In the summer of 2012, I had a nightmarish experience that, as I recall, I didn’t relate here. The short version is this. Sore neck from lifting cases of wine and staring at a stacked extra monitor, above my Mac. A friend said, “You need to get a ‘deep tissue massage’ from……….and she gave me the name of the place.
I went and gave the young man that request. About 10 minutes into the ‘on my belly, head in the hole’ massage, I hollered “UNCLE.” Here, I’ve sanitized my actual word for him to stop. The kid was trying to press his thumbs into the bones in my forearm, when my neck was the pain area. I suppose the ‘neckbone’s connected to the armbone’ must have some validity, at least in that shop. Anyway, the idiot severely damaged the radial nerve on my right arm and rendered my ring finger on my right hand totally useless. Couldn’t raise it off the table. It was a $14,000.00, three-hour visit to the ER for tests to be sure I didn’t have a stroke or something worse in the works. Yes, fourteen grand for 3 hours!! Diagnosis: Lousy massage on my arm. Bruised radial nerve.
Days later, a little darling at physical therapy gave me a plastic cup with a glob of this orange stuff to squeeze about a thousand times a day to wake up my finger. Thankfully, the temporarily-lame ring finger didn’t effect my engraving, but typing with my right hand was index finger only with that one digit on the fritz.
Got over it after about 3 months. Ring finger became stout and like new. Then, several months later, along come a couple of dog tags for engraving. Impossible to hold them with one hand, engraving with the other. They get HOT! Popped the top on the plastic cup and sank the tag in it. Worked like a vise. Now, every charm, coin, medallion, or other small item gets the same treatment. Could NOT do without this stuff.
The ‘putty’ is set on a small wooden box in the photo. The piece of clear tape strung across it is positioned to use a SHARPIE, ultra-fine marker along the bottom edge to draw a baseline for the next small line of lettering. The aluminum dog tag was engraved with a #2 round carbide. A dull one to keep from chewing through it like a dog on a rubber ball.
LESSON: Avoid deep tissue massages on your arms! And….find a physical therapist who’ll give or sell you a puddle of putty. Works great!
Oh, yes. Marie had only two legs, not four. About 32, blonde, and cover girl material. Bow WOW!
Ken • 214.250.6958
Time is closing in on getting into the November 12, 13, 14 Engraving Workshop that can fatten your Christmas stocking or shoebox where you keep your cash. Fee structure is less than before, with options we’ve not offered until now. Busy you’ll be when you learn this skill!
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