I was not having a great day on Monday. First cat out of the bag, I noticed that the bandaid over my leg hole was peeling loose on the bottom side. Farmer H had not overlapped the stick-down plain bandaid enough over the 2x4 bandaid. In fact, Farmer H had snuck off to bed at 8:20 p.m. on Sunday night, without telling me, and without putting on a new bandaid. So I had to find another stick-down regular bandaid to try and patch it, and only a tiny size 2 inches long was in the bathroom cabinet.
It didn't help that I had to clean up Sunday night's supper dishes, which involved the Auction Bacon and a giant black and white speckled roaster pan. I soaked up the bacon grease on bread for the dogs, who conveniently were absent when I got home with a plan to treat them.
As I was getting in the shower, I discovered my FOURTH attached tick! It was on the back of my left forearm, which I saw while turning on the shower. It was NOT there when I left for town. I did not see the dogs. The only mechanism for tickloading that I can think of is when I leaned on the back of the short couch checking TV programs before getting in the shower. This one left a raw chunk in my arm when I ripped it loose. It must have just got on there, since a lot of blood flowed out. (These must be the stupidest ticks ever. To attach on a shin, heel, and forearm. Only the beside-belly-button tick was in a normal site sought by ticks.)
Farmer H had a worse day, though. He went to work on Back-Creek Neighbor Bev's electrical hookup out in an area remoter than Hillmomba. For his trouble, Farmer H was bitten by Bev's dog! He said it wasn't a deep bite, but still a bite. Heh, heh. Like son, like father. At least Farmer H knew that Bev's dog had her rabies shot.
THEN Farmer H came back home to get the push mower, and drove back to Pony House to mow the yard. The Pony pays Farmer H, same as he would anybody else he hired to mow the yard. The Pony was off today. Which was a stabbing bone of contention for Farmer H.
"I fell down while mowing the yard. I laid there for...well...the mower was off for 15 minutes, and The Pony NEVER EVEN CAME OUT TO CHECK ON ME!"
As if The Pony would notice the lack of mower noise. Or would know instinctively that Farmer H had fallen, rather than assuming the the mowing was complete.
Anyhoo... I think Farmer H wins this Bad-Day-Off.
6 comments:
You probably already know this, but if you put a lot of Vaseline on the ticks head, it will smother it, and they will come out without any trouble or blood. You just have to be patient, and keep poking it to see if it still wiggles. Once it stops wiggling, take a pair of tweezers, and ease it out.
Plain Jane,
I did not know about Vaseline, but this tick's head was so buried I don't know if that might have worked. Besides, I was impatient, standing with one foot in the shower. Farmer H said, "Why didn't you just put alcohol on it?" That makes them back out, too. Again, same reason. I was impatient. When I find a tick, I want it out IMMEDIATELY. Maybe I can persuade myself to use the other methods next time. And I'm sure there WILL be a next time!
Soryy to hear Farmer H got bitten and then fell down. He's okay though, right?
I think you need to de-tick the couch. Maybe the whole living room.
River,
Yes, Farmer H is fine. Still his regular surly self. If only I could see those little parasites against the patterns of the brown couch and carpet! These ticks are smaller than a pin-head. And of course brown! Maybe they have all attached to me by now. (Hope that wasn't a jinx...)
A very long time ago someone told me that ticks sort of screw themselves into your flesh clockwise and you should always unscrew them, so as not to leave a part of the tick in your flesh. I have used this method on the kids when they were young and it seems to work, but it would be hard to get hold of those tiny ones to unscrew them.
Kathy,
If I ever find a tick big enough to screw, heh, heh, I will definitely try the counterclockwise trick!
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