The Disabled List

I am in pure animal mode. I cannot resist the pull of the earth. Every so often while digging in the freshly exposed fossil deposits, I turn my arm the wrong way and I wince in pain. I should not have been there. I should have been home resting. But I know that each day that passes will see a reduced hunting area. I must hunt each day as if it were the last. Still, my productivity is down. I am moving less than half the earth I normally move but it is enough. I find a particularly rich vein. Rocks the size of softballs suspended in coarse orange and white sand yield to my shovel. Bones almost as numerous as the giant gravel litter the lag layer. The water seeps into the hole almost as quickly as I can excavate. This sand does not hold back water at all. My boots are stuck almost completely in the mire and I can barely move. Its getting dark and I fear that toughing though the pain was not the best decision. One last effort. I remove the overburden from a small section of extremely thick gravel. My shovel strikes a thick, flat item in the twilight sand. Its a triangle. It dwarfs my son's hand as he looks at it wide-eyed. The shape is uncharacteristic for a megalodon unless its badly broken. I wipe away the obscuring granules of sand to reveal an oligocene treasure. Moments later, we agree that it is too dark to continue. The hunt is over, but when I turn on the lights in my truck we are astonished. Its easily the biggest angustidens I've ever found and could be the biggest I ever held. The pain was irrelevant. I have this tooth that was calling me to this pond. But I've got to take it easy for a while, else my digging days might be over.