Ring of fire?

Using my stove today reminded me of an incident that now I think is ridiculously funny.  This particular day I was going to cook, so I turned the electric burner on high and walked away to cut something up for the recipe.  Totally forgetting the burner was on, I noticed what looked like white powder on each ring of the burner.  To investigate further, I took my forefinger and proceeded to push it all around the outer ring to try and wipe it clean.  Holy smokes!!  My thought as I pushed my finger down on the ring was it was getting warm because of the friction between my finger and the metal ring of the burner, Wrong!  The burner was powdery because it was starting to heat up.  Could this be?  I just gave my finger 1st to 2nd degree burns voluntarily?  How could I forget in 30 seconds or so that I had turned on that burner?  What was going through my head besides NOTHING!  After starring at my finger like it was an alien, I retrieved an ice cube from the freezer to relieve the burn. Well, now if you agree with me and think that was humorous, please read on.  The ice must have done the trick because the finger did not blister.  About 2 days later, if you can believe, I did it again!  Only with a different burner and the fore finger of my other hand.  Same exact circumstance, same reason to wipe off the powdery substance, and same kind of burn!!  How stupid can I be?  Obviously, very stupid, because the first burn incident did not register in the brain as I burned the other finger. This time I looked at my new burn longer for maybe 20 seconds, as I was in total denial that it could happen 2 times in one week.  Guess I am not good with electrical appliances.  Just as a point of reference, I do not own a mixer of any kind to this very day.  But I'm terrified of gas stoves so I will stick to electric.  Once I rented an apartment that only had gas stoves.  That was too scary because being so afraid of fire I can not light a match, even to this day.  So to get the gas to light, I would blow on the burner and walla fire!  Needless to say I did not cook often while living there.