I don't know if I'm at the age yet where I can "have a fall" rather than merely "fall over", but I did. I was quite proud of the very urgent prioritisation that I did afterwards. I've been painting the rusty railings around my deck with black Hammerite. Hammerite is sticky, goes off quickly, and is completely indelible. The edge of my deck is about 4 feet above a bank of gravel. To finish the painting I had to gingerly walk on the outside of the railings. For my readers who climb: it's like a V0 slab problem. I fell down onto the gravel while still holding the paint tin and wet paintbrush. I banged my knee hard on the edge of the decking and hurt both ankles when I landed. However during the fall I had got about ¼ pint of Hammerite in my hair, down my face and neck, and all over my clothes.
The adrenaline and the panic allowed me to ignore my injuries, I was most concerned with whether I would ever get the paint off me. I walked to the bathroom, stripped off and got straight in the shower. This was my worst mistake. I should have stripped off outside and then gone to the shower. I put Hammerite on the bathroom floor and the cabinets, but there was none on my feet so that I don't need new carpets. Hurray! I decided to work on my hair first, my reasoning was that if the paint dried It would be impossible to cut or shave off the matted hair, whereas you can probably live quite comfortably for a few weeks with a big black stain down half of your face and neck. The clothes were already ruined and I sacrificed a towel to the project too. About 20 minutes of shampooing, combing and towelling my hair and it was almost back to normal. Next I cleaned the bathroom floor and cabinets as best I could (you can hardly see the damage) and threw away the clothes and towel. By this stage the paint on my face was dry, but I discovered that I could remove most of it with a nail brush and soap. It was quite painful and made me bleed in a few places, but after a couple of days you wouldn't even know that anything had happened.
Richard "My Eyebrows Saved My Eyesight" B
No comments:
Post a Comment