We've all injured ourselves in the most ineloquent fashion while working on our rides.  Sometimes, it is an honorable wound acquired while doing something heroic while other times it is while doing something routine.  A once over of the scars on my hands and arms tell a tale of heroism and blatant lack of coordination.

For instance, I've got a long scar on my forearm from hiding the lines of a nitrous kit where it couldn't be detected.  That one, I wear as a badge of courage and honor.  There is one on my palm near my thumb from a hitting the transmission on a CRX after the wrench slipped off of the shift linkage.  This one is quasi-heroic only because it was dark outside and I was working with some of the worst tools known to man.

My most recent one, was given to me while working on the Catalina.  You'd think that it came from actually working on the physical car itself but you'd be wrong.  You see, yesterday after work, I set into taking the gas tank out.  Two long bolts, two screws and a hose clamp later, she popped right out.  No muss, no fuss, much easier than I ever expected.  This is about the time when I realized that things were going too well and something bad was going to happen.  I ran through the scenarios in my head as I was cleaning up the tools when it finally struck.  The f$vk!Ng jack stand lashes out and pinches the crap out of my thumb.  It doesn't manage to break the skin at all, it just hurts like h3II.  I brush it off and grab a beer, no biggie.  An hour later, I am greeted by a massive blood blister.  Oh, this is attractive and potentially hazardous.  I don't want the stupid thing to rupture at work and release blood all over my keyboard or clothes so I pop the bugger.

Gross, I know.  But you know what, it's all part of the game.  Injuries like these often come with the territory.  Wear them as a badge of honor or hide them under a Band-Aid of shame like I have done today.

~Craig