Life of Wry

There’s actually one downside to Jim’s fantastic new workshop. That lathe? It generates a gazillion tiny shards of metal, called swarf, which collect in a large pile on the floor in front of the lathe. And these swarves travel into the house on the bottom of Jim’s shoes in spite of the spiffy new abrasive floor mat Jim recently laid in front of the door that goes from the garage into the kitchen, and in spite of the fact he removes those shoes at the door and leaves them there.

And I walk around the house barefoot (silly me).

I’ve been stepping on these things a lot, and can usually just peel them off my foot, but today one wedged itself just so into my toe as I brushed my foot across the kitchen rug. Felt like a tiny knife sliced m’ toe. A tiny droplet of blood emerged and that was that… but I couldn’t get it out (nor did I want to try).

Definitely a job for Jim. Splinter removal is one of his outstanding talents. I mean look at this concentration!

He couldn’t get it out, though. Couldn’t find it, actually. So it’s still in there (I have toe throb to prove it) and after many attempts (with lots of squirming and whimpering), we gave up, so now I’m hobbling about with a bandaid and a thick sock. I am a world class wimp when it comes to this stuff. Whole thing gives me the vapors.

So I looked it up. Embedded swarf is definitely a thing. This guy has a lot of swarf stuck in his fingerprint grooves and he can’t get it out. Elmer’s glue is one of the solutions they suggest.

Crazy stuff, this swarf, huh?