Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Too soon old, too late smart

The unshoveled slush at the side of the driveway froze, and so I took the bag of salt out and started sprinkling salt. There wasn't much left, and I gave up on the scoop and started reaching in the bag and grabbing handfuls. When the bag was empty, I realized my hand was filthy with salt--not what you want on doorknobs and such.

So I reached over and scrubbed it a bit in the snow.

Anybody remember enough chemistry to know what happened next?

Yep. There was enough salt still there to melt the snow on my hand--but the heat to do that had to come from somewhere and the handiest source was me. My hand hurt so badly from the cold I was afraid I'd done it some injury, and I probably would have if I hadn't gotten to warm water at the sink very quickly thereafter.

A word to the wise...

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