TBWCYL Day 291 - How does Cookie Monster wipe his ass with these things?

Well, I hit the final task involving senses today by having to do the "Live without my sense of Touch". Since I have no access to mass amounts of Novocaine to numb my I was forced to use padding to stop myself from feeling things.


Now you may be thinking I am turning into Fozzie Bear, wokka wokka, but no, those are just regular work gloves. I bought padded gloves to stop any sensations from reaching my fingertips, wore a long sleeve shirt and jeans to protect my body, and kept socks and shoes on all day to cover my feet.

The sense of touch is, in my opinion, the second most important sense. However, I think the real reason to make me wear gloves all day was to stop me from having any fine motor skills. Wearing gloves stops you from doing a lot of things. Here are a few.

Pulling my wallet out of my pocket
I went to get donuts for breakfast and when I went to reach into my pocket, I couldn't get my giant puffy hand in. I had to remove my glove just to get my wallet out because my jeans were tight enough that my wallet was wedged in.

Holding a fork
Understandably, the gloves aren't something you wash like your hands and this meant I had to eat everything with a fork and knife. Coordinating this was a challenge in that my fingers were now twice as fat as usual and didn't have the gripping power they should. It took two hands to pick up the fork and get it situated before even attempting to eat a donut. I had to pull tongs out just to get the damn thing out of the box.

Picking up a quarter
We were cleaning our house yesterday when a arcade token fell on the floor. As my brother-in-law and Diana sat watching, I took my gloved hand and attempted to pick the coin up. My fingertips were flimsy and had no real gripping power and it took a good 20 seconds to finally use both index fingers to flip the coin into my hand with pride.

Holding a screw
We bought a Texas Tech flag and yesterday I journeyed to the store to buy a flagpole. When I got home I went to mount it to the house and realized I had to maneuver screws to accomplish this. It was slow going but I was able to pinch a screw between my gloved fingers and get it driven into the wall.

Using the Computer
Maybe you haven't considered it but a laptop mouse pad uses some sort of magic touch technology that only works with skin. I don't know how it works but I hate it. As I sat trying in vain to move the mouse with my gloved finger I became increasingly frustrated. Only skin would make it work and I had none so I had to give up and shut the computer. I also have the IPhone which also had the same issue. I was able to use the tip of my nose to get it running and check my email but a gloved man pecking at a phone doesn't work well.

There were a few things sensory related as well. I was trying to wash a dish and didn't realize that the water was running on my finger. I also couldn't feel most heat or cold so I could have picked up hot dishes with ease. The wind didn't get to me either. In all I got what I expected from the sensory part of the experiment. I couldn't feel and that was an experience in and of itself.

Luckily I didn't have to face my greatest glove fear: Wiping my butt.

That is all,

Newt