Table Saws and Hands

A moment of inattention is a moment too much, when using a table saw.

I've never been so busy, so rushed. Seems like just the other day, things were too slow, too few orders coming in, almost not enough to do. Then, all of a sudden, swamped. So much I need to make, so much to pack. So this morning it was not that I was exactly rushing the cutting of some new windsails, it was more that my mind was elsewhere. I think I was trying to figure out the best way to pack these heavy beach stones which form the base of a freestanding wind chime.

Just a fraction of a second, one stupid movement. There was a small end that I had cut from one of the windsails and it was in the way. I went to flick it, and the noise and pain told me I had done something really, really stupid. Yep, I got my thumb into the blade.

Well, I can't tell you how happy I was when I looked and saw most of my thumb still there. Lots of blood, and the side and quite a chunk of the end gone, but something like that, it's easy to loose the whole thing. So I was really relieved.

My son drove me down to the emergency department, and they cleaned it up, gave me a tetanus shot, and a fancy bandage. I was back at work in less than two hours. It's a little awkward working with this fat bandage, but you can believe I realize how much more awkward it would be without any thumb at all. I'm happy!