Have You Ever Really Looked at My Hands?
Sep. 3rd, 2010 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feste_sylvainI have hands.
For those of you who remember last month's little watch fiasco, which rapidly became a mid-life crisis, you'll note that I'm still wearing my watch. Also, there is a hefty ring on my right hand which I've worn since 1981. I have a major callous on that finger which holds that ring in place. When I was 20 pounds heavier, I had trouble getting it off and on, but now that's only a problem in bad weather. On my left hand is my wedding ring, the twists of which complement my wife's ring. It's also getting its own callous, but it's both a lighter ring and I've only had it for 18 years.
But the feature that most people notice are my pinkie nails. A lot of people notice them, and then fail to hide the fact that they noticed them. Sometimes, they ask oblique questions like, "Do you play guitar?" I did have one person bluntly ask whether I did a lot of cocaine; I informed him that he grossly mispronounced "caffeine".
The reason for my nails is quite pedestrian, I assure you. The most useful course I ever took in high school was "Personal Typing"; I type with all fingers, in the dark, at 40 to 50 words per minute. Back 25 years ago or so, I started to get the twinges of carpal-tunnel syndrome from all the typing I was doing as a nascent software engineer. A lot of that, I figured out, was due to the stretches I was making to let my little fingers reach the Enter key and the Ctrl key. I was bemoaning this while clipping my nails, muttering, "If only I could grow my little fingers longer." Then I stopped clipping, and realized, "I can grow my little fingers longer!"
I now only have symptoms on those rare occasions when I break a nail, and it takes a few weeks to grow back.
Oh, there is another great thing about my hands, which is easy to see in person, but doesn't photograph well: I have my initials in my palms. The lines form a definite 'M' on my left palm, and a definite 'A' on my right palm.
For those of you who remember last month's little watch fiasco, which rapidly became a mid-life crisis, you'll note that I'm still wearing my watch. Also, there is a hefty ring on my right hand which I've worn since 1981. I have a major callous on that finger which holds that ring in place. When I was 20 pounds heavier, I had trouble getting it off and on, but now that's only a problem in bad weather. On my left hand is my wedding ring, the twists of which complement my wife's ring. It's also getting its own callous, but it's both a lighter ring and I've only had it for 18 years.
But the feature that most people notice are my pinkie nails. A lot of people notice them, and then fail to hide the fact that they noticed them. Sometimes, they ask oblique questions like, "Do you play guitar?" I did have one person bluntly ask whether I did a lot of cocaine; I informed him that he grossly mispronounced "caffeine".
The reason for my nails is quite pedestrian, I assure you. The most useful course I ever took in high school was "Personal Typing"; I type with all fingers, in the dark, at 40 to 50 words per minute. Back 25 years ago or so, I started to get the twinges of carpal-tunnel syndrome from all the typing I was doing as a nascent software engineer. A lot of that, I figured out, was due to the stretches I was making to let my little fingers reach the Enter key and the Ctrl key. I was bemoaning this while clipping my nails, muttering, "If only I could grow my little fingers longer." Then I stopped clipping, and realized, "I can grow my little fingers longer!"
I now only have symptoms on those rare occasions when I break a nail, and it takes a few weeks to grow back.
Oh, there is another great thing about my hands, which is easy to see in person, but doesn't photograph well: I have my initials in my palms. The lines form a definite 'M' on my left palm, and a definite 'A' on my right palm.
