Well, an interesting accident....

Just now I was opening a can of clam chowder for my dinner and an interesting thing happened. It was a pop top can, and as I popped it open I suddenly found the edge of the top embedded in the middle finger of my left hand. I wasn’t at all sure how that had happened but at the moment I wasn’t worried about hows, merely in aftereffects. Like the half inch long gash across my finger that looked so deep I was rather surprised that I wasn’t gushing blood like a river. I quickly washed it, put antibiotic ointment on it and found a gauze pad. Unfortunately I was not able to find any tape to go with said pad. But I did find a band-aid which was long enough to fasten the gauze pad on. Why you ask didn’t I just put a band aid on this cut? Well my fine young friends, I have unfortunately had cuts like this before, I knew from past experience that a regular band-aid would quickly fill with blood and begin oozing all over the place, then fall off and leave messy blood stains on things. I needed the extra absorbency of the gauze pad.

Now that I was not threatening to stain the floors and the carpet with my bodily fluids I went back and examined the evidence. Well, actually I heated and ate my clam chowder and then examined the evidence and I could see no easy way that I could have cut my left middle finger while opening this can with my left index finger. Then it dawned on me. The can was dented. When I popped the seal the pressure in the can blew the top off and into my finger. Wholly unexpected but logical once you think about it.

So, be advised all of you out there, when opening a dented pop top soup can (or cat food, or who knows what you may be opening) be careful so you don’t end up like I am. The big question of course is will I remember this when I get to the next can?