Good Night, Sleep Tight…

This time last year I was counting the number of itchy bites I got each day, mostly on my legs. I was convinced I was the victim of grass mites, mosquitoes and/or ants. Then one morning  I found three bites under one arm and a cluster of ten bites on my chest. Uh oh…

Bedbugs? Did we bring bedbugs home with us when we drove from Arizona to Alberta at the end of April? Yikes!

A number of years ago a friend’s home got bedbugs and at that time the treatment was to heat the whole house to an even temperature of over 120 F for at least an hour. It was an expensive procedure.

(By now I had worked myself into a lather, as they say). I called the local bug assassin company. They sent one of their  exterminators out that afternoon. He looked carefully at everything in our bedroom. He could not find any sign of bedbugs. He explained that didn’t mean there were no bedbugs – just not enough to constitute an infestation.

If I wanted, he could spray selected surfaces in our bedroom with a product that his company was having a lot of success with. He explained how he would use it and how safe it was for humans once it had dried. We could use the room again in four hours. Oh, and the cost was a bit less than $200.

I said “Make it So!” He instructed me to strip the bed and wash the bedding in hot water. That would kill any bugs residing in our quilts, pillows etc. He told me not to bother washing anything else. Any bugs that weren’t killed in the first few hours would track us down at night and they would be killed too because the spray would keep working for many months.

The spray was a complete success – that was the end of the bites.

Good night, sleep tight
Don’t let the bedbugs bite.
But if they do, then take your shoe and
Hit them till they’re black and blue.
– Childhood Rhyme –

More About Bedbugs

Bedbugs were all but eradicated in the developed world by the 1950’s because of pest control products like DDT and chlordane – and the widespread use of vacuums and washing machines. Today, however, bedbugs are on the rise again because of increased travel and fewer chemical control products.

Adult Bed bugs are the size and color of a flat apple seed. They hide during the day in mattress crevices, box springs, baseboards, behind electrical switch plates, in picture frames, and even behind wallpaper. At night, the carbon dioxide we exhale lures them out of their hiding spots. Once a bed bug finds a host, it will usually feed for 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes the feeding shows up as a pattern of three bites in a cluster or row. The host usually isn’t wakened by the feasting because bed bug saliva is an anaesthetic.

If you think you have bedbugs, call a professional. In my humble opinion, this isn’t a do it yourself job.

Literary Origami – The Dark Side of Book Folding – Skull and Goth Girl

I folded this book into a Skull for my daughter – for Halloween. I should have used a thicker book and made some cross bones too.

I live inside your face.
– Author Unknown –

Why is the human skull as dense as it is? Nowadays we can send a message around the world in one-seventh of a second, but it takes years to drive an idea through a quarter-inch of human skull.
– Charles Kettering –

I folded this book into a Gothy figure (for the same daughter) – for Christmas. I was going to embroider some dark skulls to decorate the cape and body, but that was going to take more time than I had. Instead, The Car Guy made some black epoxy resin snowflakes!

I had choosen the path of the black sheep rather than that of the unicorns and puppies.
– Magenta Periwinkle, Cutting Class –

I turned my bedroom into a bat-cave of band posters, dark curtains, and the occasional skull. I think by now my distraught parents were seeking advice from their pastor. Andy, meanwhile, calmly remarked, “I like how you’ve found a way to use Halloween decorations year-round.”
– Molly Ringle, All the Better Part of Me –

The Daughter loved both books – she is a nurse. If you have a nurse in your family, you know that their interests, stories and sense of humour can sometimes be – different.

Or maybe it is day shift explaining to night shift… either way, it was probably a ‘shit’ show, as they say.

If you know a nurse or a doctor or a person who works in a medical facility, be sure to let them know that you appreciate what they do! And when they get to telling you the story about the patient who… well, I won’t go there. So just listen and nod and smile, like they do, when you talk about gardening or other such things that don’t involve body parts and fluids.

What Colour is a Balanced Life?

An uplifting 3D animation about a Father (Copi) and his son who are trying to find the balance between assigned tasks and creative living. Watch what happens when this is out of balance. Does it make you think about how unbalanced we have become in the ‘RonaWorld? What colour are you when you are in balance?

Balance is not something your find, it’s something you create.
– Jana Kingsford –

Alike – This animation production took 5 years to complete
Directed by: Daniel Martínez Lara and Rafa Cano Mendéz
Produced by: Daniel Martínez Lara and Nicolás Matji
Music by: Oscar Araujo
Production Company: Pepe School Land
Release date: July 8, 2015 (Mundos Digitales); December 13, 2016 (Online)

Taking a Break

Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once.
– Paulo Coelho –

Nothing, but also everything – isn’t that what the past few months have been like!?

Now the world is tuning in for the Covid Analysis. It will be interesting – yet depressing; optimistic – yet fearful and biased; congratulatory – yet a blame and shame fest. All in all, a good time for me to take a break from news and social media. My blog is going to take a holiday too!

I’d like to thank all my family, friends and fellow bloggers who have made these past few months seem not quite so lonely. I’ll stop by and visit as many of you as I can while I am taking a break!

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.
– Anne Lamott –

The problem is that technology has become an extra limb for some of us. It’s important to utilize this technology, but at the same time it’s important to know when to take a break from it.
– Alex Broches, Start Living…Now! –

The truth is, we don’t know how taking a break frees up the mind, but it does: Somehow it freshens our little neurons, or perhaps it prompts the brain to create more cleverness molecules.
– Elizabeth Sims –

‘Rona Virus- Still at Home

How are you all doing?
Are you running out of things to do? (We sure wish the library was still open.)
Are your stores out of any products? (Our Safeway’s doesn’t have Tylenol – apparently there has been a spike in demand for Tylenol and other such over-the-counter pain killers but that is probably just a temporary shortage.)
Have you learned anything about your fellow inmates… er, family members, that has surprised you?
When do you predict that restrictions will start to be lifted?

Jake from State Farm – a series of TV commercials.

Song: Jolene, by Dolly Parton

‘Rona Virus – Lighter Side of the Coronavirus

My last post ‘covered’ toilet paper. Here are some other observations that might make you smile. Which one do you like best?

Someone did a great job of making this look like a real LEGO kit!

People have posted a few different floor plans, but The Car Guy liked this one because it included a garage.

Jake from State Farm – can’t count how many times I have seen the real commercial here in Arizona!

Dark Days

It comes with no warning. Days of being sad. Energy tank on empty.

Dark, dreary, heavy days.

Overwhelmed. Too much, too many.

I’ve been down this road many times before. It always passes. It is seasonal or hormonal or just being sad.

It isn’t depression, but it is a gift that helps me to understand those who battle real depression.

If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather.
– Stephen Fry –

I wanted to write down exactly what I felt but somehow the paper stayed empty and I could not have described it any better.
– WTM –

Just Listen to Me – It’s Not About the Nail

My problems might seem really obvious to someone else, but I don’t necessarily want to be told how to fix them. I might just want someone to listen to me – show me that they care about me. If I want advice, I’ll ask for it.

Now, I just need to follow my own advice.

Comforts Zones and Risk Tolerance

The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.
– Winston Churchill –

I’ll keep this story short, then, with a few photos -not risqué, just risky.

Risk Tolerance and Comfort Zone – two concepts to think about now and then. At our house, The Car Guy is working hard to get back into his Comfort Zone, which for him is freedom from pain, and getting his neck brace off. (See A Perfect Storm.) Once that is achieved, he can start to think again about what his Risk Tolerance will be when the motorcycle is repaired!

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
– Anais Nin –

We live in an area of the country called Hail Alley.  These white lilies have been in my garden for ten years or more, and without fail they get hit by hail either just before they bloom, or just after.  That doesn’t stop them from blooming as best they can, though. Plucky little flowers.

The concept of reducing risk is not new. People have been managing risks in some form since human beings first decided to keep their hands out of the cookfire.
– Risk Management – BC Fire Academy –

Summer bonfires (with marshmallows) at the cabin.  The grandchildren are old enough now to whittle sticks with sharp knives and use said weapons for tasks that bother timid adults. (This is the best I can do for a bonfire photo – I was never at the cabin on the evenings the extended family had a bonfire. It was just that kind of a summer.)

Adventure without risk is Disneyland.
– Doug Coupland –

My nephews little boy has a bike now and while he can’t keep up with the big kids on their bikes, he can sure park it where they do. He wears a helmet, of course, but the pot holes in the roads at the cabin have unseated him on more than one occasion, and he can show you the bruises to prove it.

I’m stepping out of my Comfort Zone today – I’m going to the dentist. Yes, I am a risk taker! How about you?

LEGO Surgeon Says, This is What is Wrong!

The Car Guy was still in the hospital after his Motorcycle Accident when our daughter, The Nurse, gave her dad this Lego Surgeon. If you look very carefully at the x-ray in the Surgeon’s hand, you might see what is wrong with the patient.

We decided the x-ray showed a rib fracture, though if you turn the x-ray upside down, it might be a break in the clavicle. Since The Car Guy had both – rib fractures and a broken clavicle – the x-ray was fairly accurate!