TubaForum.net

Posted: **Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:06 pm**

I was swinging a little 3 lb. sledgehammer to change the shape of a steel tool, the head flew off the handle and landed squarely on this joint of my right hand index finger (sort of an important finger for someone who works with their hands).

It popped the skin clean open in a straight diagonal line across the main joint. It really didn't injure the muscle underneath and it didn't break the bone. (The doctor's office -protocol - was required to x-ray it to make sure the bone wasn't broken prior to stitching it up, even though I told them it wasn't broken.)

After getting it sewn up at the doctor's office, I went back and did some more work on some tubas. It didn't hurt too bad, but I could feel the stitches pulling.

Last night I played a one-hour (one set) bass guitar gig. (Yeah I use the right hand index finger quite a bit playing the bass...LOL
The drummer said something kind of nice afterward, to the effect that he enjoyed the lines I chose to play (at the most, I'm given chords and slashes - regardless of the tune and the style) and that it didn't at all sound like I had stitches in my index finger.

If you check the lounge forum, you'll see that today I swapped out the A-coil (26 years old and leaking) from our upstairs AC unit.

The thing hasn't bled very much at all (not even when I first popped it open), it really doesn't hurt, and it's really not that swollen.

I guess -:even when I'm unlucky - I'm still lucky.

Money's pouring out of the bank account like water, though.
Mrs bloke ran over one of those concrete curbs in a turn lane and her car needs 1100 bucks worth of put-it-back-like-it-was.

(Part of it I suspect was not related to her doing that. I've been hearing some weird disturbing noises when I've occasionally driven that car and spoken to her about having it checked. Of course, women don't have things checked; they just drive their cars until they don't work anymore. The thing that I've been hearing - I'm certain, and not related to what she did - was a bad strut, but that's only part of it. She actually damaged a wheel hub and some other stuff - driving around risking that wheel falling off.)

As I was able to play the bass little more than 24 hours after I busted my right hand index finger open, I'm sure that my Sunday church gig with the tuba will be a piece of cake.

The gig on the bass was only about an hour, but bass guitar gigs involve endless notes and endless index finger movement. Tuba parts on church gig tunes sometimes only feature enough notes to count with your fingers and toes (as long as you don't try to cut them off with sledgehammers). I'll find out when I get there. They want me there to 7:15 a.m. rehearsal before the two services. I believe one of the services is on either the internet or TV or something. 2pc.org (it's about a mile down the road from where I played a church gig last Sunday. (An east-west thoroughfare in Memphis called Walnut Grove Road seems to feature all the highfalutin churches and highfalutin private schools.)

The stitches come out in a week or less.

It's really not even very bruised. There's a lot of dirt on this hand from installing that air-conditioner's A-coil today. I've gone over my whole hand with alcohol, but I just don't want to get it all wet with soap and water...yet. I might try a little soap on a washcloth scrubbing with one finger of the other hand...

I'm thinking about leaving the bandage off tonight while I'm sleeping, and not putting on a third one until tomorrow morning.

Posted: **Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:12 pm**

Yuck. Sorry to hear that, Joe. Good luck with your recovery.

Posted: **Fri Aug 14, 2026 8:44 pm**

I tend to overdo things and not stop when I should. So I hear you there. I learned to play bass with my left had draped OVER the neck when I had a broken wrist and couldn't turn my arm over because of the cast. Played a jury my junior year with stitches on my right index knuckle where the finger and the hand meet (sliced it open drying a glass of all things). Packed us to move while healing from a hernia surgery and with a broken big toe. Shirt happens, and we keep going.

HAVING SAID THAT.

Neosporin and keeping it wrapped will speed up recovery. I'm not saying don't keep doing what you have to do. But latex gloves, band-aids, and Neosporin are your friends. Keep it clean and let it heal. I've never regretted taking care of incisions. It can get before you know it.

Posted: **Fri Aug 14, 2026 10:27 pm**

bloke wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:06 pm Of course, women don't have things checked; they just drive their cars until they don't work anymore.

I think you mean...

"Of course, most people don't have things checked; they just drive their cars until they don't work anymore. "

Glad you are on the mend! Hopefully school payments start rolling in and the bank account makes a turn around.

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 6:47 am**

Neosporin/ Petroleum Jelly do the same thing in terms of healing if it’s not infected. Moisturized skin heals faster than dry skin.

As for car related things I’ve found that if it’s not a break pad or rotor issue type sound (something I can fix) to turn the volume up on your radio and the sound goes away

At least I did that with my 06 CRV that had 345,000 miles on it.

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 11:33 am**

bloke wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:06 pm After getting it sewn up at the doctor's office, I went back and did some more work on some tubas. It didn't hurt too bad, but I could feel the stitches pulling.

Glad it wasn’t worse; heal quickly. I have to confess, though, I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t have Mrs. Bloke stitch it up with French horn linkage string.

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 11:52 am**

MikeS wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2026 11:33 am
bloke wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:06 pm After getting it sewn up at the doctor's office, I went back and did some more work on some tubas. It didn't hurt too bad, but I could feel the stitches pulling.
Glad it wasn’t worse; heal quickly. I have to confess, though, I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t have Mrs. Bloke stitch it up with French horn linkage string.

You know... If I didn't have all this repair work and these gigs..
and we lived way way out in the hinterlands, I probably would have cleaned it up, super glued it together, put a popsicle stick on my index finger and just dealt with it like that for a couple of weeks. (not joking). Being ten minutes away from the doctor, and you chumps having to pay for my Medicare, I went ahead and had it sewn up. (TRUTH: I DID ask Mrs bloke if she had any small circular needles, in case the doctor couldn't take us. She said "yes". That would have been plan B... You might think I'm joking, but then you probably know I'm not.)

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 3:28 pm**

gocsick wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 10:27 pm
bloke wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:06 pm Of course, women don't have things checked; they just drive their cars until they don't work anymore.
I think you mean...

"Of course, most people don't have things checked; they just drive their cars until they don't work anymore. "

Glad you are on the mend! Hopefully school payments start rolling in and the bank account makes a turn around.

What he meant was "Mrs bloke just drives her car until it doesn't work anymore." The rest of us women understood what he really meant.

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 4:12 pm**

Yeah...
Some people (often of a particular social political bent) feel like they need to be the superhero spokesmen for other people.
(I wasn't going to bother to make an issue, because I understand that this sort of behavior has been programmed into them, and it's sort of a reflex response, related to their sociopolitical religion.)

In reality, those "other people" are perfectly capable of being their own spokes(_ _)men (as just demonstrated), if they believe they're being misrepresented - or even if they don't.

Why are there stereotypes?
There are stereotypes, because those stereotypes have been observed and noted.
There are stereotypes which aptly apply (whether or not superheroes want to admit that they do or not) to many sorted groups of people (based on sorting people in many different ways. ex: Think of all the "engineer" jokes - yet bureaucrats and media don't present engineers to us as a downtrodden minority, so no one objects to those jokes. Oh yeah: women are actually in the majority, but who's counting

)
I would wager that - far more often - superheroes are more sensitive to the observation and pointing out of stereotypes than are those who fall within stereotypes.

...but enough trolling of "progressives", and back to expressing sympathy for the poor old bloke.

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 6:43 pm**

Many years ago, I was unloading the amps from a car.... in the dark, of course..... for a gig with a band that I was in. I was the keyboard guy. In the process, I broke the ring finger on my right hand. Knew instantly that it was broken. Got everything set up for the job, went immediately to the bar and got two very large Beefeater Gin & tonics w/lime and set them on my piano. When they were gone, the other members of the band were kind enough to keep the drinks coming for the next 2 1/2 hours. Made it through the gig quite well, despite the finger and the alcohol!

Got home around 3am. Went to the local ER for treatment...... of the finger! The nurse eventually came to my treatment room holding an x-ray of my hand that showed a nice oblique crack in the ring finger. She taped it to my middle finger and I went on with life. Hurt like a SOB for a couple of weeks!

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 9:22 pm**

Joe! Ouch! That's horrible, Im sorry that happened and nope you can heal from it pretty quickly.

I'm all for dressing a wound and handling it at home when you can... But I'm glad you went in for it. If nothing else, if you stiched it up yourself, and it didn't heal right, then they'd have to do even more to open it up, undo all that, and then restart the healing process. That would be extra painful, and take even more time.

Sometimes my kids ask me why people live so much longer these days than a few hundred years ago. I say it's because minor to moderate injuries and illnesses used to be life threatening, but now it doesn't take very much for a doctor or nurse to treat it and send you on your way. A finger injury like that, a few hundred years ago, could have quickly turned into quite a big problem.

Posted: **Sat Aug 15, 2026 10:04 pm**

Edward Manuforfices, a famous viola player, once went to the ER for 78 stitches. So don't feel bad. You'll heal just fine.

Posted: **Sun Aug 16, 2026 7:29 am**

Ah, musicians and fingers. Here is a story from Mac Rebennack’s autobiography “Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of Dr. John the Night Tripper,” that took place on Christmas Eve 1961.

“We was at a motel in Jacksonville, Florida, getting ready to go to a gig, when our singer Ronnie Barron disappeared,” Rebennack recalled. “I found him being pistol-whipped by the motel owner, who’d caught Ronnie with his old lady. As I tried to wrestle the gun away from the guy, it went off. I looked down and saw the second finger of my left hand dangling by a thread. “

Doctors managed to reattach the finger, and after a short spell playing primarily bass guitar, Mac eventually regained most of its use and returned to playing guitar. “I just developed a way to play around it, like Django.” Eventually, the injury led him to focus on piano and the rest, as they say, is history. Perhaps this injury will lead @bloke to find his true calling as an accordion player.

…but enough of trolling conservatives and back to expressing sympathy for the poor old bloke.

Posted: **Sun Aug 16, 2026 7:54 am**

bloke wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2026 4:12 pm Yeah...
Some people (often of a particular social political bent) feel like they need to be the superhero spokesmen for other people.
(I wasn't going to bother to make an issue, because I understand that this sort of behavior has been programmed into them, and it's sort of a reflex response, related to their sociopolitical religion.)

Oh don't mistake my pessimism about the common sense of most people for virtue signaling. Just because I have strong social political bent, as you say, I like to think I am more grounded in reality than the Instagram social justice warriors.

Posted: **Sun Aug 16, 2026 8:09 am**

4th day update:

I'm not yet trying to close my index finger into a box shape, but Im closing it enough to make a pretty tight circle (1 inch diameter) inside my index and thumb.

The stitches are neither pulling nor stinging.

I believe the Keflex is f'ing with me a little bit, but not too bad.
' currently in the sermon of a rehearsal+two-services gig (service #1)...all F tuba (which I have not played much over the last 2 - 3 'years).

no...I did NOT look at the emailed PDFs...' didn't feel like it..
and (seeing the charts this morning) did not need to.

live stream: NOW
https://www.2pc.org/resources/live-stream/

"conservative"...??
I lean a bit to far towards self-government (respecting others' natural rights to do the same, being cognisant of that, and doing for myself as I see fit) to be categorized as "conservative"...I PISS OFF "celebrity" "conservatives" on social media, as I point out to them that they prefer to herd people just as much as do the communists. Put me somewhere between the Bill of Rights folk and the (true/permanent) anarchists... perhaps a "conscientious anarchist" with the only self-governance rules being to avoid doing harm and to help others...but never FORCE others to help others.

(many/most) women and cars (sure: some men)
I believe it is an overwhelming trait of the female psyche to adapt, conform, and strive to make things work (very positive traits for supporting family structure and keeping the peace within that structure)...but CONFORMING to changes in vehicles' behaviors can prove to be hazardous.

...and all of this...

%
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1erDBSceSj/

Posted: **Tue Aug 18, 2026 5:33 am**

I'm with you bloke, my "conservatism" does not align with the current flavor of conservatism hoisted on the general populace.

I'm far too limited spending and isolationist to be a "Republican."

Posted: **Tue Aug 18, 2026 8:29 pm**

prodigal wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 5:33 am I'm with you bloke, my "conservatism" does not align with the current flavor of conservatism hoisted on the general populace.

I'm far too limited spending and isolationist to be a "Republican."

Neither of the two primary parties reflect I believe the core of their constituency. They are both being driven by the far end of their spectrums as well as those who have co-opted their organizations for their own aims. Most people lie somewhere in the middle and neither group really represents them anymore. If there ever was a time for a new “level headed party” or the “common sense party” to emerge it is now. However, I have no hopes of that happening. A middle of the road party would I believe win easily.

Governing might be difficult though as way too many people have gotten use to hand outs or clean up the mess I got myself into - such as going to an Ivy League school for undergrad studying the ancient turds of Greek goats and then getting a masters at another elite institution in how Greek Goats influenced western civilization between 400BC and 200BC. Once out not able to attain a job other than as a docent at a museum for 18K a year and of course not able to service the debt on 400K in college debt and still be able to dine out 7 days a week, buy a new iPhone every year while living in a $6,000/month closet in NYC - so expecting the taxpayers to foot the bill while they had themselves a good old time for 6-7 years of school. Way way too many people expect the government (taxpayer) to solve their problems now.

Funny none of them want to hear President John F. Kennedys proclamation “Ask not what your country can do for you - but what can you do for your country!”

Pretty sure he wasn’t advocating seizing the means of production.

Posted: **Tue Aug 18, 2026 10:09 pm**

tofu wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 8:29 pm
prodigal wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2026 5:33 am I'm with you bloke, my "conservatism" does not align with the current flavor of conservatism hoisted on the general populace.
I'm far too limited spending and isolationist to be a "Republican."
Neither of the two primary parties reflect I believe the core of their constituency. They are both being driven by the far end of their spectrums as well as those who have co-opted their organizations for their own aims. Most people lie somewhere in the middle and neither group really represents them anymore. If there ever was a time for a new “level headed party” or the “common sense party” to emerge it is now. However, I have no hopes of that happening. A middle of the road party would I believe win easily.
Governing might be difficult though as way too many people have gotten use to hand outs or clean up the mess I got myself into - such as going to an Ivy League school for undergrad studying the ancient turds of Greek goats and then getting a masters at another elite institution in how Greek Goats influenced western civilization between 400BC and 200BC. Once out not able to attain a job other than as a docent at a museum for 18K a year and of course not able to service the debt on 400K in college debt and still be able to dine out 7 days a week, buy a new iPhone every year while living in a $6,000/month closet in NYC - so expecting the taxpayers to foot the bill while they had themselves a good old time for 6-7 years of school. Way way too many people expect the government (taxpayer) to solve their problems now.
Funny none of them want to hear President John F. Kennedys proclamation “Ask not what your country can do for you - but what can you do for your country!”
Pretty sure he wasn’t advocating seizing the means of production.

The only thing being shown to us as emerging these days is more batshit crazy scorched earth babblers. There could literally be another 9/11 or Pearl Harbor attack on the US and next to no one under forty would do Shirt about it. BUT....half the population is still over 40

How did the thread get to this from bloke's owie?

Posted: **Thu Aug 20, 2026 12:07 pm**

bloke wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:06 pm I was swinging a little 3 lb. sledgehammer to change the shape of a steel tool, the head flew off the handle and landed squarely on this joint of my right hand index finger (sort of an important finger for someone who works with their hands).

It popped the skin clean open in a straight diagonal line across the main joint. It really didn't injure the muscle underneath and it didn't break the bone. (The doctor's office -protocol - was required to x-ray it to make sure the bone wasn't broken prior to stitching it up, even though I told them it wasn't broken.)

After getting it sewn up at the doctor's office, I went back and did some more work on some tubas. It didn't hurt too bad, but I could feel the stitches pulling.

Last night I played a one-hour (one set) bass guitar gig. (Yeah I use the right hand index finger quite a bit playing the bass...LOL
The drummer said something kind of nice afterward, to the effect that he enjoyed the lines I chose to play (at the most, I'm given chords and slashes - regardless of the tune and the style) and that it didn't at all sound like I had stitches in my index finger.

If you check the lounge forum, you'll see that today I swapped out the A-coil (26 years old and leaking) from our upstairs AC unit.

The thing hasn't bled very much at all (not even when I first popped it open), it really doesn't hurt, and it's really not that swollen.

I guess -:even when I'm unlucky - I'm still lucky.

Money's pouring out of the bank account like water, though.
Mrs bloke ran over one of those concrete curbs in a turn lane and her car needs 1100 bucks worth of put-it-back-like-it-was.
(Part of it I suspect was not related to her doing that. I've been hearing some weird disturbing noises when I've occasionally driven that car and spoken to her about having it checked. Of course, women don't have things checked; they just drive their cars until they don't work anymore. The thing that I've been hearing - I'm certain, and not related to what she did - was a bad strut, but that's only part of it. She actually damaged a wheel hub and some other stuff - driving around risking that wheel falling off.)

As I was able to play the bass little more than 24 hours after I busted my right hand index finger open, I'm sure that my Sunday church gig with the tuba will be a piece of cake.

The gig on the bass was only about an hour, but bass guitar gigs involve endless notes and endless index finger movement. Tuba parts on church gig tunes sometimes only feature enough notes to count with your fingers and toes (as long as you don't try to cut them off with sledgehammers). I'll find out when I get there. They want me there to 7:15 a.m. rehearsal before the two services. I believe one of the services is on either the internet or TV or something. 2pc.org (it's about a mile down the road from where I played a church gig last Sunday. (An east-west thoroughfare in Memphis called Walnut Grove Road seems to feature all the highfalutin churches and highfalutin private schools.)

The stitches come out in a week or less.

It's really not even very bruised. There's a lot of dirt on this hand from installing that air-conditioner's A-coil today. I've gone over my whole hand with alcohol, but I just don't want to get it all wet with soap and water...yet. I might try a little soap on a washcloth scrubbing with one finger of the other hand...

I'm thinking about leaving the bandage off tonight while I'm sleeping, and not putting on a third one until tomorrow morning.

omg. I am so sorry. Ouchies!

Posted: **Sat Aug 22, 2026 10:37 am**

TubaForum.net

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