I nailed this lesson

Contrary to the adage about not teaching old dogs new tricks, I've had an experience recently in which I learned about a lot of things:

• first, and foremost, I learned that getting maniacal about housework can lead to physical injury of the grisliest kind----I had one of my fingernails torn off down past the quick.  It was shocking and painful.
• then I learned that people with arthritic hands are not the best candidates for taking up cuticle clippers in aid of torn fingernails
• I proceeded to find out that mishandled cuticles can have a strong reaction to lemon juice, while trying to apply brown sugar and lemon juice to a piece of toast---total lack of judgment
• later in the day, I was reminded how bandaids applied to fingertips invariably get both filthy and shabby in about 60 seconds
• even later, after a visit to the nearby drugstore, the lesson was brought home to me that if you buy a package of faux nails with 12 different sizes, not one will fit you

One of these things is not like the other

 And most tellingly, I learned that it wasn't a good idea to glue a faux nail to my torn skin.  Live and learn; if I can do just one of those, I ought not to complain.