A Year of Blogging: August 13, 2011

August 13 is 'Left Hander's Day'. It's the day to honor the 10% of the population who are left-handed. I seem to know quite a few left-handed people. Erich is left-handed. My brother-in-law is also. Two of Dad's four sisters are. I have no doubt some of my cousins are, but I've never noticed it. In fact, I didn't realize Dad's oldest sister was left-handed until February, when I saw her writing something. She held Drew over her left shoulder, with her right hand supporting him, and wrote with her left hand. I remember friends in school who were left-handed, and as they wrote, they ended up with big pencil or ink smudges on their left hands because they dragged their hand over what they had already written. I tease Erich about being left-handed. He gets annoyed that all of my scissors are right-handed. He could easily buy a left-handed pair, but he doesn't. He thinks the refrigerator opens the wrong way, although thankfully, the only place it fits in our kitchen means it has to open to the right. If we are working on dinner together, we end up bumping into each other until we remember to switch sides. When we go out to dinner and are seated at a two person booth, we have to sit so that neither of us are bumping elbows on the side. After all these years, we have learned there are some things we cannot do together. Painting for instance. I start on the left side of the room and work my way over to the right. But he starts at the right and works his way to the left. Eventually, we run into each other. When it's time to give the dogs a bath, they go into the bathtub. I normally put the lid down on the toilet and sit on that so I can help bathe the dogs. Erich sits in front of the tub, and since I'm on his left, we work against each other. So I've learned that one of us holds the dog, the other scrubs. We still bump elbows, but it works a little better. Holiday dinners pose a problem. I have a round table, and when you put the leaf in it, it becomes oblong. Once you get six or more people around the table, you have to crowd. When one person in that group is left handed, I have to sit him so that hopefully he won't bump elbows with anyone else. I haven't told Erich that today is Left Hander's Day. He'll probably want a gift or something. Since he never reads my blog, I don't have to worry about it! To any other readers who are left-handed- today is your day!