Claw backs
I am an enormously huge basketball fan and one year, (and one year only), my home team had a player who was commonly referred to as ‘The Claw’ because his hand span was inordinately wide, and also because his ‘claw’ could virtually grab the ball as it was rimming the opponents’ net.
These days I have my own claw but it certainly can’t grab a ball, open a jar, or even twist open a bottle of water. I am a writer; it’s what I do, it’s who I am. So to have a hand that is swathed by a lump right at the wrist joint, one, in fact, that impedes the movement of my fingers, is a challenge, to say the least. No more though I’m sure than some challenge that you are going through today.
So, what to do? What to do?
I’m working around this particular challenge by switching different key boards in and out based on the level (or lack thereof) of flexibility at any given time. I have a sleek keyboard that is raised at the bottom so that the heels of my hand can rest on it while I write. But the other day, the ‘claw’ was so sore and swollen that it hurt to rest it- to put any pressure on it, so I pulled out an old keyboard, shook three months of lunch crumbs out from underneath the A, C, S, L, M, O and P keys, and used that for the day.
Of course another challenge is the actual flexibility – or lack thereof- in my fingers movement. I used to be a good speller but the ‘claw’ often hits the wrong key and a D becomes an E, A becomes a Q, and the R? Well often I hit the F key, which I might add, on some of the tougher days, is not exactly the mistake I purport it to be.
Freudian slip? Oh F no!