If you've been keeping up with the news you may have read about the storms that have been frolicking through the Midwest these past few weeks. Our last week of summer has been rather soggy, but truthfully the rain normally comes at night and the days haven't been too bad. The grass is lush and green and my tomatoes are growing like Jack's beanstalk. Most people don't have sprinkler systems in our area so we tend to welcome the rain. Thankfully my kids sleep like hibernating bears so the loudest claps of thunder and brightest flashes of lightening don't seem to phase them at night. All in all the rain hasn't disrupted our life much.
Never the less, we've been robbed of our last week of summer, stuck inside the house. Not because of the weather as you'd expect, but because of the mean, nasty, bloodthirsty mosquitoes that have enjoyed breeding in these hot and damp conditions. They are awful. I can't take the garbage out without getting attacked. There are so many bugs that there can't possibly be enough food to go around, they must be starving (hopefully starving to death...then they'll die and be gone), so anytime we wander outside they swarm for a snack.
Night before last my neighbor called while getting the kids ready for bed. She was out of pull-ups, so I ran one over. As we talked outside for about 60 seconds I could feel the blood being sucked out of my body. I cut the conversation short and ran quickly inside to discover EIGHT new bites to add to the collection I'd already amassed!
The kids wake up each morning crying about one or two bites that are particularly uncomfortable. We've been keeping the Chiggerex cream out on the kitchen counter--which thankfully seems to provide some relief to the itching. The only side-effect is that it leaves them smelling like Grandpa covered in Ben Gay.
Bug spray doesn't help much at all. The mosquitoes are like hungry homeless vagrants digging for food in garbage cans. They are too hungry to be scared off by foul smelling chemicals.
Last night we decided we'd had enough of letting the mosquitoes rule our lives. So, we doused the kids in bug spray and headed out for a bike ride. We hypothesized that if we rode fast enough we could outrun the bugs. We came home with new bites but a little blood was a welcome sacrifice in exchange for some fresh air and exercise on the last Friday of summer vacation.
My legs are covered in bites and my arms are covered in bites, but my two favorites are the enormous zit-like bites right in the middle of my forehead. When you are thirty-five and have zit-like blemishes on your forehead you tend to want to conceal them with make-up. Unfortunately the heat and rain have left us with humid air, and when you combine humid air and foundation the result is clogged pores which then result in real zits. So now I'm left with a combination of mosquito bites that look like zits and real zits. I'm thirty five, I shouldn't be dealing with this crap! I'm ready to buy some Oxy...do they sell a variety with bug repellent?
Never the less, we've been robbed of our last week of summer, stuck inside the house. Not because of the weather as you'd expect, but because of the mean, nasty, bloodthirsty mosquitoes that have enjoyed breeding in these hot and damp conditions. They are awful. I can't take the garbage out without getting attacked. There are so many bugs that there can't possibly be enough food to go around, they must be starving (hopefully starving to death...then they'll die and be gone), so anytime we wander outside they swarm for a snack.
Night before last my neighbor called while getting the kids ready for bed. She was out of pull-ups, so I ran one over. As we talked outside for about 60 seconds I could feel the blood being sucked out of my body. I cut the conversation short and ran quickly inside to discover EIGHT new bites to add to the collection I'd already amassed!
The kids wake up each morning crying about one or two bites that are particularly uncomfortable. We've been keeping the Chiggerex cream out on the kitchen counter--which thankfully seems to provide some relief to the itching. The only side-effect is that it leaves them smelling like Grandpa covered in Ben Gay.
Bug spray doesn't help much at all. The mosquitoes are like hungry homeless vagrants digging for food in garbage cans. They are too hungry to be scared off by foul smelling chemicals.
Last night we decided we'd had enough of letting the mosquitoes rule our lives. So, we doused the kids in bug spray and headed out for a bike ride. We hypothesized that if we rode fast enough we could outrun the bugs. We came home with new bites but a little blood was a welcome sacrifice in exchange for some fresh air and exercise on the last Friday of summer vacation.
My legs are covered in bites and my arms are covered in bites, but my two favorites are the enormous zit-like bites right in the middle of my forehead. When you are thirty-five and have zit-like blemishes on your forehead you tend to want to conceal them with make-up. Unfortunately the heat and rain have left us with humid air, and when you combine humid air and foundation the result is clogged pores which then result in real zits. So now I'm left with a combination of mosquito bites that look like zits and real zits. I'm thirty five, I shouldn't be dealing with this crap! I'm ready to buy some Oxy...do they sell a variety with bug repellent?
1 comment:
Guess what I have? The next best thing to "Grandma's Ointment!" A product I found in the shop attached to the raw food restaurant -- so you know it's got to be good. The medicine woman who makes it blesses each jar -- really, she does. Not only did it heal my sprained foot at a quicker rate, we took it to Yellowstone and it was the perfect itch reliever. (You may think I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not. It's the most awesome stuff!) I'll throw some in the mail to you on Monday when three of my four kids are in school all day. (Can you believe I'm at this stage?!?)
I'm sorry you're getting eaten alive. Does this happen each summer or just when you have torential downpours? I am a little envious of the mid-night storms with thunder and lightning. Love it! Thanks for writing!!
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