Fingernails

I wasn't blessed with lovely looking hands.  My Mom used to tell me my hands looked just like my Grandma's (whose birthday I share).   She would say they were meant to be useful, not pretty.  Sigh...

But, fine, that's the way it is.

Along with those "useful" (and seriously, I am so grateful for my useful hands) hands is an additional blessing:  thin, weak fingernails.  Almost as if to say, "don't wish for anything beautiful, it ain't gonna happen, not with these nails." I've grown accustomed to the fragility of my nails.

But this winter has been especially hard on them.  I did ok when in CA.  But I hadn't even made it home from the airport before I had broken three nails.  And have continued to employ the clippers/files incessantly.  The extreme cold, the dry air, my natural clumsiness - it all conspires to keep my nails well within the "useful, not pretty" category.

My only complaint:  when they keep breaking down to the quick, I have nothing left to scratch with.