From Bad to Worse (or What Was I Thinking?)

I consider myself fortunate that I do not suffer from the allergies that plague many people I know. I am not allergic to pollen, cats or dogs, food, perfume, certain laundry detergent, or fabrics (well, wool is sort itchy), and I am not even allergic to poison ivy. However, I do have one minor problem: except for my hands and face, my skin does develop an allergic reaction to the adhesives that are found in medical tape and bandaids. When I give blood they have to use “horse wrap” to keep the gauze in place, and I’ve had trouble with wound dressings after surgical procedures. Thus, I obviously was not thinking -- my mind must have been elsewhere -- as I stood there decorating myself with bits of duct tape and enlisting R’s help in covering the bites on my back that that I couldn’t reach. I have found out that hard way that there is one more thing to put on the list. Now, 24 hours later, I have large red welts to go along with the itchy bites. Lord, have mercy.

The “Tin Woman”

Well I am most miserable at the moment, having gotten into chiggers when I weeded the flower bed at the church Sunday night. I never actually saw the chiggers, but I am certainly suffering with them now. I have at least 30 bites scattered over my body, probably more. Most are on my back, some on my belly (even in my belly button) and around the waistband, arms, and shoulders. Last night I stuck bits of duct tape on all the most obvious ones to keep me from scratching at them. I look like I’m morphing into the Tin Woman. They are supposed to stop itching in a few days. I hope so.

How I spent my weekend....

Not sleeping much because the racoons were on the porch off the bedroom making noise, knocking plants over, breaking the foot off my angel statute, climbing up onto the roof and galloping around...

Once again replanting the pansies in the whiskey barrel because the racoons keep digging them up...

Rewashing all of the flatware and dishtowels in the kitchen drawers beause R found mouse turds in the bottom of the cofee carafe (which we keep in the bottom drawer of the cabinet).

Mopping the kitchen floor after one or the other of us spilled....
--a half-gallon of pickled cucumbers (the lid came off as I was picking up the container) (me)
--a can of beets (me)
--a container of barbeqcue sauce (him)
--a bag of frozen cranberries which rolled everywhere (me), and
--Salad dressing (this was the piece de resistance). R mixed up the dressing in which he combines a fat-free version with a low-cal version and a couple of other things to get a better-tasting low-calorie version and forgot to tighten the lid, and as he began shaking the bottle to mix it the lid flew off and Italian dressing went everywhere.

Vaccuming the floor twice to pick up shards of glass from a broken half-gallon jar and then later, a glass custard dish.

As this Monday morning dawns crsip and clear and beautiful, I suspect I have the cleanest floor in town, and I'm wondering how much fun I'm going to have TODAY...