[SnikPlosskin]

Tell us something that is a little known fact of your life. I'll start.

In third grade, my friend and I thought it would be bitchin' to smash a paint can. We tried to crush it with some rocks but the paint can was too stout. Naturally we decided to smash it with a manhole cover.

A manhole cover weights a shit ton we soon found out. We jammed our fingers into the gap just enough to get up under it and lift. It was too heavy.

My friend dropped his side. I got all my fingers out except my left pinky. The cover literally smashed off the tip of my finger, leaving the bone protruding - it skinned it.

I freaked. I started running through peoples' backyards screaming my head off and spraying blood from the finger. I made it home but don't remember much about it other than we had to go back for the mangled digit - it was still caught in the cover.

So off we go to the hospital. My father at the wheel of his 65 Chevy Stepside pickup and me putting pressure on the wound with a rag.

My dad was calm and told me they can sew it back on. I immediately imagined them using a sewing machine. I said "You know, dad...it doesn't hurt that much. I think it's fine."

They did sew it back on. They also used a bulky bandage which in the ensuing weeks would be ripped off my finger (with the finger staying in the bandage) a total of three times. Each time they sewed it on again.

The final time half my hand was blue and the finger was black. The doctor said they will need to amputate the finger. This was long before I knew I would need that finger to play guitar.

Nonetheless I plead for one more try and the doc did his best to salvage some skin from my arm and put the finger back together as best he could.

I was careful and eventually the bandage was removed. Half of my hand stayed black and blue for weeks but the tissue healed together into a presentable little finger. Sort of. More like a weird claw.

The nerves however, didn't grow back so i have no feeling in the tip of my finger. The nail grows strangely and about once a year I use an exacto knife to cut it out where it digs into my skin. (Can't feel a thing! I have also burned it with a soldering iron. I didn't know it was burning until I smelled it.)

Yet, I still use it for guitar. I can't feel the string which is weird but it's all I know. It works as well as any other finger on my left hand.

If they amputated the finger it would be unlikely that I would have taken up guitar a few years later.

That guitar has kept a roof over my head, fed me, put me through college and made friends all over the world. If that little kid didn't insist on one more chance, my entire life trajectory would have been altered.