Injuries and Filthiness

It is inevitable to be injured or to end up filthy when working on cars. Today I've added three injuries to my collection, and these are by far the best yet:

1) a minor cut on my right pinkie finger due to an open-handed punch to a bolt on the caliper when a wrench slipped loose
2) a blood blister on the tip of my left middle finger due to being pinched somewhere
3) a big scrape down my left leg from one of the wheels falling on me

On the topic of filthiness:

1) my just-cleaned-today jacket and hat have mud from the wheel well caked on them
2) my fingernails will have crud caked beneath them for at least a week
3) my shoes and socks have water, brake fluid, lubricant, carb cleaner, brake cleaner, etc. all over them

Lessons learned:

1) you can dismantle things much more quickly if you think about pain after it happens instead of before (thanks, Gary)
2) mind where your fingers are
3) wear pants, not shants

A funny thing happened while working on the brakes which I had failed to note earlier. My friend Gary was helping me remove the caliper housing and the Allen wrench he was prying at/with popped loose and flew out of his hand. We both heard a singular ping and couldn't find the wrench for a good 20 minutes. Without this wrench we could neither finish taking the brakes apart nor put them back together.

Just shy of giving up, I pulled his creeper out and started looking for places it may have bounced to in the under body. I have no idea how I spotted it, but it only took me about five seconds. Gary figures I've either got amazing eye-sight or amazing luck. It had bounced to the top of the left rear CV boot, and was actually wedged into place. It was barely visible from the side of the car, and I had spotted it from the rear.

There was much laughter and rejoicing.

P.S. - I actually know what "CV" means, but I still have no idea why it bears that name.