Glove Love

Never one to skimp on quality, I sport the best Wells Lamont goatskin gloves to protect my hands at all times.  For years they have protected my hands from everything from sharp objects to being pinched in tight spots.  Calfskin or goatskin gloves are usually my choices, due to their toughness while still being pliable.  All it took was one time of forgetting to wear either kind though, that I found my own human skin was no match for a pinch point that I was to slow to escape. 

In a quick moment of wanting to load up my pallet jack into my pickup to take it back home at the end of my shift, I momentarily lost my better judgment and left my gloves in the door panel of my Freightliner Cascadia, where I stash them when not in use.  Everything was okay as I backed my pickup truck, tailgate down, up towards the back of my 53’ dry van.  Blocking a driveway with my pickup momentarily to load the pallet jack from semi-truck to pickup truck, I was trying to hurry and not be a nuisance to anyone.  The combo of hurrying and not wearing gloves would prove to be a painful combo, as I proceeded to flip open the handle on my Wabash trailer back doors hastily and smashed one of my fingers in the process. 

Having tamper-proof door handles on my dry van, the handle has to flip 180-degrees to allow it to unlock, which has in the past caught my fingers a small number of times.  With gloves on though, this usually leads to no more than a little bit of pain after a choice few swear words!  Not taking the 10 seconds to don my gloves in this particular scenario would prove a bit more painful and ugly.  A hard-learned lesson to be sure to wear my gloves all the time and not skimp when in a hurry!

Whatever you choose for glove material, natural or man-made, be sure to protect your hands the best you can.  Human skin is no match for metal, sharp objects, or pinch points, so choose a material that surely is!  I was lucky that all I got from my lack of protection was a minor flesh wound since worst-case scenarios for these types of mistakes can often lead to finger loss or broken bones.  Take care of the hands that steer you down the road, they will applaud you for it later!