I am not left-handed

Once in a while when I write something in front of another person, that person will say, "Oh! You're left-handed!" My favorite response is, "You are making a judgment on rather flimsy evidence."

I threw a ball or bowled with my right hand. I hammer and saw with my right hand. I tend to put things on a shelf with my right hand. I start small engines with my right hand.

I've come to the conclusion that I tend to do small motion activities with my left hand and large motion activities with my right hand.

I write with my left hand, I shave with my left hand, and I brush my rapidly thinning hair with my left hand. But if I scribe a line, I have the pen or pencil in my right hand. And I use my right hand on the track pad or the mouse.

Say, if a person puts a phone to their left ear, are they left-handed. I'd say people do that to leave their right-hand free to write.

I once was trying to hammer in an awkward position in which I had to pound with my left hand. I was repeating to myself, "I am not left-handed! I am not left-handed! Owwwww!" as I whacked my right thumb with the hammer.

I have been doing a lot of sawing and splitting firewood. I use the saw in my right hand; I hold the axe in my righthand; and I swing the maul over my right shoulder. Also, I start the chain saw with my right hand and use the saw as a fully right-handed person would. Now my shoulder and upper arm are paying the price of repetitive stress syndrome.

Not one to give up on my chosen chores, I keep sawing up firewood, by hand using a draw saw. I am not left-handed. It is bad enough that I do not make a straight cut with my right hand, but when I saw with my left the saw starts jamming halfway through a log even three inches in diameter. This is because I tend to twist the saw as I move the top of my hand to the right. I have to consciously twist my hand so the thumb stays on top.

And if I want to split one of these pieces of firewood, I have to do it with the axe in my right hand. It is almost impossible for me to even aim properly with the axe in my left hand.

I wrote a bit more on handiness about three years in response to a blog entry by Jim Heffernan. See "Left-handers are not underhanded".

I do have to correct the part about moving my watch to my left wrist; when I wear a watch, I wear it on my left wrist. I need my right hand to set it:)