Wrecked my wrists learning guitar last summer. Did those same wrist rolls between songs. Stopped the pain almost instantly.

What did your neighbor try after it came back worse?

We switched to a water-based polyurethane from General Finishes last year. It dries crazy fast and the smell is way less intense, barely noticeable after a few hours. My old oil-based stuff would give me a headache for days. It's held up really well on a few tables I've made, no yellowing either.

Why'd they write the manual then?

Man, your story is the perfect example of how one loud mistake can make people give up on learning a skill forever. We all have that one "smoke alarm" moment in different parts of life that just shuts us down. It creates this weird pattern where the fear of a little mess or a burnt pan means we never actually get better at the thing. The microwave becomes a sad, safe prison for your food because the outside world yelled at you once.