Australia Bike Tour Day 11: Nerve Damage

Two days ago I left my gloves on top of my front pannier bag when I went into a grocery store to recover my lost sunglasses (or sunnies as they call them here in Oz).

Upon successful retrieval of said sunnies, I proceeded to get on my bike and ride off without first equipping my gloves.

I can only speculate as to their whereabouts today (face down in a gutter).

With Adelaide on the horizon, I figured a few gloveless days couldn’t hurt me. I may have been wrong in my assumption.

You see, today I noticed something unusual about my left hand: I can no longer connect my pinky to the rest of my fingers whilst holding them all straight.

What does this mean!?

At first, it was funny.

“Pinky, go over there with your friends. What kind of ridiculous shenanigans do you think you’re up to?”

Then, it got a bit worrisome.

“Dude, pinky, you’re not funny anymore. I know you’re capable of this maneuver. We’ve done this millions of times. Get over there.”

Finally, it got scary.

“Seriously, pinky, I’m not fucking around. Get your ass over there with the rest of those digits before I ship you off to the Yakuza.”

To make things worse, I noticed this problem goes beyond aesthetics. The dexterity I have in my fingers has seen a noticeable decrease.

I appear to have underestimated my pinky’s utility.

Bike-Glove-Wrapper — I’ll miss you, Bravo Gel Adult XL (those are gloves, in case you’re wondering).

I had been considering continuing this journey sans gloves since apart from this latest discovery, my hands have had relatively little to complain about.

A bit of my palm has decided to wear away, but nothing so shocking as to give me reason to worry.

As is the case with my knee, I only hope that I’m not somehow doing permanent damage to my body with this whole bicycling thing. My fingers are important. How am I supposed to gouge the eyes of attacking bears, sharks, and crocodiles without proper flexibility in my hand sausages?

If anyone has wisdom to share concerning this latest hiccup, I’m all ears.

And did I mention that it’s raining again.