Red Thumb

Sometimes it hurts to work in the garden.
Sometimes it hurts more not to work in the garden.

For Hubby and me, this week has been a week of WORKing in the garden. Four letters. All caps. That kind of work. The kind that's bloody WORK! Digging up thick sod with a small hand tool. Plucking in vain at evil, nasty horsetails. Mowing and whacking desperately at the weedy, overgrown excuse for a lawn. Snipping at the "lawn" edge with an ineffective pair of overpriced grass shears, then giving up and going back to a good ol' pair of regular scissors. All of this stuff has to be done and done soon, or the problem will only GROW. Four letters. All caps. It wouldn't be so bad if only we had gotten it under control earlier in the year. Sigh. If only. I'm not even going to bother with excuses. It's a mess out there and I only hope that by next year I can show you some wide shot photos of something that you would actually call a garden, instead of resorting solely to leaf-and-petal macro shots intended to keep the ugly backdrop of scary weeds out of the frame.

That's the goal, anyway.

Meanwhile, my thumb hurts. You know how a gardener is supposed to have a green thumb? Well, mine is red! Damned Fiskars "Softouch Grass Bypass Shears" started giving me a blister right away. (Also, they're a bit too weak and flimsy to do much grass cutting.) I wish I had read the reviews on HomeDepot.com before buying. They are so going back to the store.

Fortunately, I have Neosporin and there was still one My Little Pony band-aid left in the tin.

I also have O'Keeffe's Working Hands, the best gosh-darned skin cream ever! Hubby recommended it to me several years ago when I was waiting tables and now I always keep one in my nightstand and one at work. Some people love their scented lotions and body butters and mineral-based, essential oil-infused, goat milk and shea butter and oatmeal and honey and green tea and coconut yadda yadda yadda products, but I like the simplicity of Working Hands. Just like any other skin cream, it's made of water, glycerin, waxy solids, silicone, emulsifiers, emollients and preservatives (according to my googling of everything in the ingredients list). They just don't bother with the perfumes and colorants and cosmetic additives that either have a questionable purpose or are supposed to do all sorts of vaguely helpful things but won't really be absorbed into the skin (stuff that I found in another lotion that's kind of nice, but feels greasy and isn't as effective).

Working Hands is sold at hardware stores because it's perfect for people with really rough, dry, cracking skin. I use it every night just before I go to sleep. My hands used to be a horrible mess, especially during dry weather and manual labor. Now they rarely ever crack and when they do, Working Hands speeds up the healing. If only my cuticles were as soft as my skin. Next habit to form: oiling my cuticles twice a day!

That's enough of that.

My thumb feels better, now.