Sandpaper

It’s gritty. It scratches and irritates. It cleans. It makes things shiny. It can make you bleed. Usually only one side does all the work, or the damage depending on how you use it.

It’s used as a metaphor in hockey, a term with a strictly positive meaning for a player or a team that plays tough, physical and sometimes irritating (to the opponent) hockey.

You don’t want it in your shoe. You don’t want any of your clothes to be made out of sandpaper, in fact, unless you have some kind of fetish or a particular strain of masochism.

I don’t know where the sand on sandpaper comes from, nor am I going to go search the internet to find out. I don’t know if it’s even really sand. I suspect it isn’t.

Sandpaper comes in different sizes, “grits” I think they’re called. I could be wrong. I’m not very handy.

The different “grits” (if that’s the term) make different noises when used. Different types of surfaces make different noises when sandpaper is rubbed against them. Metal sounds different from wood sounds different from plastic sounds different from glass sounds different from you get the idea.

I don’t think sandpaper is good to eat, but I’ve never tried to eat it.

Sandpaper is usually brown or tan in color, though I have seen one kind that was metallic dark blue, sort of.

Sandpaper is a good metaphor for certain kinds of days or weeks or months or even years.