Land of Oz

Stupid & Lucky

I guess if you have to do stupid stuff, being lucky is a helpful survival trait. This weekend, while doing some home remodeling, I managed to shoot a nail through my finger with an air-powered brad nailer. That was the stupid part. I had just finished giving my wife a quick lesson in how to be careful using the gun, and had in fact let her shoot a couple of nails into some door molding we were putting up.

Later, I tried to brad a small piece of wood to another piece and didn't have them clamped down correctly. I think what happened was that the first brad kicked the wood out and then the gun fired a second brad that went through the finger that had been holding the wood block that was no longer there. I'm guessing that, because later when all was done and I looked at the block, a brad was half-way in it.

Let me tell you, watching a two-inch brad fly through your finger isn't the best of experiences. The lucky part was that the brad seemed to miss all the important bits in my finger. No blood vessels, no bone or tendon seemed to be hit - typing this entry sort of proves that. E's and R's would be difficutlt had that finger been seriously damaged. I did go to the emergency room - at the local Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center (which I might add gave me stellar service) to have it looked at. They didn't do much, just a booster tetnus shot.

On the way to the hospital, with my wife driving, I reflected on the idea that the emergency room could probably be better named the stupidity room. From what I've gathered from friends - this is only my second time visiting - the first being a severe case of gastrointestinal something or other. Many visits to the emergency room are the result of doing something stupid. Nailing your finger, breaking an arm falling from a ladder, getting hit in the head with a baseball, eating old potato salad on a warm summer evening - that sort of stuff. Stuff where you get hurt because you did something stupid. The only good about my stupidity, is that it'll make me treat the brad nailer with a little more respect - at least for awhile. Eventually, I'll need to do something stupid again to keep me from getting complacent. Hopefully, I'll be lucky again at the same time.

Labels: government, military, tools