Showing posts with label Dumbness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dumbness. Show all posts

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...