Lacing Up

Hello boys and girls, it’s been a while since I posted anything new. In fact it’s been more than a year. Life sorta got in the way. I’ve been thinking about getting back to this and so here it goes.

After lost my arm, one of the things that I tried to do on my own was tie my shoes. I was able to do it, but I was never able to get them tight enough to stay. Within 20 minutes they’d loosen, I’d try again and they’d loosen again. Wash rinse repeat. I’d be frustrated and as a grown man I was gong to find a way to do this myself.

So I looked for and found three basic solutions, the first are slip ons like my harness boots, sandals, etc. The second are stretchy shoe laces and the third are cord locks.

I won’t get in to the slip ons, I’m sure as an adult member of the reading public, I’d expect that you’ve come across those already.

When it comes to stretchy laces, most of these are made for sneakers. The first laces I found were a product called Lock Laces.

https://www.locklaces.com/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007DLVLBQ/ref=twister_B00975EAJ6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

These work great, but my only problem with them is that they don’t come in solid colors. They all have the spots on them, which looks fine on sneakers, but not so much for anything else. For a while they were all I could find too. So I was using the Cord Locks that I’ll mention below.

After a while however, I found that a company called Nite Ize which makes all sortsa doo-hickies and tchotchkes started making stretch laces in their KnotBone system. These come in solid black and White among other colors. They’re also flat like regular laces. Which makes them far less noticeable and they can be put on dress shoes too. Here’s a picture of them on my sneakers. These laces have taken a beating and hold up.

https://www.niteize.com/product/KnotBone-Stretch-LaceLock-System.asp

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SY16Y6Q/ref=twister_B00U1HU872?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Also, since you can’t always just run down to the store for these, so I usually keep a couple extra pairs on hand just in case I get new shoes or a lace breaks.

Now the stretchy shoe laces above will work for most shoes, however I also wear boots and these need longer laces than the stretchy ones come in. In this case I use Cord Locks. Most cord locks use springs and these can be hard to work one handed. It’s difficult to keep the spring depressed and pull the laces through in the same motion.

So I’ve been using these friction style cord locks.

The thing with these is that I’ve found them in all sorts of prices. On Amazon you have to buy a minimum of 25 which is going for $11.95 as I write this which is a really good price. At one point I think I remember paying $10 for a pair on an “Accessibility” (cough cough… healthcare… cough… rip-off…) website so shop around.

http://na.itwnexus.com/content/cord-lock%E2%84%A2-194

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06W2JXW1Q?ref_=ams_ad_dp_asin_1&th=1&psc=1

Here’s what they look like on my boots. These have also stood up to a good thrashing as you can see.

The stretch laces are pretty obvious on how to use them, but here’s a video of how I work the friction lock laces.

Puttin’ on socks..

To my five followers.. (Hi ma…) I know it’s been a while since I posted something… Here’s something new for you…

Here’s how I put on my socks single handedly. It’s not that hard, but does take a little practice.

They do have adaptive devices for helping to put your socks on. I think most are really geared for those of you who may have a problem bending over.

I start by inserting my thumb and one other finger in to the sock. By spreading my fingers to stretch the sock, I apply tension to hold it on my fingers and open it at the same time.

Next I slip the sock over my toes just far enough to get it to stay.

Once its on my foot, I just work it up my foot and leg by grabbing it once side at a time.

Here’s a video of the whole process in action.

Breakin’ Eggs

I’m no chef, just a single dude that likes to eat. One thing I like, especially after a night out, is eggs. I don’t know what it is about eggs, but they certainly help the occasional hangover..

Before I lost my arm, probably like most of you, non-professional food service peeps, I cracked eggs with two hands . One handed egg cracking is that show off move that’s supposed to separate the pro’s from the not so much..

Well, I’m now forced to do the one handed crack. No, not the smoking crack or the butt crack, the egg crack. Here’s how I go about it..

If you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know that I use cast iron to cook with. The cast iron is a little thick and has a tendency to crush the egg shell instead of breaking through it. So instead, I use a beer pint glass to crack the egg.

I start by grabbing the egg with 4 fingers. On one side of the egg, I use my index and middle fingers and on the other side my thumb and ring finger with the egg oriented long ways between the fingers.

Then I’ll use a swift downward motion striking the egg on the edge of the glass. The weight of the bar glass helps with this. I then quickly move the egg over the pot, and use my fingers to spread the shell apart, dropping all the eggy goodness in.

After dropping the eggs in to the pot, I’ll drop the shells in to the glass.

One more thing to note, before you watch the video, I started putting the glass on a piece of paper towel before cracking the eggs. This isn’t shown in the video, but you will see some of the egg runs down the glass. The paper towel makes clean up easier. Here’s the whole process in video:

Cast Iron

I love my cast iron pots. I’ve you’ve never cooked with cast iron, you’re missing out. The cast iron heats evenly and with a cast iron lid, holds the moisture in so you don’t dry out dinner. They can be used on the stove, in the oven and even on a barbecue.

Cast iron cookware is often criticized for being heavy. You know what, the critics are right. It can be a pain to handle these pots, but it’s precisely this property that makes this an essential part of my kitchen tricks for amputee cooking.

I know what you’re thinking “you only have one arm dumbass… why not go with something lighter?” Well… Have you ever tried to stir something without holding the pot with one hand and stir with the other? The pot spins as much as the food does, especially when you have a glass cook top like mine.

You see, its the weight of the cast iron cookware that helps the pot to stay put, when trying to stir dinner.

Cast iron comes in two varieties, the primary is raw cast iron, that may be pre seasoned, but is essentially, uncoated iron. Here’s my large 12 inch skillet. These aren’t too expensive and can be found at Walmart, Kmart and most stores that sell camping gear. Usually, you’ll find the Lodge brand at these locations. (Bonus they’re made in the USA!)

One thing to look for, for an amputee cook, is a pot that is flat on the bottom. I have an older Lodge 10 inch deep fryer that I don’t use often because it has a ridge on the bottom. The flat bottom, having more surface contact with the cook top, increases friction and so it doesn’t slide when I stir. Conversely the ridge on the fryer, having less surface contact will still slide around when stirring is required.

Of course the raw cast iron pots do require different care methods than a coated pot. There are many tutorials online for caring and seasoning this cookware. If proper care is maintained, these pots are no harder to maintain than the coated variety or the other materials pots are normally mad out of.

Here’s the care page on the Lodge website. Disclaimer: I’m not an employee or paid spokes person, I just like their products and employing American workers.

If raw cast iron isn’t your speed, cast iron comes coated in enamel. This is a considerably more expensive option if you’re buying new cookware.

I have some enamel cast iron too. I got mine second hand. Sometimes these can be found at garage sales and I’ve fond them on Ebay too. Just beware they’re heavy so if you buy from Ebay shipping will cost you. Here’s a small sauce pan and another covered pot I have. I’m not particular so I got a deal since the lids were mismatched.

To show you how much the heavy cast iron helps, here’s a short video of me making breakfast. PS don’t mind the escaped pepper…

Dycem

So here’s a little something that I picked up reading about another amputee. This is also something that I had wished I found out about sooner, because it’s a huge help.

Miles O’Brien is a reporter, he used to be a regular on CNN. I haven’t seen him on TV in a while, but I believe he’s still a reporter. At some point on an assignment, he had a medical problem that lead to the loss of his left arm. He wrote an article about it for New York Magazine that can be found HERE. It’s a good read.

Anyway, in this article Miles mentions this Dycem material. I looked in to it and bought some. It’s a bit pricey. This roll 8 inches wide by 6 and a half feet cost me $60 about a year ago from what I remember. Although a quick Google search shows that it’s come down in price..

I spent more back then because I wanted Black. Most of the colors are bright primary colors, so I paid a vanity tax for the color. If you’re not picky about the colors you probably can get it for cheaper.

Also, It also comes in shorter lengths than 6 1/2 feet. And I’m finding that I didn’t really need 6 feet of it. The 3 foot roll would have sufficed.

Bla bla bla colors… bla bla bla price… what the hell is this stuff already?

Well I’m glad you asked, it’s a non-slip plastic material. Out of the box it has a slight tacky feel to it, but it’s not “sticky”. It will pick up dust and dirt as it’s used, but the beauty of this stuff is that it’s also washable. Just a little soap and water and you’re back in business. So it’s reusable.

Here’s a picture of a piece of it on my desk. I cut small patches of this from the roll to use around the house and at work.

I use it for a number of reasons. One is for writing, I’ll place a piece on my desk for writing notes or checks. It’s also useful for when I might need to unscrew a cap for something like glue or white out.

I’ll use it under my dinner plate to keep it from sliding around the table while eating.

I also use it in the kitchen for opening jars and holding bowls still while I mix ingredients. Here, I’m using a jar lid tool (Opening jars and cans is an upcoming post) with the Dycem. The Dycem keeps the jar from spinning on me. BTW: can you see why I wanted black…

I use this stuff anywhere I need to keep things from slipping and to hold them still while I manipulate them with my only hand.

Lastly, you don’t need to be an amputee to get a benefit out of this stuff. This is good for anywhere you need a non-slip surface. I highly recommend Dycem.

Scooper Do-hickey

This is just a quick bonus post.

So I was making some dinner this weekend and using my one handed cutting board that I discussed in a previous post. I was chopping carrots.

Small pieces of cut carrots can be fast little buggers when you’re trying pick them up. I find my self chasing them around often and even a few escape. Although those that escape me never make it past my back-up defence… My dog Lola…. Suffice it to say, she likes when I use carrots..

Anyway, I forgot I had this little scooper do-hickey. I think I bought this at Bed Bath and Beyond. Being a dude, I love gadgets and being an amputee, I’m always looking for ones that might help. So I bought this tool while there one day.

Anyway, it’s just a little plastic scooper. I’ve had these before but they’ve usually just been a flat piece of stainless steel or plastic. What I like about this one is that it has sides, which help to keep those little buggers from getting away.

From an amputee perspective, using this with the little sandwich walls on my cutting board allows me to pick up larger quantities of chopped veggies than I could with one hand. This speeds up the food prep process.

I wanted to show you guys this, because it’s also another way that I use the adaptive cutting board.

Paper Towels

In keeping with my Kitchen theme. Here’s a little device I found at Bed Bath and Beyond that has worked wonders. It’s a one handed paper towel holder.

Now I know that I could use one of those screw in holders, but they’re fixed. When you’re cleaning, you have to keep running back to the kitchen. This guy can be moved and taken with you and still allow for one handed use.

As an added benefit, they’re not “adaptive” meaning they won’t cost you an arm and a le…. well just an arm in my case… And they’re readily available.

I also found you can order them online, if that’s your preferred method. Here’s one on Amazon.

I also found that it didn’t come with very good instructions (at least the one that I bought) so here is how I use it:

Start by pulling a sheet out and look for the perforations.

With the perforations near the top of the side bar, fold the towel down so that it’s nearly vertical.

Then, continue adding pressure until the perforations start to separate.

And continue to pull down until the towel comes off.

The real trick to this is getting the perforations at just the right spot to separate easily. I find that the closer to the edge of the holder it is, the cleaner the tear will be.

As you can see, in my haste using the timer on my camera to take these pictures, I screwed one up. When the side bar isn’t near a perforation, it has a tendency to punch a hole in the towel.

This holder can take a little practice to use, over a permanently fixed paper towel holder, but It makes up for it by being portable.

Cut the cheese…

…and any other ingredient you need for cooking. (Ah, juvenile toilet humor, it never gets old)

So you live alone like me and you’d like a little more than frozen microwave dinners and take out. That means cooking. I am by no means a chef. In fact I choke down quite a bit of awful tasting food because I’m marginal at best, but in the end, this isn’t about that. It’s about dealing with living independently, sans arm.

So if you want to cook, there are several things that you’ll need to do that generally requires two hands. This post is the first of a few posts about navigating the kitchen mano e mano. Well maybe just mano e nothing.

BTW: if you can’t tell, my Spanish is about as good as my cooking. Hell my english ain’t so good to… …and yes that was a smart ass joke for you grammar Nazis.

Ok, back to cooking (or something resembling it) one of the first things you’ll need to do is cut ingredients. This post is about how I go about that.

I use a few different tools for the job. Some of these are adaptive tools and some are not.

To start, I use a one handed cutting board. This was a gift, but a quick Google search shows several different styles to choose from. Mine has two stainless steel spikes and two sides.

It has some suction cups on the bottom to help it stay put.

I use mine in several ways. The first obvious way is to impale your food on the spikes. Here I’m cutting a sweet potato with a pairing knife.

Some times it’s faster, with carrots, mushrooms and other items that you’ve already cut flat, to just use the spikes as way to keep the item still while you cut through it.

By placing the food against the spikes and drawing the knife through it.

The side walls are supposed to be used for cutting a sandwich in half, I don’t eat many sandwiches so I haven’t used it for that. But I do use the side walls for other things. For instance, when trying to get the last few beans out of the bottom of a can, I’ll put the can in the corner and use it to push against, like so.

My dogs also like peanut butter filled bones, so I’ll clamp the bones to the board after washing them and use that to hold them steady for filling.

In addition to the cutting board, I suggest a good set of kitchen shears. I use these for getting in to bags of chips, opening microwave steamed veggie packets and other things like cutting herbs.

I also suggest, if you’re like me and you lost your right hand, get them in the lefty model. You’ll probably have to order lefty scissors online. I wasn’t able to find them locally and trying to use righty scissors lefty was an exercise in futility.

…And there was much cursing and gnashing of teeth…

Another great tool for cutting is a rocker knife. Another adaptive tool, these come in several styles. I have several. One I keep at my mother’s house when I’m in the mood for good food, not the slop I make.

Maybe I’ll get some home made manicotti if Mom’s reading this (Nudge nudge, wink wink) BTW, the correct pronunciation as Lawn Guyland Italians say it is… mon-i-CAWW-tee.. There, that wasn’t so hard now was it? But I digress….

I usually use the rocker knife for cutting thawed meat on the cutting board or the somewhat cooked meat at the dinner table. As Mel Gibson said in Braveheart… “You can take my arm, but you’ll never take my taste for a nice rare steak!” Or was it something about freedom? Whatever….

This knife allows you to use downward pressure and a rocking action to cut through your dinner.

Lastly, in order to make using the cutting board easier, a sharp knife is imperative. A sharp knife is a safer knife. But be careful, as I’ve stated in other posts, you and I are already missing enough body parts, so pay attention and don’t blame me, I warned you…. Don’t be a dumb ass…

Anyway, to keep my knives sharp, I use an electric knife sharpener. I got mine at the local warehouse club that sells peanut butter by the truck load.

..And there was much dog rejoicing at the sound of that in my house…

You just turn it on and if you’re a guy like me, you ruin a knife, swear, and THEN read the directions… Replace said ruined knife and sharpen away.

Fish Tank Stand

So this post is something I did a year ago. I built this without any Adaptive tools. The blog wasn’t a thought yet, so I don’t have a lot of pictures of close ups of how I did things one handed. That said, I do think it’s worth posting to show you that working with your hands…. err hand… can still be done.

One thing to note; before I lost my arm, I was somewhat handy (Pun intended! LOL). So I already had a lot of the tools I talk about in this post. The investment in tools is somewhat significant, just so you know that going in.

So this project got it’s start with the purchase on my house (I closed just 8 months after my arm was ripped off, yes you can do this!) I’ve always had aquariums since I was a kid and I wanted an aquarium in my living room of my new house.

My new house has these built in shelves in the living room. but the bottom shelf was lower than the top of the tank when the tank was on a standard height tank stand. That means I had to build a custom stand to fit my needs.

Before I get in to the build, please note that this project involves power tools. These tools are designed for 2 armed freaks. Us one armed normal people, have to use them in a capacity that might not be as intended. THESE TOOLS ARE DANGEROUS! Use your BEST JUDGEMENT! Be careful, you and I can not afford any additional lost body parts! Think before you use the tools and for God’s sakes PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU’RE DOING! Try this at YOUR OWN RISK!

End disclaimer…….

The start of the project was planning the build. I started by measuring the distance between the floor and the bottom of the shelf, then I subtracted the height of the tank and light fixture to give me the height of the stand. The depth and width were determined by the foot print of the tank.

I started the build by building two rectangles who’s outside dimensions matched the outside dimensions of the footprint of the tank. I cut the 2×3’s I used with my compound mitre saw.

I then built the frames by camping the 2x3s together with right angle clamps.

I nailed the frame together after getting the frame clamped with my pneumatic framing nailer.

The next step is to to finish building the box that the frame of the stand. I do this by clamping and then using my pneumatic nailer. I use these Irwin One Handed Clamps. I got mine at Lowe’s. These clamps rock for an upper limb amputee and I use mine for a ton of tasks beyond aquarium stands, you will probably see these again.

To skin the stand, I used melamine panelling. Also secured from Lowe’s. The trick with this was I already had my measurements. I had the dude at Lowe’s use the panel saw in the lumber department make my cuts. They made the sides and the front. (There is no back on my stand so the hoses and wires can pass) That machine will make a straighter cut in shorter time than even the most capable two armed freak of a carpenter!

I clamped the sides to my frame and then used my pneumatic finish nailer (I love air tools) to attach the panels.

After attaching the sides I temporarily attached the front to measure for the cabinet door openings.

After measuring and marking, I clamped the top down and used my level as a saw guide. I used my drill to put a starter hole in and then used my jig saw to cut out the openings.

After cutting out the openings, I used the pneumatic finish nailer to attach it. See the small hammer, I used that to drive the nails flush to the surface of the fascia.

Next it was time to build the doors. I used pine panels and cut them so that they were 3/4’s of an inch bigger than the openings all the way around.

I then used a forstner drill bit in my table top drill press to cut the holes for the cabinet door hinges. I also drilled the holes for the door pulls at the same time.

Next using moulding, my chop saw and clamps, I cut the moulding to finish the edges of the cabinet. I used my small pneumatic brad nailer to attach the moulding.

Next, I used my router with a round off bit on the edges of the doors. Note, this is particularly dangerous, a router is designed for two handers. I have more determination than sense, do this at your own risk!

Next I stained the cabinet ebony stain to match my furniture and afterwards coated it with polyurethane.

Then I assembled the doors, hinges, door pulls and fish tank in my living room.

After a year establishment, here’s what it looks like in my living room.

I built mine with one hand and ingenuity, you an do it too! Hell Yea!!!!!

Clothing Zippers

Zippers are my nemesis! Oh you little evil things!

In actuality, the ones that exist on my sweatshirts and jackets I have mastered. It’s the little bastards that exist on small bags like my travel shave kit and my growler carrier that are evil beings!

All kidding aside, you’re here to find out how to zipper your jacket one handed. This is another technique that I had to figure out on my own. Lets get to it…

I start by lifting the side of the sweater that has the zipper pull on it and pinching it between my chest and my chin. Making it short allows me to see what I’m doing and also prevents the pull side from moving around to much as I insert the other side.

Next I insert the other side in the normal fashion.

I use my thumb and index finger to pull down on the side without the zipper pull and my middle finger to push up on the bottom of the pull to hold everything together. While doing that I let go with my chin and lower the shirt.