The red, round cherry bombs are my all-time faves.
God bless the farmer’s market. Every Friday I go to Marker Miller Orchards, my farmer’s market, to pick up veggies and bread for the week. I love buying fresh and local and Marker Miller has a great variety of seasonal veggies. Friday before last we were lucky enough to find a box of hot peppers for $2.50. I’m talking a BIG box of various hot peppers in varying stages of health. I plan to grow peppers from seeds indoors over the winter, so this was a cheap way for me to get lots of seeds for a variety of peppers. Last Saturday, I decided to organize the peppers by type and start seeding.
I did a very stupid thing. I didn’t wear gloves. I know that I’m supposed to wear gloves, but it honestly did not cross my mind…until my hands started to burn. I got through quite a few peppers before my fingers started to tingle a bit. That was the moment that I thought, “Hmmm…I probably should have worn gloves.”
Those little green peppers almost put me in the hospital.
Within ten minutes both hands really started to burn and at one point I forgot and scratched my lip which started to burn on contact. This was not good. Within a couple of hours I was in severe pain and decided to try to find some relief. Did I call a doctor? My mom? No. I went straight to the Internet.
I found this great post from GardenWeb.com entitled “How do I get my hands to stop burning ???“. Yep – that was the goal. I immediately doused my hands with rubbing alcohol which helped a little, then soaked my hands in milk which made them burn more then slowly reduced the overall pain. The pain came and went for about 4 1/2 hours, so I took some Benedryl, went to bed and was mostly fine by Sunday.
Why am I sharing the story (other than to hope that you learn from my mistakes)? I like this story for a few reasons.
- Sharing information on the Internet is such an incredible opportunity. Small businesses should take advantage.
You never know when someone will stumble upon your story and relate. - Sharing problems and providing solutions is a great way to help potential customers with a small effort.
- Pet Peeve – When someone says “I know that I should have done this but didn’t. I did a dumb thing.”, don’t be a jerk and remind them that they were stupid. The poster here clearly says “Yeah I know…next time wear gloves LOL!!” And at least three people tell this poor person to “wear gloves’. Thanks, Mr. Helper.
- While I don’t suggest that you use the web for self-diagnoses and treatment, it is a wealth of information, both good and bad. In this instance, it was incredibly helpful and saved me a weekend of suffering.
- Wear gloves.
