Once Bitten, Twice Tried

Another mystery ailment for Mrs. HM! Two nights ago, I was shutting down New Delly and gathering up my stuff to move from my dark basement lair to my OPC (Old People Chair). It was early for me, before midnight. As I moved my yellow bubba cup of ice water over to the left side of my desk (it's two countertops mounted along the walls, and I sit in the V area at New Delly, having space on either side for my shenanigans)... I felt an itch on my left wrist.

The itch was maddening, really. I moved the band of my Garmin fitbitlike thingy, to see what was biting me. NOTHING! No critter was in sight. Nothing on my flesh, nothing flying away. I had not felt a moment when mandible or pincers broke flesh. You know, like with a mosquito, you notice the instant it happens, and swat at them. Somehow, this one crept up on me.

See it there? Just a tiny little bump. Barely even red the second day. Though it got plenty red that first night, because I couldn't stop scratching, and that histamine response spread a splotch over my entire wrist.

You might also notice that this critter did not bite all willy-nilly. He bit right over my vein! Uh huh! Some kind of vampirish critter, going for all the gusto, lining up for maximum bloodletting. I don't think he got through the skin, though. There's no little scab or pinpoint to show that blood actually leaked out. But then again, you don't see that with a mosquito, either, and in those creepy closeup videos of them, they are definitely sucking up blood through their straw-like proboscises.

It wasn't easy to get the picture one-handed. Took two tries. I was in no mood to take a picture of it right after it happened. I was too busy scratching.