The hazards of practicing

Yesterday, the skin on the tip of my left-hand middle finger and right-hand thumb cracked at the nail.  It's been cold and dry here, and I've been putting lotion on my hands, but it wasn't enough to prevent this. This has happened to me before, but never right before a concert when I was playing a solo like this.

When the skin cracks at crucial points of contact like that, the pain is bad. When you press down on a string with a cracked fingertip, it feels like someone is sticking a needle into your finger.

I put some New-Skin® on both places (basically similar to clear nail polish with a few purifying ingredients in it), which helped, but it still hurt. I woke up this morning feeling like pressing my finger down on a metal wire was the last thing in the world I wanted to do.

So I just spent a half hour working on my hands. I cleaned all the New Skin off with nail polish remover, soaked my hands in hot water (really helped remove the soreness), and reapplied some fresh New-Skin -- one coat, let that dry, then another coat. Then lotion.

The concert will take place in about four hours. I'm hoping it won't be too much like getting a tooth drilled without anesthesia.