Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

I should've known better after the week I've had...

I decided to set a few minutes aside today to get the Chevelle out so I could run down to the gas station for a little fuel, then I was going to drive over to a local park to grab some better pics of the car. The new Goodyear Polyglas' were just begging to be shown off!

Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way.

Long story short: after fueling the car, the gas nozzle somehow got lodged in the filler neck on the tank. In the midst of twisting & pulling trying to free the nozzle, it came out unexpectedly, and in doing so the majority of the length of my right thumb lost the first couple of layers of skin to the bottom edge of the bumper by the license plate light.

To make matters worse, a friend (who is a local locksmith) just happened to be standing there talking to me when this happened. I stood up after my little mishap to find about a 3" long flap of bloody skin dangling from my thumb, to which Lockguy muttered "oh God" and turned and quickly shuffled away.

But wait!...it gets better!

<span style="font-style: italic">THANKFULLY</span> I had the foresight/intuition to have Rachel shadow me to the gas station in the Suburban. I walked over and she handed me a antibacterial wipe (I always keep a tube of them in the truck, never know when you're going to need them...like today!) which I placed over my hand to stop the bleeding. I hopped in the Chevelle to make a hasty retreat back home, turned the key, only to be greeted by the following sound;

<span style="font-style: italic">&quot;rrr.....rrrr......rrrrrr...click click click&quot;</span>

Naturally. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Luckily I also keep a set of jumper cables in the Suburban, so I grabbed them and quickly popped the hood on the Chevelle to hook them up...all the while trying to keep the wipe on my hand to contain the bleeding.

After a minute or so on the cables, the Chevelle fired back up, so I stashed the cables back in the `Burb and made my hasty retreat back home---trying not to bleed all over the shifter in the process.

So here I now sit with a giant bandage wrapped around my thumb, and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to manage to get anything done until this thing has a chance to heal up a bit. (the idea of getting grease, dirt and/or carb cleaner on this really doesn't appeal to me all that much)

SO!...I'll probably be running another week or so behind thanks to today, but I'll try to get caught back up a.s.a.p.

Sorry. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gU81xaRoXM...schleprock.jpg

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

LOL. I know exactly what you're going through.

For Christmas I bought the wife the 10 inch serated Wustof knife she wanted. Well, on Christmas morning, she opens the package and is all happy with her new blade. I take it to put it in the wood knife rack but before I do, I go and clean the blade by swiping it against a towel....see where this is headed?

The freaken thing is so sharp it slices through the towel and halfway through my middle finger before I notice it.

Knowing that going to the emergency room on Christmas would mean waitng for 12 hours for a doctor to then tell me that the wound has been open too long to sew up (learned this from a prior injury), I decide to grab the one tool that every man knows will fix everything: DUCT TAPE!

I grabbed some antibiotic ointment, gauze pad and duct tape and wrapped the bleeding finger up tight. I then wrapped a couple rubber bands around it to apply direct pressure on the spot. After a half hour the bleeding stopped and I redid the wrap. By the next morning the wound was healed havng pretty much reattached the flap back down.

A week later just the scar remains. I showed it to one of the medics at work and he laughed and asked why I didn't just grab the Crazy Glue as well. (I tried but we were fresh out!)

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

&quot;New Skin&quot; liquid bandage, must be a cross between crazy glue and nail polish. Works great, always carry it in winter.

as far as dirt in open/healing wounds, I use disposable nitrile gloves, very strong, also applies pressure to hand/finger wounds.

feel better soon Eric [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Tuff break Eric. If I can help out just shout. Speedy recovery!

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Tim Allen would be proud of us. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

Thankfully I've never glued my forehead down to a table, fallen several stories into a port-a-potty or dropped an I beam on a `55 Nomad, but I've managed to bork myself up pretty well several times over the years.

Just off the top of my head (figuratively speaking, thankfully in this instance), aside from raking the skin off of my thumb today...

-Burnt myself making Christmas dinner last month when the roast I was preparing to sear in a screaming-hot skillet slipped from the tongs, splashing smoking-hot oil up on my left forearm. I'm gonn'a have a nice scar from that one.

-Filleting my left thumb several months ago with a razor sharp gasket scraper (made from an old hardened steel paint scraper, i.e. no flex whatsoever) while aggressively trying to scrape a petrified throttle body gasket from the bottom of a Holley main body. That was one of those moments when that little voice inside your head goes <span style="font-style: italic">&quot;hey, dumbass...you probably shouldn't be doing this like that&quot;</span> approximately one nano-second before the tool slips, whereupon you find yourself scrambling for a towel that's at least somewhat clean enough to use to contain the bleeding.

I used electrical tape on that one.

-Managed to lose a pinky nail from a freak hacksaw accident...and it didn't involve cutting it off. The part I was cutting abruptly dropped onto the workbench the instant the cut was complete, smashing my finger under it.

-I've managed to lose <span style="font-weight: bold">both</span> of my big toenails in two separate incidents.!

-1) Went to toss a deflated space saver tire into a pile of parts to be scrapped. The wheel/tire takes a bounce off the edge of the tire and comes straight back at me, the bead edge of the wheel landing squarely on my left big toe. As if that wasn't graceful enough, 2) it was only a year or so later when I made the mistake of kicking a small cardboard box that I <span style="font-style: italic">thought</span> was empty across the driveway. It wasn't empty...it contained one used motor mount from a `76 Chevy truck.

-This happened 15+ years ago, but while wheeling a 428 Pontiac engine on a stand across the garage, one of the wheels caught a pebble on the floor. The engine &amp; stand started to go over and was heading straight for the pristine drivers side quarter on a `66 LeMans. In a moment of sheer stupidity I swung around to grab the engine to prevent it from hitting the car...as I did so, one leg of the engine stand flew up in the air and caught me inside my right thigh directly adjacent to my yarbles.

Somehow I managed to keep the engine off the car <span style="font-style: italic">and</span> the floor, but I guaranfreakin'tee I'll never try that again.

One day I'm gonn'a wise up and take up a safer occupation.

Maybe I'll become a florist. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smirk.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

So back to the topic....did you get to smoke off the new nubbs off the tires??? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Wow Eric...feel better buddy [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Sorry, the Goodyears are no worse for wear as of now. The choke barely had enough time to come off by the time I made it back home. The only smoke today was what was coming out of my ears around the time the battery decided to take a dump. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img]

I just changed the bandage, and it looks like I got myself pretty good with this one. Rachel is thoroughly geeked out at the sight of it (lol).

Next week is supposed to be unseasonably warm again, and judging from previous injuries this should be scabbed over pretty well within a few days so I should get back to work shortly. With a little luck I'll try to refrain from any further injuries...at least for the immediate future. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Get better soon Eric. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Take care Eric. *Paul

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Eric...I hope you have it looked at by a medical professional...and Tibor doesn't qualify [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/scholar.gif[/img]

Please get better soon....wilma

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Eric.........Stay away from advice from Doze Nu Yawk Guyz........All I can say is.......Ouch!!!

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Hope you heal rapidly!

We should start a new thread on stupid car injuries. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

Now, everybody, be honest. Who here has smashed their thumb trying to drive an oil pump pickup into the oil pump on a Chevy. That trusted old method of sliding an open end wrench over the tube and hitting it with a hammer has claimed quite a few victims over the past half century. (myself included).

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

LOL!...stupid car-related injuries??..I'd be here typing all day! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/crazy.gif[/img]

I can't even count the number of scars I have on my hands now, too many of them run together to tell.

Yesterday's stunt: (took the pic myself left-handed, hence the crappy focus)

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7..._01070013S.jpg

Tom;

No doctors visits for me, I hate doctors. Besides, after all I've done to myself, by now my immune system should be damn near bulletproof. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/cool.gif[/img]

(now that I said that, watch the damn thing get infected lol)

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Eric feel better! That sucks...and those hurt like heck [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Yikes!!! Those Polyglas will wait for a couple of days, but .....OUCH!!!!!

I have had several injuries, but only sewed up once. It did involve a vehicle, but a bicycle can only do so much damage, right?

Take care and I will look forward to pictures!!! Maybe you can help me sell a set to NJ!!!!!

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Eh...it doesn't even hurt now unless I try to bend my thumb. More of an annoyance at this point.

I was kinda surprised by how deep it is--looking at it length-wise there's a pretty deep trough. Sure bled like a stuck pig though...I'm sure I have some clean-up to do underhood and on the shifter.

Rachel still can't look at it w/o doing a geeked-out oogie dance [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/haha.gif[/img]

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

Hard to find now a days but try a piece of &quot;Brown Paper Bag&quot;
the fibers in the paper pretty much will close everything off with some pressure! Grandpa's secret when he was a horse trainer!

Re: Going to be out of commission for a little while
 

That sucks Eric.
Look at it this way,you now have traceable DNA adhered to that car so in the future,someone can prove it's ancestry.