We attended a dinner party a couple of nights ago and I\u2019ll spare you a long story about why right and left handed actions came up while pouring a glass of wine.
\nThere was only one \u201cleftie\u201d in the group and during the conversation, he said that basically the only thing he did not do left-handed was shovel. Well of course that brought about all sorts of jokes about left-handed and right-handed shovels. But it turns out that he was serious and believed that people are either left- or right-handed shovelers.<\/p>\n
I obviously had never given this much thought, but after he explained what he was talking about, it made sense to me. For the sake of discussion, let\u2019s talk about shoveling snow. If you shovel with your right hand near the base of the snow shovel and your left in the D handle, does that make you a right handed shoveler or a left handed shoveler? My friend\u2019s opinion is that if your right hand is at the bottom of the shovel, it makes you a right handed shoveler. If your left hand is at the bottom of the shovel, you are a left handed shoveler.<\/p>\n
It turns out that I\u2019m right-handed\u2026 I do pretty much everything with my right hand. But when I shovel, my left hand is near the base of the shovel and my right hand is on the D handle. So I guess that makes me a left-handed shoveler\u2026 who knew?<\/p>\n
I was going to do some of my extensive research on this subject, but I decided I just might open up a can of worms \u2014 probably a lot of people would start worrying that they\u2019d been shoveling all wrong over the years. Even though I didn\u2019t get into the extensive research mode, I did give it some thought over a glass of wine. I decided that the reason I shovel the way I do is that your hand near the base of the shovel is just a pivot point \u2014 either hand will do. It doesn\u2019t take a lot of extra strength there, it just acts as a pivot. The dominant hand (in my case, the right) wants to do the control. The hand in the D handle is doing the control of the shovel\u2026 like the angle of attack, etc. But \u2014 again \u2014 that\u2019s just my theory. Of course it still doesn\u2019t put to rest the question of whether l\u2019m a left- or right-handed shoveler.<\/p>\n
I knew shoveling was hard work, but I hadn\u2019t realized it was so complicated\u2026 makes me even \u201cmore glad\u201d I got a snow blower\u2026.
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We attended a dinner party a couple of nights ago and I\u2019ll spare you a long story about why right and left handed actions came up while pouring a glass of wine. There was only one \u201cleftie\u201d in the group … Continue reading