Dentist and Fear Go Hand in Hand!

Yesterday was my big day with the dentist. Let me just say here that I absolutely loathe going to the dentist. When I was 14 (this was a while back, don't you know) I had a cavity in a molar that abscessed. Nowadays, I would have been prescribed an antibiotic and some pain meds and no work would have been attempted until the infection was gone .....

My mother loaded me into the car and took me to another city, where, according to her was a really good dentist. How she knew this is a mystery, but I was young and innocent and knew better than to question her wisdom. I had been awake all night with the pain.

Leaving me there in the hands of this laughing man, she went shopping! I have learned to question professional people who seem too happy. He was round and jolly, with glasses perched upon his nose. He took a look at my tooth and clasped his hands together, giggling in anticipation, as he told me my troubles would soon be gone.

No sooner had my bottom made contact with the seat when he released the mechanism to put the back down with a little bounce, then I was told to open wide and he jammed a bite block in place. I was terrified and wanted a chance to talk my way out of this situation. Before I could escape a belt was placed across my chest and latched close. Supposedly to help me hold still.

The man was talking and laughing the entire time. Asking me questions and answering them for me, he pulled my head to his sizable belly and held it there while he tried to administer the local anesthesia. I could see everything in the reflection of his glasses. The novocaine had little effect on the infected tissue surrounding the sick tooth. This did not stop him from deciding to take the tooth out!

I wet my pants. Wetting one's pants in public is just as traumatic for a 14 year old girl as having her tooth pulled with very little anesthesia. My mother made light of my experience and was enchanted with how "jolly" the sadistic dentist was.

"Jolly" is not what I look for in a dentist. I lean more towards empathy and the liberal use of pain meds. This is a new dentist I am seeing and he was wonderful. I was in that chair for over two hours! He kept assuring me that I was a really good patient and I can honestly say that other than the injection in the roof of my mouth, I didn't feel the other injections!

He extracted a wisdom tooth and a molar so carefully, I hardly felt the pressure. I took a Vicodin before leaving home and only local anesthesia was used. My jaw is sore and my face is a little swollen, but I have finally found the dentist of my dreams!!

This does not mean that HeWho is off the hook here. I still need special care and lots of it! I spent last night in my recliner with Wall-E tucked in next to me.

Big Girls Don't Cry

There I was, going about my day. I had already fueled up the old brain with caffeine and my mind was prioritizing all the things that needed to be done. I swept the front porch and as I was entering the store to put away the broom, I peeked in the drop box and saw a couple of registration envelopes.

I stowed the broom and opened the inner door of the drop box and stuck my hand in the retrieve the envelopes. As I pulled my hand out, I felt something sting my middle finger. I flung the envelopes to the floor and saw that it was a wasp. I grabbed the Afterbite and applied it to the sting, making sure the stinger was no longer there. Not a good way to start the day.

I didn't let a little sting get in my way, though. I went on about my business. I have a house to ready for company! The good thing about having company is that it forces one to clean house!! As you all know, I would rather be in my gardens. I can clean house come winter!

I did the minimal chores inside, the ones that cannot be denied. Laundry was hanging on the line with a gentle breeze blowing and I let myself be pulled to my vegetable beds. Someone gave a roll of underlayment for asphalt roads to HeWho willingly accepts such. I found it to be a wonderful product to use between the raised beds. I have gravel there, but weeds and grass will grow despite the lack of soil.

There is a large area between two of the beds. Big enough to drive a small car through. I put this underlayment on that area in Spring and it has remained weed and grass free. It is not slippery to walk on when wet and I can toss the weeds I pull from the beds on it and they will dry and not take root. I had a scissor at the ready and I was happily covering the space between the last raised bed and the feeding troughs that were gifted to me and I also use as really raised beds. There was a ladder leaning there against the troughs and I moved it to complete my tasks ......

I disturbed another bed of nasty wasps. The first sting was on my fifth finger on the same hand that was violated earlier in the day, then another one got me on my ear! I ran to the Afterbite, but it provided little relief. I tried baking soda and every remedy I could think of. The burning did not let up and my hand started to swell. My finger looked like a sausage and I was miserable.

Not miserable enough to stay inside. I grabbed the wasp spray I keep on my desk and marched back out to murder the little beasts. They had a big nest on the inner leg of the ladder. Had. They are gone now. I finished my task and mowed my back yard. I am a big girl and big girls don't cry!!

I had a miserable night with the stings. They itched like crazy and more than once I woke up to scratch. I fed myself Benadryl all night and slathered the Benadryl gel on my ear and hand. The label warns one not to do this, but I was absolutely miserable and wanted to sleep!

The first sting has not bothered me at all, but the last stings have had me itching for three days now. When I woke after overdosing on Benadryl, my hand was huge. I could not make a fist and the itch was insane. My ear was bright red and was sticking out from my head like Dumbo, the elephant. Puffy, it was. That last nest of wasps must have been a nasty strain of killer wasps.

After three days of ice and more Benadryl, I am almost normal ... what ever that is.

Piece Of Cake

No. I did not disappear from the earth ...... I have been a busy little bee.

My son and his three girls are coming this Thursday. I have been patting myself on the back, having solved the sleeping situation by putting them in the motor home. Easy to clean, what with it being pretty much empty, just some clean bedding and towels. We do have two bedrooms. The extra room has a king bed and we could easily accommodate everyone in here, but we only have one bathroom.

Last week, the girls and I had a face time session. After they got over the fact that Gramma didn't even have make-up on ( I suppose I must have looked bad?), they exposed the real reason for the call. They thought it would be fun to surprise me and bring along two friends. Not only would that stretch my bedding situation, but ...... have you ever been around that many girls?

I guess the Duggars have. My experience with girls is that you can have two, even four, but an odd number will always leave one on the outs and there will be drama and tears. Besides that, I want to spend time with my grands, not their friends. Selfish? Maybe, but I don't get to see them much.

After a chat with my son, the idea of bringing friends was vetoed. And this is when he told me that his mother-in-law was coming to help with the driving. Jeff tends to get sleepy when he is driving (that's a scary thought!), so Gramma Barb volunteered. I love my co-Gramma and am looking forward to seeing her. I am as excited to have her here as I am to have the girls here.

But, this changes the sleeping situation. The RV has a nice queen bed and the sofa folds out into a bed, as well as the dining booth. I was thinking I would just clean up my extra bedroom and put Gramma Barb in there.

I carefully opened the door to the room that has not been occupied for quite some time. It has become the dumping ground for suitcases and all manner of the things I "will get to later". I could not see the surface of the bed. Not much floor, either.

I am having some dental surgery Thursday morning, so that day will be lost. I would have preferred not hearing the details of the quest to remove the wisdom tooth that is making my ear hurt. He decided there was no reason not to take care of the molar residing under the wisdom tooth at the same time. He blocked out an hour to devote to my torture. After he explained that he planned to break each tooth in half before doing a little cutting to get them out, I stopped listening. I HATE to go to the dentist. I grabbed the prescription for the Vicodin and promised to take one before I arrived Thursday morning.

So, time is limited. I have finished the RV and decided that Gramma Barb and two of the girls could occupy the RV. Jeff and one girl (they can rotate) will stay in the house with us. This way, I don't have to be as particular about the cleaning of the spare room. I can now see about 3/4 of the top of the bed!! Tomorrow I will be exposing the rest of the bed and putting nice clean sheets on it. Then I will carefully stack all the stuff I plan to get to "later" and vacuum and dust. Already cleaned the bathroom. Just need to build a lasagna and mop the entire house. Piece of cake!

I will be making a nice apple cake or two, as well. Staying busy will take my mind off the dentist and I owe some cake to some of my favorite campers. The apples are ripe and ready to pick and I will soon have three helpers!

The Day Is Not Going Well

I am profoundly irritated. I am on my prohibited second cup of coffee. My crazy beating heart will just have to suck it up today.

A storm blew through in the night. We lost power right around midnight .... just long enough to make it necessary to reset all the clocks. I was up at 1:30 with my old guy, Oscar. He was in want of water. I looked outside to see the ground was wet. Went back to bed and slept peacefully until the power went out again around 5:30 am.

HeWho cannot sleep (or so he says) without a fan. Not for cool breezes, mind you, but for the white noise. I tried a white noise machine for him, but for him there is nothing quite so relaxing as the cheapest loudest box fan he can find. I call it the great vortex. I confess that I, too am lulled by the sound after 42 years.

I awoke immediately when we lost power and could see the first hints of dawn as I peeked out the window. I managed to drift in a fitful sleep until I felt the bed move and heard the voice of HeWho thinks the world runs on his schedule. "Did the power go out?" I wanted to say, 'no, I got up and ran quickly through the building and turned off all the appliances to trick you', but wanting to catch a few more winks, I simply said yes.

It was not even 7 o'clock. He threw his clothes on and left. The canine contingent and I fell back into a restless sleep. I pictured HeWho fancies himself to be a master electrician climbing the poles to restore power. This made me giggle, because I knew he was on his way to McDonald's for his biscuit fix and some on tap Diet Coke.

The dogs heard him as he was coming back and I gave up and got up. Alas, the power outage extended to his biscuit making joint and he was bereft. I had no coffee, but you didn't see me acting like it was the end of the world!

This is not why I am irritated, though. At barely 7 am the parade of campers eager to let us know that the power was off started. They could not call us, because the land line depends on electricity to function. I count this as a good thing. A late arrival came up and informed HeWho was dressed, I was still in my night gown, that they had arrived around midnight and our sites had no power, so they were not going to pay for their stay. As they were relaying this, the power was revived. It was only off for about 2 hours.

That was enough of an irritation, but what really has me foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog ..... is that HeWho failed to collect the money because he was in such a hurry to rush back to McDonald's for his biscuit and magic elixir (according to Hillbilly Mom). He was rushing back to his car as he told me which site they were occupying. I suppose he thinks I can run back and forth to see when they leave and then put my formidable face on and stand between them and the exit.

Thus far, the day is not going well.

The Saga Of The Dunking Tank ....

Okay, I did not mow Bugs Bunny down!! I just eliminated his home. He hopped to another of my many gardens, far away from my vegetable garden. He is definitely in no danger of starving, in fact, just today he was lurking near the front of the building and we had a stare down before he hopped off.

I am an animal lover and probably made his life easier, since Martha, the boy cat does love to hunt. I doubt Martha would try to tackle Bugs, though, since he is as big as Martha, thanks to my green beans!

The pool is a not lovely shade of green again. It was pristine on Saturday. Saturday was a really nice day, not too hot and not too cold. A birthday swimming party was being held here and unbeknownst to me, the person in charge, the person who can foresee disaster and nip it in the bud, HeWho had given the okay for a dunking tank to be brought to our park.

My first objection was that the ground was already saturated, making it hard to mow with the heavy mower. I had just mowed the area closest to the pool with a push mower and was loathe to be forced to mow even more because of the water that would be set free on the grounds.

But, once the permission is given it is hard to take away. I spoke briefly with the mother of the birthday child and told her to wait until after the party to pay for the people who showed up. She looked appalled when I told her there was a fee for the use of the site, plus the fee for the pool. In lieu of that, it would be $5 person. I got the feeling that this was not what she had in mind, that perhaps the person who told her it would be okay to bring along a dunk tank had quoted a much lower price. I gave her a break on the swimming price. This was before I knew about the dunk tank.

The people began arriving and they all chose to check in with me, as directed by the giver of the party. I was busy on the phone all day confirming reservations for Labor Day and the in and out of parents with squealing youngsters just made my tasks difficult. Then, the grandmother (I assume that is who she was, since she was with the grandfather) came in to ask where they were supposed to set up the dunk tank. Say what? This was the first I knew about it.

I had interrogated HeWho should never make arrangements for anything, what he had discussed with the birthday party. He denied ever having talked to the woman, saying he did not know anything about the birthday party. Now that the people are here, he admits that he did give the okay for the dunk tank. Then he makes himself scarce, finding any excuse not to be in my line of vision.

Next time the grandmother comes in is to ask me when I will be filling the dunk tank and to tell me that they would like a couple of trashcans, lined, of course at their disposal ....... I squelched the urge to ask if I would also have to cut the cake and told her that I would be sending the manservant right over.

I looked out to see this large dunk tank set up in the freshly mown field of dreams grass. My second objection was already being fulfilled as I was I watched a stream of children being dunked, then racing through the cut grass to the pool and jumping in. I texted the permission giver and informed him of the grass entering the pool on the feet of many children.

He texted back asking me what I wanted him to do. I can't tell you my answer ...... just use your imagination. The running and jumping in the pool went on all afternoon and now we have spent a lot of time and money to get the pool back to blue. We made a whopping $46 and have spent 3 times that much on chemicals. Not to mention that someone either jumped or fell into my plants around the fence perimeter and crushed them.

He Who should be out there vacuuming the pool has left the property. He mouthed something to me while I was mowing the dog park, but I have no idea what it was. I just came in for a short break and a Power Ade to replenish the sweat that has me soaked. I let the grass get out of hand in the dog park and had to mow it with the blade up, rake it and now I need to finish mowing it with blade down. He Who vacuums pools is not on my happy list!

That Waskly Wabbit!

You may recall me complaining about the rabbit visiting my garden and eating all my green beans. He has plagued me all season and just last week I discovered his home.

He had taken up residence under my peach tree in some tall grasses and baby peach trees. I like to let the small trees grow until they are big enough to transplant. There must have been two dozen under the tree and some grass and weeds that had taken over. The rabbit had created a "hole" in the thicket. Almost woven. He would come out from time to time and stand there watching me weed. He was quite brave, this little thief, showing no inclination to move along.

I challenged him with my rake and he just stood his ground with his bulging side eyes. Yesterday, he was forced to move! I put my mower on the highest blade setting and mowed down all the grass and trees. Truly a testament of how annoyed I was with this rabbit. I sacrificed my baby peach trees! That will teach him to stare at me with his sidelong glance.

To Nair, or Not To Nair .....

Rained all day. A nice gentle rain, cool and refreshing. I binge watched The Young and the Restless and ventured out periodically to pull a few weeds and harvest some things from the garden. Weeding is great when it is raining, the root comes right out with so little effort.

Yesterday we mowed, and mowed and then we mowed some more. At one point in time we had 3 mowers running. The recent rains have the grass growing thick. Even with the blade up a notch, it was still hard to get through. Though the weather was cooler, I was still drenched in sweat after a very long 14 hour day.

I decided to treat myself to a nice long shower while dinner was in the oven. It was leftovers, with cheese on top. HeWho will eat anything with cheese on top and often eats some very creative casseroles made up of vegetables HeWho has sworn he has never and will never eat.

On my way to the shower I made note that my lady mustache and chin whiskers needed some attention. I opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the Nair (for faces) and saw a bottle of hair removal for legs. This bottle boasted "just spray and rinse".

I confess that I do not remember the year of purchase for this product, but I am pretty sure it was out of date. It smelled like permanent wave solution. Those of you who have had your tresses permanently curled will know what I am talking about. I kept my hair frizzy in the 80's. I administered my own wave and if I was "disappointed" with HeWho is often disappointing I would break out a fresh perm at night, so that my head was really smelly. But, I digress.

I decided to give the leg spray a whirl, since it had the same working time as the Nair on my face. The sprayer clogged up almost immediately, but, I was committed to smooth legs by then. I poured the product into the palm of my hand and applied it to my calves, despite the instructions that forbade me to do so. I did wash my hands immediately, but I am pretty sure that I no longer have fingerprints.

Still committed to the procedure, I stood there, timing the event, stinking to high heaven. Knowing I would be tossing the product, I applied it quite liberally and could feel it starting to slide down my legs. I was getting the cloth all ready to wipe away the offending facial hair when Martha, the boy cat, chose to investigate my whereabouts.

I suppose he was happy to see me, as he began winding through my legs as he always does. First one leg, then the other, and back again. He was smearing the smelly hair remover on his sides!!!

I quickly wiped my face and grabbed the cat and started wiping him down, hoping he would not be bald when I was done. You can all breathe easy. Martha still has hair ..... and so did my legs. I had to shave them after all.

When Lightning Kills The Internet

Like most of the country, we have been caught up in the insane heat and humidity. This makes for some really smelly laundry if you do anything outside for any length of time. Say, for example, mowing or gardening.

Friday evening, the storm that finally broke the heat hit. We knew it was coming, not because we paid much attention to the meteorologist forecast. No, we knew, because Toni Louise was wedged firmly between the bathtub and the toilet. She hates storms, but she especially hates thunder and lightning.

While I rejoiced in the cooling effects of the storm, I was not so happy that lightning struck the tower that holds the Sprint satellite and KNOCKED OUT MY INTERNET!

This was bad! HeWho called right away and alerted Sprint to the strike. He called them again the next morning. Did they not understand that Saturday is my 12 hours inside day and I NEEDED internet to get through the day!!

Too bad for me. The hours would have crawled by, but since we were not that busy, I stayed outside working in a garden that was sorely lacking in attention. I made a lot of progress, but I was elated to find a good signal when I closed the door at 9:00 last night!

I Can Hear You Now

The trip to the ear doctor was great! I was there for all of 5 minutes. Settled in the most uncomfortable chair, was tilted back and my ear released all it's wax to the vacuum. Suddenly I could hear. Amazing that stool softener could do that.

Doubts about the treatment aside, I am now wondering what they do with all the ear wax? Has to be a lot of ear wax gathered every day. Maybe they should try for the Guinness world record for the biggest wax ball. Or, they could sculpt a giant ear from all the wax ..... I would wear gloves.

I had a wonderful day away from the park. I lunched, I gossiped and I shopped. The clearance section, of course. As the man in Walmart told me last week when I inquired about the location of pool supplies .... it is back to school! So, the summer merchandise was on sale and my household was in want of parmesan cheese and apple cider vinegar.

I left for home as the wind was picking up and the sky was darkening. Lightning split the horizon and I braced myself for the drive home. I hate to drive in rain. As I sat at the last traffic light I would encounter, knowing I would not make the light because I was so far back in the line, I texted HeWho will drive through any storm unfazed and alerted him that the traffic was bad and giant drops of rain were pummeling my windshield. So he could worry about me. I am a sharing sort of person.

It rained fast and hard. The traffic on the interstate crawled along at 40 mph and a lot of people had pulled onto the shoulder to wait out the storm. I kept moving, figuring I would never be able to safely merge back on should the rain let up. About 9 miles from home the rain stopped and clear skies prevailed. Nary a drop did fall on my kingdom.

Now that I can hear, I can go back to my favorite hobby of wondering about things. Things like people who will drive through rain coming down so hard, you have zero visibility, but they don't  bother to turn their lights on. As if, all is well as long as they can see others. That was the white car in front of me. I stayed well back, but at times I would lose sight of the vehicle and just hope they had not suddenly slowed.

By far the worst was the tow truck I passed while during a break in the rain. There was a car on the truck and another car being towed behind. No lights on the tow car and the truck flew passed me in the rain ....... with no lights on. I could barely make out his turn signal on his truck. I was so happy when I got home safe and sound ...... and hearing. I can hear again!!

Blind, Deaf and Dumb

This is my 12 hour day. The longest day of my week. Made even longer when one does not feel good. I am off balance, sometimes a little dizzy.

It is the drops in the ear. My ear aches. Not unbearable, but just there. Made the mistake of taking some pain medication I found lingering in the pill box. A pharmacist told me once that you could take pills one year beyond the expiration date and they would just be less effective, but not degraded. This one was still effective. Took three naps yesterday. I was not very effective. Now I have that "hangover" feeling.

It rained some more. Yesterday morning I looked out my window and saw that my vegetable garden was under water. The banana tree is quite happy with all the water and I spied two ripe peaches on the ground.

I have been keeping an eye on these peaches, the only peaches I will get this year. They are usually ripe and picked by the fourth of July. This year had such weird weather and I have just a handful of peaches starting to turn color. A group of three were in the highest branch and I had pondered a ladder to reach them. My wacky ear situation prevented me from climbing and I would forget about asking HeWho is not afraid of heights.

So, there on the ground lay two perfect peaches. The rain let up to a mere drizzle and I ventured out to collect them. They weren't a s perfect as they looked from my window vantage point. A bird had taken a bite or two. I can cut that off, though. The peachiest peach was still hanging in the tree. I stood there under the branch, looking up at the peach. I grabbed the limb in question and gave it a mighty shake ........

This is when I knew my judgement was impaired. I had no business making even the smallest decision. I managed to soak myself and the peach remained firmly attached to the tree. Remember I was looking up into the tree when I shook it. Now, I was not only deaf, but blind ..... and very dumb!

Not dumb in the sense that I cannot speak, either. I decided then that I would not have a really good day. I did manage to take care of the canine's needs, but that was about all!

On my adventure to see the ear specialist, I stopped at Walmart. Not my usual Walmart, but a bigger one. Different layout and clearance spread throughout the store. I was on a mission, having a request from HeWho handles all pool related issues. Seems we needed a new hose for the vacuum. I searched in all the likely places and could not locate the aisle with pool supplies.

I flagged down a friendly, helpful associate and inquired about the location. He looked at me as if I had wings and was from another planet! He informed me that "we got rid of all that, it is back to school time!" Got rid of all that? Does this mean you tossed it in the dumpster, or you sold it, or maybe you packed it up and put it away for next season. I didn't ask, didn't want him to attack me verbally, as I was still a little off balance after my visit with the ear digger, um, I mean doctor.

I meandered through the store, discovered a fabric section that was unimpressive and picked up a few paint pens and moved along to the grocery aisles. I needed some new mop heads for my Libman mops. I love these mops! The mechanism that wrings the water is easy to use and the mop head itself does a good job. I use their brooms, as well. That being said, I saw a display featuring a Lysol mop, with a free broom attached! Pretty much the same price as a new Libman mop, but with a broom and a dustpan attached for free.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love a bargain. I bought it! You knew I would, didn't you? I tried using the mop yesterday. I tell you, I could not push the wringer down over that mop to save my life. I could only get it about half way. Now, the whole reason you buy a mop with a wringer mechanism is so you won't have to grab that nasty mop head in your hands and wring it manually. I enticed HeWho to give it a try and he couldn't do it either. Should you be tempted by the display of floor cleaning tools by Lysol, I say DON'T DO IT!! Do not be misled by the free broom and dust pan. The broom is inferior, as well. I gave the broom to the bathrooms, having no need of one in my humble abode. Haven't decided what to do with the mop, with a head that is too fat for the wringer. There must be a craft that calls for some of the parts ..........

People Are Strange

Yesterday was the day. The day I went to the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. My ear was hearing again, but it was still hurting from time to time. Something I would normally ignore, the pain was pretty benign.

I left a couple of hours early. Not because I wanted to be that early, but I had a lunch date with my bestie, Martha. Martha used to have her camper here and I miss seeing her. We keep in touch, but it is just not the same as having an hour to gossip in person.

I drove to her shop and got a big hug from Tom (aka crazy Tom), her husband and one of our favorite people. Got some doggie love from Gus and then we were off to lunch and gossip. It was too short and I was happy to let her know that I will be returning at almost the same time next Wednesday for my follow-up appointment. We will have another lunch date then.

So, that was the highlight of my day. The very first thing they do is take you into a sound proof room to evaluate your hearing. She peered into my ear and then pushed some air in to see if the eardrum was totally blocked. She decided I needed a good cleaning out before proceeding. I felt shame, like when the dental hygienist scolds you for not flossing.

The Doctor came in to examine the ear as I sat in the most uncomfortable chair in the world. After the initial peek, he lowered the back of the chair and had me turn my head away, then proceeded to vacuum my ear. The sound is much like you can imagine. Then came the digging part on what he referred to as a "big chunk" of wax logged firmly against my eardrum. It hurt! He dug out two "big chunks", but what remains is sealed against my eardrum. So, he called my pharmacy and ordered up my remedy. Stool softener in drop form.

I have to put the stool softener in my ear for the week, then go back and have my ear vacuumed again. He says this works a lot better than DeBrox or any other over the counter products. Who knew?

Lets go back to flossing. We don't have to floss anymore!! I saw it on TV. As exciting as that news is, what captured my attention was the footage they chose to accompany the news item. It was a man brushing his teeth, with copious amounts of foaming toothpaste around his lips. It was gross. Who thought this was a good visual? Made me think of a story one of my campers told me. They were having breakfast and looking out their window ..... to see a family brushing their teeth OUTSIDE and them spitting the toothpaste into a stump. People are strange ......

To Kill A Yellow Jacket

The recent rains have had us scrambling to keep up with the mowing. It rained again last night, just as it did the night before. Some of my garden is in standing water, even though the beds are raised.

So, last evening, I set out to mow my back yard. I really intended to do just that. But, as I approached the barn to get the mower I noticed that the garden bed of day lilies next to the barn needed some serious attention. It was being taken over with a wicked thorny weed. I just so happened to have my garden gloves in my pocket.

I was making great progress as I pulled the thorny weed that has grape sized berries on it. Those are the seed pods and I was being careful to get the plants out, roots and all and not drop those seed pods in the garden. I was also pulling the spent stalks out of my day lilies so that they will bloom again. I had quite a pile of debris forming and I was losing light. I really wanted to finish this bed before I went in. The sturdier weeds were in the back of the bed, but the bed is only about 2 feet wide. Still, I placed one foot in the bed to get a good grip on the lower stem and felt something sting my foot.

I stepped out and the tiny little varmint was stinging the top of my foot over and over again. I slapped at it with my right hand and another one joined in and stung my hand. Before I knew it they were IN MY CLOTHES. I have no idea if anyone saw me, but I was yanking my shirt and then my bra off as I walked to the door as fast as I could. There was one in my shorts pocket!! After stripping and killing the ones that made it inside with me, I started hunting a remedy for the pain.

I always have Benadryl lotion on hand in case I meet up with my old friend, Poison Ivy. I slathered a generous amount on my foot and hand. It didn't seem to help and I had to throw on some clothes to check in a late-comer. I was writhing the entire time and the man wanted to chat about the weather. I finally made it to the shower and pounded my foot with the coldest water I could stand.

That seemed to help, but you can only shower for so long. My hand only had one bite and didn't hurt as bad as the foot. I decided to use ice packs and that was ok until I went to bed. I had a miserable night. I have been stung by wasps and bees before, but this was a yellow jacket. All night long I would get sudden stinging sensations. I got up at some point in the wee hours and found some Benadryl tables on the store shelf by the light of the soda machine. Took two, but still didn't get much sleep.

Today my foot is hot and swollen and itching like the worst case of poison ivy I have ever had. My flip flop is tight! I returned to the scene of the crime with HeWho is my hero and a can of wasp spray. He shot a healthy dose of poison into the hole they seemed to be coming out of. They did not die, though!!

While HeWho is lazy, consulted his best friend, Siri, I went online to confirm what they were and how to kill them. My investigation yielded some useful tips. The killing should be done late in the evening, as they are less likely to attack when it is dark ( I beg to differ!) and the entire colony will be in the nest (that sounds good to me). At this time you should apply the Pyrethrum very thoroughly and then wait for it to dry ( I will be a good distance away!), then apply another treatment in powder form. If that doesn't work ..... they suggest repeating the process in a day.

I will confess that I did enjoy beating the ones on  my clothes to death with my handy dandy fly swatter. If the treatment does not work, I will consider moving! Just took a half dose of Benadryl and will venture out to water my hanging baskets before icing my foot again. Along with the rain came another reminder that the roof is leaking where the water heater is vented. The kitchen was a swamp this morning and I would be having a small fit about it, if HeWho routes sewer was not currently doing just that.

Soon as the plants are quenched, I plan to sit back with my foot propped up while I compose an eviction notice to my gypsy tenants. So many infractions. Your dog may not run loose  with out a leash, nor should some children. Said children should be supervised if they are unfamiliar with modern plumbing and manage to clog every toilet in the park. You may not wrap wire clothes lines around my trees and hand all your laundry out for all to see. Using coolers with no lids to wash your dishes outside is also forbidden. But, the top of the list would be ............ don't send your kids out to the edge of the woods to pee in full view of other campers. Boys, but still, the bathroom is close by. But wait, the bathroom is clogged up BY THEM!

Yep, same old, same old.