Wear yer' gloves!

I cut the meaty left part of my palm below the thumb on my left hand on Saturday. More accurately, I gouged it with a putty knife. I had sharpened it on a flat metal file to use. I made the mistake of removing my work gloves temporarily, then neglected to put them on again. Sure enough, I was scraping away and it slipped and gouged into my hand. I remained calm and cupped my hand to catch all the blood. I didn't wish to alarm anyone in the house, namely the boys, so I went directly to the kitchen sink to wash the wound. Marian cleaned it up a bit and dressed it with some kind of goop from a tube and applied a big band aid to it and a couple strips of fabric tape to help keep it more secure than the bandage's adhesive alone. The bandage came off at some point later in the day and was never replaced.

It's really not that bad of a cut. It's really only about a half inch long and not at all deep. It could have been much worse. The cut itself is a pretty clean cut, the flesh was cut rather than torn, although it bled more like a puncture.

In retrospect I have identified a few places this could have been avoided. For one thing, I let the nasty grease build-up on the range top grow to such an extent that I was forced to take the drastic measure of taking a sharpened scraper to it. Although we both are good at wiping down the range top surface after use, we seldom take the time to genuinely try to to remove it and keep it removed by using chemical cleaners. We are in the habit of simply wiping it down with the wrung-out dishrag. Unfortunately the grease builds up imperceptibly  until it is a complete eyesore and no chemical will touch it.

Secondly, I should have kept my gloves on. I'm in the habit of wearing my work thick leather work gloves for completing tasks like this one and others that are similar, (thank you dad and grandpa!) Ask my wife, (or don't) I have them stuffed everywhere: in the car, in the pickup, in the closet, by the door, in the workshop, in the pantry cabinet, in my underwear drawer, in my wife's underwear drawer...etc. You get the picture. I should have just kept them on while I performed my task, as is my habit, but for some reason, I forget now exactly why, I took them off for one thing, then didn't put them on. Probably, I was in a hurry to get in there and continue scraping off that grease.

I love wearing gloves. In a way, it makes a person superhuman. With work gloves on, I can scoop up live coals that have fallen from the campfire into my hand to chuck back in among the flames. I can handle hot metal and grasp thorny branches; I can work the handle of a shovel without blisters. I can gouge my left hand with a sharpened putty knife and withstand injury.

Simple pliers do much the same thing. Pliers turn ordinary hands into superhuman tools. They grip and hold safely when something is far too hot or cold to handle.They grip like, well...pliers. They're so handy I just feel invincible with my work gloves on my hands and my pliers snug away in my carpenter pants (another great invention, so practical and full of pockets for stuff!) and I'm ready to... to... go sit in the chair and read a book!

Learn from my experience. Gloves are cheap (at least you can pay what you want for them); so are pliers. And they're both readily available for purchase at the town and country store or auto parts store you like to shop. Get some and keep them nearby. Save your hands for your baby!