Sharon's Week 11: Ten Things I Learned About Being One-Handed

First let me relieve you all of your on-the-seat-of-your-pants anxiety about whether or not I am able to use my camera while my hand is healing...I can.  Yay!  It's not very efficient but I have been able to manage.  So far the most difficult thing has been changing lenses.

Here are a few other things I have learned this week:

1.  Sometimes you have no idea where your arm is in space.  After bonking myself in the head a few times with my new cast while getting dressed to go home from the hospital, that evening I was sitting on the couch with my arm in the sling and I could have sworn my arm was resting in my lap.  I reached over to touch my fingertips to see if I was moving them (I thought I was but I wasn't) and I reached in the completely wrong direction.  I could clearly see my arm on my chest but I would have bet money that it was elsewhere.  In case you are interested, that sense of knowing where your body parts are without looking is called proprioception.  The sense of knowing how those body parts are moving (or not, as the case may be) is kinesthesia.

2.  When you finally are able to move a finger, Fezzik takes over in your head and encouragingly congratulates you, "Look, you wiggled your finger!"  Those of you who don't get this reference need to watch The Princess Bride.

3.  Even screw-top wine bottles really need two hands to open them.

4.  Typos are a dime a dozen when trying to type one-banded - see?!?  

5.  In order to back up and park straight in your driveway, two hands are essential.  This week I have amused all my neighbours with my wiggly backing up and cock-eyed parking.  They will, I suppose, get used to it by the time the cast comes off.

6.  After successfully donning a bra for eight days, you can still mess up on day nine and put it on upside-down.

I will now get to the photos and surprise you with more one-handed wisdom along the way.

a snack

Oh look, more wisdom right away.

7.  One-handed cutting of fruit and vegetables is not easy and may lead to further injury.  Note to self:  do NOT try to hold the item between your index and middle fingers - it is not secure.

through a window

Well, I seem to be full of learnin' this week...

8.  When a pile of snow falls off of your roof and onto the front steps (which is very rare at my house since the roof pitches sideways, not towards the front), you cannot shovel it away without looking like you and the shovel are dancing.

Here are the cats studying the problem.

Yes, we do still have that much snow!

D

This is a window on the building at the entrance to the trails at Whitefish Island (I can never remember what it is called), turned sideways of course.

jewelry

This is a cute little bracelet my sister gave me at Christmas.  

This is the necklace I have been wearing for 26 years.  I thought I lost it last week (I noticed that I wasn't wearing it when I went to take it off before the surgery) but I found it the other day in my bed.  Whew.  I am still not wearing it because...

9.  You cannot put on most jewelry one-handed.

It needs a little silver polish but there you have another task that requires two hands.

symmetry

My first attempt out driving this week was a trip to the greenhouse at Bellevue Park looking for symmetry.  The first photo isn't exactly symmetrical since the leaves are offset but I like it anyway.  The second one has radial symmetry but I have photographed only a part of it.

black and white

I played a bit with my black and white software to create this.

wild card

I guess spring is truly on its way...at least this beaver thinks so.

This stream may cease to be if the beaver has his way.

I will leave you with one more thing I have learned this week...

10.  When you call your mom who lives six hours away to complain, "Mo-om, I'm bored!" there is nothing she can do.

On the flip side, she also cannot "give you something to do" which would most likely consist of chores.

Have a great weekend.