The Dawn of the Stain

In my line of business I am forever stained.  Stained shirts, shorts or jeans (depending on how cold it is), shoes, face, hair and hands.  I do have a set of clothes that I wear to the shop on a regular basis and trust me when I say that I look like a bum, I really look like a bum.  This is on a good day.  On a bad day however, depending on the stain that I am using - I look like something from a serial killer movie.  Oh how I love working with the Varathane Cabernet stain.  It's red, it's wine'ish, it's perfect to give everyone the wrong idea.  I'm a wood worker, not a serial killer.  Sprinkle on some wood dust, sawdust and it's the instant and perfect Halloween costume.

Of course I wear gloves, most of the time.  I buy them by the box and try to keep up on having them stocked.  But there is always that odd day, when I run out of those hand savers.  So I root through my stock pile of weird things and usually find one, slightly used with no holes and I wear that one and lonely glove on my dominant hand.  Which leaves my left hand exposed to all that is gory and gooey and woodsy and pitchy. Seriously though, have you ever had a pitchy board and that pitch gets on your hand?  It works better than superglue.  Everything and I mean everything sticks to it.

So with pitch and stain on my left hand, I go through the day with one hand stained.  I run errands, go on deliveries, grocery store and usually go to the post office looking like this.  I look like something the cat dragged in.  Really, I do.

But how to get it off your hands - Dawn, a nail brush and some elbow grease.  I am the only person I know that has Dawn in the shower.  It only took one time to realize I needed something with a grip on the bottom of the tub, but I can safely say that I now have good reflexes too, now.  Olive oil, works well too - but a good scrubbing never hurt anyone and Dawn is gentle enough that I am not over doing chemicals on my body.  The olive oil tends to stick around for a little longer than I am happy with.  Dawn rinses away clean, which gives me that squeaky clean (I can hear it) as I am drying up.