The day’s project
I worked from home, and quit early to slice apples for the dehydrator, with Keldor in my hearing aids for company, as he picked mushrooms.
He got home with a bag of chanterelle just as I was finishing up.
He went to put dye in his hair as I cleaned up the apple peels and other evdience of the project. Well, except for my hands.
the evidence is in hand
Every time I process the apples from Keldor’s dad’s tree my hands turn purplish black.
Each time, when I start I look at my hands, and see that the apple juice isn’t causing any sort of colour staining. Even a fair way into the process this time, I looked regularly to confirm that my hands are still pink.
My theory is that the catalyst that causes the reaction is dish soap, with the base somehow combining it with the acids of the juice, plus the metal of the knife triggering some sort of chemistry that results that turn my hands a dark purplish black. Whatever it is, it doesn’t wash off after, and it takes a day or three to be rid of it.
it isn’t easy to remember one is testing a hypothesis long enough to complete the test
So, since that I had a hypothesis, when I started with the apples this time, I thought I would test it by not touching dish soap this time.
My hands were still pink when Keldor got home, and I was slicing the last tray of apples, and I was encouraged that, for once, I would emerge from the project without wearing weird evidence.
This is why I carefully rinsed my hands in clean running water before opening the dehydrator door each time I filled another tray, and it seemed to help…
Right up to when I started cleaning up afterwards. I picked up the last of the big apple peels and core that had fallen on the counter instead of landing directly in the compost bag, and emptied the knives and cutting board into the sink.
Then I grabbed the dish cloth, wet it, wrung it out, and used it to clean the counter.
Now my hypothesis is revised to state that even the very small amounts of dish soap, such as that remaining in a dish cloth after the last time it was used to wash up, is enough of a catalyst to trigger the reaction, as my fingers were already turning colour from just thst simple cleaning step. Oops.
By the time the dishes were washed and put away, the compost carried to the bin, and counters were clean and dry again, my purple black hands gave mute, but unmistakable, testament to their the apple slicing adventure.
why stop with the hands?
So after the game I helped Keldor rinse out the dye from his hair. He hesitated when I offered, saying that doing so would make my hands blue. I showed him my hands, and said that I highly doubted that it would make a difference.
As far as my hands went, I was right.
They didn’t pick up any extra colour from the rinsing process, and perhaps had even reduced their total colour.
Keldor was happy about how much more comfortable it is to kneel over the tub with his arms on the same side as his body, hands supporting his weight, rather than having them up over his head, directing water to places he can’t see.
However, much to my surprise, after we were done, I looked in the mirror to see a big splotch of thick blue dye on my glasses (bottom edge, left edge, just below my main field of vision), and more dye on my cheek behind the glasses. We have no idea when or how it appeared, nor why I didn’t feel it land when it happened.
So I washed my cheek and glasses. I even grabbed the scrubby sponge to try to get all the dye off of my cheek, but put it down again as soon as the abrasion hurt.
So I was left with a very faint kinda heart shaped blotch of pale blue on my cheet, directly under the edge of my glasses. Subtle enough that most people won’t notice, but clear enough if you know to look for it. And a sore spot, higher up on the cheek, past the edge of where the dye had been (so there had been no reason to even scrub there!)
Then we curled up on the couch with a book for a bit, followed by a game of Qwirkle (he won, four 14-point Qwirkls in a row helps).
finally picking up a project
After Qwirkle, Keldor suggested I get some pirate clothes ready for tomorrow’s concert, so I wandered into my bedroom too see what I have…
My brown knee breeches I made with very 1700’s inspiration, they will do. Plus the amazing blue knee high socks thst Hjalmar knit me, of course. He used a pattern approved for Carolingian reenactment, and they are lovely.
But what to wear with them? I don’t really have a pirate shirt, do I? Then I remember that pirate (and Carolingian) coats have long sleeves that fold back at the cuffs, and I remembered the ice blue silk shirt mom bought me many years ago for job interviews. It has a weird cut that I covered for interviews by putting a navy blue sweater over it, and having only the cuffs and collar showing.
But, tuck it in at the waist, and tie a scarf around my waist, and it look more pirate like than anything else I have.
Top it of with the black shawl covered with silver skulls, plus the big necklace I got from Crian’s Grandmother, and add my closed toed Birkenstocks, and the look will do. Especially next to Keldor in his pirate hat.
a priate family
a long overdue mending project
After taking the photos I decided that it was finally time to fix the velcro on my closed toed Birkenstocks. It has been loose for years, so I rarely wear them. So I sat down and removed the old velcro and glued and sewed new into place, finishing much too late. But now they sit much more comfortably on my feet!
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