For those of you that have never heard the story, you may find it odd that I would put a photograph of my foot on my website. I won't go into the full details because it is a rather long story and needs to be acted out rather than written in words, but I found it necessary to provide photographic evidence for the people who thought I was exaggerating or making it all up.

This is a photograph of a blister I developed while climbing a mountain in Hawaii (Mauna Loa is the name of the mountain for anyone curious). It was not yet fully grown at the time this shot was taken. That is to say, the blister was not fully grown. Come to think of it, the mountain wasn't fully grown either. It is still considered an active volcano and erupts about once every 20 years. My blisters, on the other hand, usually erupt within a day or two of their first appearance.

To the right is a closeup of the same blister as it was still developing. It is already quite large as is evidenced by the ominous shadow it is casting across the heel of my foot.

The arrow is pointing to a small sattelite blister which soon expanded and joined with the main blister to form a large bulbous protrusion which extended out of the side of my foot like an extra heel.

At that point, I put on my best Saddam Hussein accent and officially declared it to be the “Mother Of All Blisters”. Then I sprinkled it with water and named it Eve.

The “Father Of All Blisters” (which of course was named Adam) took up residence on my other foot. Not surprisingly, Adam and Eve spawned smaller but equaly painful blisters including Cain and Able. Tragically, Able did not survive the hike back down the mountain. I would be lying if I said that I didn't shed any tears when Able suddenly expired - an incident which left a black void in my heart and a slimy residue on my sock (not to mention a stain which never washed out).

Now you're probably thinking that I wasn't wearing proper footwear. Believe me, I was wearing good sturdy hiking boots. They were simply no match for the rugged terrain, the loose beds of rock, the fragile lava tubes, and the sharp lava rocks which shredded the sole of my boots like a cheese grater and eventually punctured right through one of them.

Of course, there is much more to the story but I will only tell that in person and to people that aren't easily offended. Suffice it to say that it is a whopper of a tale.

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