Nate’s 10mm socket post and the responding posts reminded me of another one.
Back in my younger and dumber days, I was trying to replace a crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer on the car at night, after work, in an unheated garage in the middle of Winter at -12f.
Couldn’t see the bolts and nuts I had to access, so I had to work solely by feel, which pretty much nixed the use of any gloves with any decent insulating abilities (so I didn’t use any at all).
Well, a car that’s been sitting in an unheated garage at -12f, is pretty much at ambient temperature. Cold metal sucks the heat out of your hands VERY quickly (so does -12f air, but the conduction works even quicker).
What I discovered, was that in those conditions, I had about 15 - 30 seconds to do anything before my hands got so numb that I couldn’t feel anything, whereupon it took about 5 minutes tucked into my armpits to warm them up enough to regain feeling, and I would race to do what I could in the next 15 - 30 seconds before I lost feeling in my hands again.
What would’ve probably been done in 15 minutes in warm weather, maybe 30 minutes tops, took about 5 - 6 hours.
I should’ve just gone and bought a propane heater like a Buddy or Big Buddy heater to warm up the garage first.
The result was that my hands were so chapped from the cold exposure, the skin was chapped and cracked for over a MONTH, and I got to try almost EVERY type of cream and lotion on the shelves at the local pharmacy. My hands burned on contact with warm water, and would sting when in contact with soap or shampoo.
Neosporin didn’t help. None of the balms, creams or lotions worked. As mentioned, I bought one of everything on the shelves, and began using different ones for 3 days, on each hand. If there was no improvement after 3 days, I’d move to the next product .
What worked, was Psoriasin gel. Felt a noticeable difference in the hand I was using it on within the first 2 days. By the 3rd day, the one hand was significantly better, while the other hand was still severely chapped (over a month by that time), so I switched the other hand to using the Psoriasin gel as well, and again, noticed improvement within a couple days, and a significant difference by the 3rd.
The end result of that episode of stupidity, is that ever since then, my hands have been far more sensitive to the cold.
Before that night, I could, and often did clear off the snow on my vehicles without donning gloves, with no ill effects. Ever since then, trying that would result in chapped, cracked hands.
Had another extended episode of chapped hands from cold exposure over a decade later. That original tube of Psoriasin gel was long gone. It took almost two weeks of enduring chapped hands before I remembered using Psoriasin gel.
Again, a couple weeks of no improvement using moisturizing lotion and Neosporin, to noticeable improvement within a couple days of using Psoriasin gel. It’s now a permanent fixture in the bathroom cabinet, and I make sure to limit my hands exposure to the cold.
clinton1
