Pain receptors? Check.

Late this morning as Husband was cooking breakfast for us, I sauntered up beside him at the stove to supervise. I put my hand down to hold my weight as I leaned into him, putting my thumb, fore, and middle fingers squarely on one of the piping hot flat surface burners. I could tell you exactly how much that hurt, but frankly typing this right now is making said thumb and forefinger throb. I sat for about an hour with my hand in ice cold water while Husband cut up my turkey sausage and egg so I could eat it one-handed. I've been waiting all day for the blisters to emerge.

I've never had a flat surface stove before, and my MIL has warned me on several occasions not to treat it like a counter top when it's off. Probably for exactly this reason. The burners light up red while they're on high, but if they're on low or have recently been turned off a small red light in the front of the stove alerts you that something on the flat surface is very very hot, but it's hard to see that light and really it's so small that it's not very daunting. Or at least, it wasn't until today. Now the whole stove is daunting.

Earlier this morning we stopped at the farmers market and bought some flowers for the three small "garden" areas around the house. I'd even asked Husband's brother P to bring a shovel over today when he visited so I could start cleaning out all the old dirt, weeds, and unidentifiable plant life currently taking up space there. But both Husband and P nixed the idea of my shoveling with my grotesquely wounded hands. In hindsight, I very much appreciate that they stepped in.

Instead we went to see Handcock, and it was entertaining. Now I'm cooking dinner, including some fresh sweet corn we also purchased. Yum. I'm avoiding the oven and stove top as much as possible, circling it warily with oven mitt in place and caution in mind. I will never touch the flat surface stove top again. It was perhaps a lesson I needed to learn, and have.