Picking scabs. The Adult alternative.

That was one of the 12 cool things about being a kid. Scabs and the chance to pick them. The hole in your thigh, gouged out by a branch as you fell out of a tree, hurt like hell, but as the pain faded to a dull throb, there was the impending anticipation of the scab that would form. ‘Don’t pick it’ mum would say when she wandered past and caught you bent over, digging away with you index finger ‘ it will take longer to heal. Exactly. Why let your little crusty scab dry up and flake off? Where was the fun in that? Scab picking was a fine art. A lot like knowing when to harvest the grapes for a fine wine i imagine. If you picked too soon the pain was too much and it wouldn’t come away. If you left it too late, the sucker would have healed too much. If you got it just right, you could have all the fun and excitement of performing surgery on yourself and know that you could let it scab over and do it all again in a few days.
As you grow up you get less scabs. Maybe you get better at not falling over and hurting yourself. Maybe you just climb less trees and jungle gyms.
But there is an adult version.
You know when you by a new piece of electronic equipment. Stereo, clock, phone etc. And there’s that thin plastic film they put over the screen or casing to protect it? Peeling that off is the adult made equivalent, of scab picking.
Don’t you hate it when you see someone who has bought something, like a clock, stereo, phone etc and left the piece of plastic on? Why? So it can protect the screen? How can someone live with that piece of film in their life and NOT PEEL IT? Whenever I see one, and usually it is on someone’s phone, I whip it off. Stuff em. They had a chance to enjoy it themselves, but they forfeited that right when they owned the device for more than 5 minutes without peeling that sucker off.
One of the greatest feelings in the world is when you realise that there is plastic film on something that you hadn’t spotted before. This is usually on the casing of an electronic device. The casing is often black and you simply haven’t spotted the protective film. After a while it starts to peel, ever so slightly, at the edges. You spot it and think… could it be? You pick a bit, just a tiny bit, to see if you are onto something. It comes away under your nail and eureka; you know you’ve hit pay dirt. Oh the fun as you peel that large piece of sticky clear film off. Pure joy.