

Garden Gnome

Oh My!

The month or so has been rather out of sorts.  There's the leg injury that is still ongoing and the disruption of the house being on the market.  There's blogger's block and yet plenty of blog fodder.  There's getting the private blog up and running for renting out our vacation home.  Then there is the itch of spring fever setting in to be squashed by snow spells.  And now on top of everything there is political unrest in Canada.  And so it goes...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Ongoing Saga of Selling Our House

Our house has now been on the market for the better part of the past year.  It was briefly off the market last September/October for about 3 weeks but other than that we've been at the potential buyers' beck and call.  Let me tell you it is getting very old!  We showed the house yesterday and again today.  It's rather ironic that there haven't been very many showings over the past couple of months but with the contract drawing to an end with this real estate company, all of a sudden they are pushing it?  The should have been pushing it harder earlier as we have no intentions of extending the contract.  If there is no offer by the time the contract expires, that's it.  We will take it private and sell it ourselves.  I've had it up to my eyeballs with fickle real estate agents!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Persistent Telemarketer

Over the past two month, actually since arriving home from our winter vacation on January 9th, we have had the great pleasure of receiving two to three calls daily from 1-855-422-0416.  After the first couple of calls I Googled to find that the number was indeed a telemarketer who had got our phone number from CAA.  Well isn't that just special!  See we are on Canada's National Do Not Call Registry which is about the biggest farce the CRTC has come up with yet.  For a government agency that is suppose to protect the rights of consumers the get a big FAIL.  In reality what happens is the CRTC sells the list to telemarketers who are supposed to add your number to their do not call list, and perhaps some do.  But then those telemarketers turn around and sell that list to other telemarketers to recoup their costs so you get bombarded with calls from the second telemarketer.  Now that we have established the CRTC are nothing but a bunch of total nincompoops and for so many more reasons than just the do not call registry, onto our current persistent telemarketer.

We bought a new phone system in November of 2009.  It has all the onboard features that you would have to pay for from your telephone provider.  The only thing needed to make them work is subscribing to your telephone provider's Caller ID.  When I add a phone number to my blocked caller list on our phone, if that number calls again it rings once for the Caller ID to recognize it then disconnects the caller and shows on the caller list as an arrow with a line through it rather than just the arrow for calls that are not blocked.  A log is kept of these calls as well so I can easily check to see if a blocked number keeps calling in the event a complaint needs to be filed. 

Since January this number has called two to three times a day except for Sundays.  Now either it is one very dimwitted who can't get it through that one brain cell that obviously we are using some type of block so they will never get through to us or they are using some type of autodialer.  I thought the CRTC said no autodialers but it's not like they will do anything about it.  Today after two calls I used *67 to call the number.  It is the EMS Contact Centre for Comperaction or something like that calling us with a very interesting offer and they will call us back again according to their message.  Let's see the 62 plus calls they have made here since January 10 that have been automatically disconnected by our phone system is not clue enough we are not interested?  Honestly, how dumb are these people?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Shimmering Sheets of Ice

Shimmering Sheets of Ice

February 10, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Gnome Empire

Gnome Empire

March 21, 2011

I have had a lot of down time with my leg injury so along with FrontierVille, I also discovered CityVille, FarmVille, Cafe World, and Mafia Wars.  I'm quite active in both FrontierVille and CityVille as those are the two I enjoy the most.  At any rate I was surprised I enjoyed CityVille so much.  The premise is you build the city of your dreams.  That includes community buildings, housing, decorations, and commerce.  To supply goods for commerces you need to grow crops as well as bring goods in via shipping and rail.  Expansions are possible with each expansion cost more and requiring more permits that can be given by friends or purchased.  That's one thing about Zynga games is all of them have an option to purchase the currency (eg. horseshoes in FrontierVille, city dollars in CityVille) or you can wait and let the currency build as you move up levels, earning one currency per level.  I have spent $10 on the game which is considerably less than what I would spend at a casino or even buying a video game and I can play it 24/7 if I want.  The thing is you don't have to buy credits if you don't want to.  The more neighbours you have the more you can hire for positions in your community buildings rather than paying for the position but you do need the community buildings as they determine your population cap.

Pictured is my city, Gnome Empire as it looked yesterday morning.  The look changes on a daily basis as I twaek and expand.  My city has a population cap of 1840 with 1170 as the current population so I can still add more housing.  As you can see I have expanded quite a bit.  My next expansion will cost me 43,000 (coins not city dollars) and  9 permits or 9 city dollars.  I have 6 permits so far and am hoping some of my friends send me more.  Yesterday I added the shipping piers to my newest expansion.  I'm finding that this game has a bit of finesse to it.  It is not as easy as plucking down buildings and hoping for the best.  Of all the Zynga games this is likely the one I will continue playing on a regular basis.

I have encountered one problem with the gam and that is loading my friends and neighbours.  The game simply refuses to do that even though they load fine for the other Zynga games so it is a problem specific to the game itself.  As a result I can't hire my friends or send gifts to them from the free gift section.  I contacted customer service who is working on the problem.  Other than that I really like the game!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Splash of Red

A Splash of Red

March 19, 2011

My husband knows I don't like the dull, grey days of March so he tends to do little things to cheer me up.  A couple of days ago he brought home a bouquet of red tulips.  They weren't fully opened yet.  I put them in my standard mason jar vase then set them in the kitchen.  By next morning the tulips had opened putting on a bright, showy and cheerful display of red.  Aren't they lovely?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Humour Trumps in a Stressful Week

The past week has been a rather stressful one here.  My husband is currently working 16 to 18 hour days and due to a couple of external issues apart from home and office life, his stress level has reached a new high level interfering with what little sleep he is getting.  My leg is still in the healing process.  After a month, I expected things to be cleared right up but it wasn't meant to be.  We went out to a fish fry with friends Friday.  They were shocked to see how nasty my leg still looks!  I'm getting behind in things I want to do like paint our bedroom and get some canning done but I still can't do that so it's adding to my stress and frustration.  Despite the stress, we have managed to find a few moments to share a bit of laughter.  Honestly, anytime you can laugh is a good time but laughing in the face of adversity is one of the best coping mechanisms there is.  Keeping that sense of humour goes a long way when having to deal with unpleasant people and issues as well.  This week our sense of humour served us well.  What a blessing it was to be able to laugh a little!

Garden Gnome
©2009-2011

Spring Thaw

Log in the Water

March 17, 2011

The weather has turned milder which has been quite welcomed after what seems like a long winter.  While we didn't have any really bitter cold like we normally do, we had a lot of snowfall.  The snow came in a series of rather nasty storms that brought accumulations of 15 to 25 cm at a time with high winds resulting drifting and blowing snow.  As a result the driving conditions were quite hazardous on numerous occasions. 

The milder weather has brought ice down from the lakes.  Along with the ice is other debris, mainly logs and brush.  There has been a fair amount of run-off from the spring thaw as well.  The nice thing is we have been heating mainly with our gas fireplace that keeps the living level warm enough so that the furnace doesn't kick on.  I will be so glad when we can turn both the furnace and gas fireplace off!  Our heating bills are more than reasonable coming in about the third of the average for our area but we are very energy conscious and have done a lot of winterizing so it is to be expected they would be less.  Oh and I saw my first robin of the season too!  At any rate, spring is on the way...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Pots of Gold!

FrontierVille Pots of Gold

March 18, 2011

During the first two weeks of my leg injury where my mobility was greatly reduced, I started getting involved in Facebook.  There I discovered a game called FrontierVille and while that has led me to also playing CityVille and FarmVille, FrontierVille is my favourite.  On March 16 the leprechauns came to FrontierVille in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.  They were to replace that pesky groundhog but what I didn't realize is you had to have finished the find a spouse mission and plant certain crops (10 clover, 15 potatoes, 20 cabbage) for the leprechauns to appear.  I was a bit disappointed as I haven't finished that mission yet.  Then when I was feeding some of the animals a collectable appeared for the St. Patrick's Day Collection.  You need to collect a penny whistle, pint glass, shamrock, hurly stick and celtic harpWithin a short time I had collected enough of the various collectables for this collect so traded in for my first pot of gold!  The pot of gold is just the packaging though.  Inside each pot of gold can hold goodies like: green waterfall, green fountain, leprechaun statue, festive table, or keg of green liquid.  I haven't opened mine yet but will likely when I'm finished playing tonight.

By evening I had 4 pots of gold but then all Zynga games went down so I wasn't able to play further.  This morning I finally got FrontierVille to load and quickly traded in another collection for a pot of gold.  I'm having a hard time getting FrontierVille to load right now so there are some ongoing issues that need fixing.  Hopefully they get things fixed soon!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields and,

Until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Give Me Five

Give Me Five

December 24, 2010

Garden Gnome

Leg Update

Thank-you to all who have asked how I'm doing.  It's been three and a half weeks since I injured my leg.  A week ago Monday I was able to start hobbling about without crutches.  I saw my doctor last week who said if I kept doing what I was doing the healing should continue all be it slow.  It is still rather ugly looking and despite the length of time rather painful especially after periods of sitting or when first getting up in the morning.  The swelling has increased so I am back to elevating and resting a bit more.  It seems like the healing is taking a little detour at the moment.  Hopefully, things settle back down!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

My Husband's Fries

All Stacked Up

March 11, 2011

My husband and I have been married over thirty years.  While we compliment each other nicely we are about as opposite as you can get except when it comes to the important values of family, friends, honesty and integrity.  It's funny that each of us have our own stress relievers and sometimes they result in a lot of laughter.  After all laugher itself is a stress reliever so when an action that is a stress reliever results in laughter, well you just can't get better than that!

My husband is under a lot of stress right now but unless you knew him like I do, you would not even guess it.  Friday nights were always take-out or family pizza night but we became empty nesters we went back to fish on Fridays with either take-out or eating out at our favourite English style pub.  Recently we have been eating in on Friday nights.  The fare is usually pan fried perch and pickerel or sometimes cod with fresh cut French fries and so it was this past Friday night.  As Coronation Street was finishing up I looked at my husband's plate then burst into a fit of laughter.  I don't even think he realized what he was doing but here he had stacked up all his fries log style!  At any rate we both got a good belly laugh, one of the best stress relievers there ever was!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Dodging Bullets

This past week has been one filled with many blessings.  We've had two horrid winter storms which during one of them we were entertaining.  Everyone from that event got home safe and sound despite the horrible driving conditions.  Later in the week another storm hit very much like the first but a bit later in the evening.  My husband managed to still get into the office the following morning even though the roads had not been plowed.  The snow was quite thick and drifting making for treacherous driving conditions.  Early in the week, I saw my doctor for a follow-up on my leg injury.  I was quite thankful for clear, dry roads combined with rather mild temperatures that day.  She is keeping a close eye on it so I will be making a few more trips there but the best news is surgery isn't required barring any further complications.  She warned me the healing process is going to be slow going so while I won't be dancing a jig any time soon, I am up and about.  I was reminded what a miraculous machine the human body is, well capable of healing itself if given half a chance!  I had been house bound for seventeen days so getting out into the fresh air felt good as well.  What a great week it was all the way around!

Garden Gnome

The Hundred-Year Lie

The Hundred-Year Lie

March 12, 2011

I have a rather extensive book collection that at some point would like to use one room in our home as a library.  We shall see if that is possible in our next house if we ever get this house sold.  The vast majority of the books in my collection are non-fiction.  I've never been much into fictional literary works so my book collection reflects that.  Like many books in my collection, I am re-reading The Hundred-Year Lie by Randal Fitzgerald.  This is a documentary style account of how food and medicine are destroying our health.

Over the past couple of weeks while nursing the worst of my injury, I had ample time to ponder the pharmaceutical aspect of this book.  Let's face facts.  In North America we have an abundance of over the counter drugs for everything imaginable, many of them pain relief oriented.  Heaven forbid if we feel any pain, our body's natural signal that there is something wrong!  We seriously numb every single little pain right down to a mosquito bite!  When our kids were teething, they got a wet wash cloth to chew on and unless spiking a fever, that's it.  Fast forward to our grandkids teething and they are given medication to stop any pain.  I really fear this is a negative thing though.  Kids have gone through teething since the beginning of mankind.  A mother's loving arms to sooth a teething baby seems to me the better choice than medications.  The problem is the pharmaceutical companies have brainwashed us into believing pain is bad. It isn't.  Pain serves a specific purpose.

It is not in the best interests of the pharmaceutical companies to cure any disease with their drugs.  If they cure the disease they lose a market for their high priced drugs aka they lose money.  Have you ever noticed that some of these drugs actually do a lot more damage than good?  I'm sorry but if getting a bit of pain relief from symptom X is going to cause me to go cross-eyed, bald, walk pigeon-toed and cluck around like a chicken then that drug regardless of any benefit cannot be good for the human body.  The worst part is the doctors as in those who took an oath to do no harm buy into the pharmaceutical hype by prescribing drugs to their patients that ARE going to do harm on some level.  Think back on the drug thalidomide given to pregnant women for nausea.  My gosh those children affected by the terrible side effects of thalidomide have paid a huge price.  Have we learned nothing?  No!  On a personal level one drug I was taking for asthma results in decreased bone density and another one increased risk for depression and suicide along with a myriad of other side effects.  I upped my dosage of Vitamin C and D then gave both drugs the boot.

There is no doubt the pharmaceutical companies are killing us.  How much we buy into their propaganda is up to us though.  There are a lot of ways of dealing with illnesses, diseases, and minor discomforts without resorting to these powerful drugs that are doing more harm than good!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Electronic Word Finder

WordFinder™ 220 

March 10, 2011

The other day I was clearing my desk a bit.  Anyone who knows me knows my desk is always organized chaos.  I know where everything is even though it may not look like it to others.  I have a basket of goodies left over from my university days that I use mainly for my genealogy research.  These include things like micro cassettes for recording interviews and making verbal notes for myself, my PDA, corrector tape, floppy discs and my WordFinder™ 220.  I have had the WordFinder™ 220 for years and years, acquired shortly after starting my fourteen year academic career.  By today's standards this single use spell checker and thesaurus is a dinosaur but it still an excellent performer.  It even has a jumble feature for those puzzles where the letters in the word are scrambled.  Just type in the scrambled letters and it will suggest the word.  So there you have one of my relics from the past still in use today :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

November and March

As long as I can remember I have always disliked the months of November and March.  Both are weather transition months aka 61 days of icky weather.  The weather tends to be damp, dull, grey and lack luster.  There's mud, muck, sloppy walking and driving conditions, and fog.  Outdoor photo opportunities are few and far between.  There's no holidays to look forward to other than March break for school age children but no holidays in November.  There's Remembrance Day on November 11^th, as somber of a day as is the entire month.  There's St. Patrick's Day on March 17^th that even copious amounts of green beer can't make March seem cheerier.  The only thing going for either month is I tend to make a lot of homemade soups and stews served with fresh home baked breads.   

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Lazing in the Sun

Lazing in the Sun

December 22, 2010

Garden Gnome

Injury Update

Sorry for today's delayed post but I had good reason.  I went to my doctor's to have my leg checked.  After a full 16 days on crutches, I was able to put pressure on my leg enough to slowly hobble around yesterday.  That has resulted in more bruising from the hematoma drainingThe good news is if I continue with what I'm doing (rest, icing, elevation, arnica cream, high dose Vitamin C) the healing should continue.   She measured the hematoma at 4 cm so will be keeping an eye on how it progresses.  I have see her in two weeks as she is off next week but have strict orders that if there are any negative changes before she sees me again to go to emerg.   The two main concerns is compartment syndrom and clotting at the back of my leg.  I am rather pleased with today's results so well I won't be dancing a jig or even going for a walk anytime soon, I'm off the crutches enabling me to putter about the house :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Snow Drift

Snow Drift

March 6, 2011

Last Saturday afternoon the weather turned nasty with high winds, heavy blowing snow, freezing rain and very slippery road conditions.  The following day,  I noticed a rather interesting snow drift outside our family room window just off the lower patio.  The sun caught it in just the right light so I had to take advantage of this gorgeous photo opportunity.  I think it is quite pretty with the shadow play!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessing Sunday - The Healing Continues

It has been week two of healing and I am still not back on my feet.  The good thing is the bruising itself seems to be healing nicely but the lump remains quite large.  I'm remaining optimistic that the lump will begin to decrease but I see my doctor on Tuesday who will determine if the damage needs to be surgically repaired.  It still looks like I have a second knee on the same leg.  So it has been a week of continued healing, making some progress but not a much as I would like. 

Garden Gnome

How is Norma?

[from my email files:  Now this is down right cute with just that element of truth that everyone can relate to.  Enjoy!]

-----

A sweet grandmother telephoned St. Joseph 's Hospital. She timidly asked, "Is it possible to speak to someone who can tell me how a patient is doing?"

The operator said, "I'll be glad to help, dear. What's the name and room number of the patient?"

The grandmother in her weak, tremulous voice said, "Norma Findlay, Room 302."

The operator replied, "Let me put you on hold while I check with the nurse's station for that room."

After a few minutes, the operator returned to the phone and said, "I have good news. Her nurse just told me that Norma is doing well. Her blood pressure is fine; her blood work just came back normal and her Physician, Dr. Cohen, has scheduled her to be discharged tomorrow."

The grandmother said, "Thank you. That's wonderful. I was so worried. God bless you for the good news."

The operator replied, "You're more than welcome. Is Norma your daughter?"

The grandmother said,"No, I'm Norma Findlay in Room 302.  No one tells me anything!"

-----

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Frosty Morning

Heavy Frost on Maple Tree

February 23, 2011

We awoke to a morning of heavy frost last week.  This type of frost is termed horror frost and usually occurs when the weather warms enough to cause fog then the temperature drops causing the fog to freeze in thick layers on everything.  It is especially pretty on the trees with the sun peeking through.  Isn't it pretty?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Gnomeo and Juliet

Gnomeo and Juliet

February 17, 2011

My husband and I seldom go to the theatre.  When we do go to the theatre we make it a night out with stopping for dinner first then onto the show.  A couple of weeks ago we decided to go see Gnomeo and Juliet.  We stopped at A&W for dinner for old times sake.  Then it was off to the show.  This really was a very cute movie.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for it to come out on DVD to add it to my Gnome Empire of all things gnomes!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Life on the Intercostal (Florida)

Life on the Intercostal

December 16, 2010

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Bit of a Healing Setback

I injured my leg quite badly on February 18 and while the damage looked quite nasty x-rays showed no obvious fractures although there was the possibility of a hairline fracture.  From the 19th through part of the 26th I was on resting, elevating and icing my leg and on crutches only if I really had to get up.  Being forced to sit with an injury is not my idea of rest and relaxation.  On the afternoon of the 26th I put a bit of pressure on my leg.  It didn't hurt so I hobbled into the kitchen to do a bit of puttering, not for long but something to break the monotony of sitting so much, something a previous injury makes difficult.  Sunday my leg still felt rather good even though it looked horrible.  I hobbled without crutches not a lot but just enough make tea, go to the washroom and get to the bedroom.   Monday morning it was quite apparent that there had been some internal bleeding at the bruise site so back onto icing, elevation and crutches.  The pain was back as well but the most discerning complication was my leg and foot started getting cold indicating circulation was being cut off.  By bedtime both were still quite cold.  During the very restless night I woke several times to check the temperature of my leg and foot that remained quite cold until about 3 AM along with occasional stabbing pains.  This morning it is quite painful so still on crutches but I'm not going to try pushing it.  I've always maintained that using pain killers gives a greater risk of further damage because you tend to use the injured area before it is fully healed. 

Garden Gnome