So. Remember that phantom poison ivy from a couple weeks ago? Where I got a poison ivy rash but never actually touched poison ivy anywhere that I could find?
Well guess what? I just learned that some people, yes, yours truly, have pretty much an identical reaction to Virginia freaking creeper.
😶😶😶
I’ve eyed that stupid plant that grows freaking everywhere with suspicion, wondering on several occasions if maybe poison ivy looked like Virginia creeper sometimes because I couldn’t explain the poison ivy rashes. 😅
So no, poison ivy doesn’t ever look like Virginia creeper, but Virginia creeper can be freaking poison ivy! Totally different poisonous oil, same reaction.
How did I find all this out? Remember how yesterday I was saying that I hoped I managed to stay away from the poison ivy, and that I’d rinsed off in the creek many times in an effort to make sure I rinsed off the poison ivy oils? Well, I learned two new things today. One, even though I’ve looked It up a gazillion times, for some reason apparently my brain decided to translate insoluble as the same as soluble, perhaps like valuable and invaluable… And so for all these years, rinsing off with water has done absolutely nothing. In fact, I’ve been spreading the rash even worse by doing that.
😳
Joyous.
I woke up today with hands that are swollen and tingling and starting to break out in rashes just like poison ivy, and though I might have touched some poison ivy yesterday, several plants looking like they might be poison ivy but also a lot like just the tree saplings, I certainly touched a massive amount of Virginia creeper.
So I’ve got poison grim creeper rash. And maybe poison ivy as well.
Good freaking gravy.
And little me rinsing myself off in the creek managed to spread it all over, so I’ve got poison ivy on my hands. I think I might have some in my right eye, forehead, nether regions…
Needless to say, I was reminded today that I’ve got a doctor in the family, so gratefully the doctor was able to get me the prescription I needed for prednisone, And hopefully we can nip this thing in the bud and keep the breakout from getting any worse.
Anyway, It was a comfortable night’s sleep, for which I was grateful. Somehow, though it was a hot day, Rover cooled off quickly, and it was comfortable with the fan on, comfortable all night, and I even put on a tad bit of blanket by morning. 🥳
Of course, I didn’t realize that I might well have been spreading poison ivy oils, I mean grim creeper oils, all over my bed, and then rolling around in it all night, as I didn’t have a shirt on.
😳
😅
I guess we’ll find out.
So I didn’t even get up until after Family Reunion festivities had started, and I went down to the creek for a quick rinse off before heading up there.
It was after waking up and doing my morning stuff before heading to the reunion that I realized that the super sensitive skin underneath the blisters that had already healed had already broken out in rash.
Everywhere there was a freshly healed blister where the skin had torn off, and the skin underneath was really sensitive, I had rash bumps/blisters forming.
Joy.
I went up to the family reunion, with family there from Utah that I’ve actually never met before.
I was super late getting there, and they were basically finishing up by the time I got there. Fortunately, having John there, he being a doctor, and he tending to some of the other family needs that came up during the morning festivities, reminded me that I could talk to him about the rash And very likely significant outbreak coming.
He was able to get me the prescription I needed. 🥳
From The family reunion, I gathered up all of my clothes, put them in a bin, grabbed my bedding off my bed and my pillowcase and everything and headed into Pea Ridge to pick up my prescription and while there, do some laundry at my mom’s house. Didn’t expect to need to do that today, but many emergency with the breakout, and the the possible significant breakout coming.
Ran into my neighbor while waiting for my prescription, and we chatted for probably 20 minutes about what’s going on with them and then about poison ivy rashes.
They are fabulous neighbors. We have some really great neighbors. Joe and Glenda, Dan and Don… Great peeps.
Pb&j sandwich at my mom’s house, laundry, pills, shower.
Ah… brain mini rest (At least from poison grim creeper concerns).
While there, I spent a little while fixing my mom’s shower head. They are on well water there as well, and there was so much mineral buildup, that the shower was blowing really powerfully out of a few of the holes in the shower head, but many weren’t sending any water out at all, and some were really weak. So I cleaned all of those out, so the next time she takes a shower, she can actually rinse off effectively.
Wiped down all the services that I probably have touched in my car, cleaned out my laundry bin with soap and water. Helped my mom get the refrigerator parts upstairs to clean, as the refrigerator didn’t get plugged in in time before mold started growing.
Found a crack in the bathtub, or what looks like a crack, and my finger nail catches the edge, so I’m pretty sure it’s a crack. Not so great, and the landlord is going to take a look at it. Had to call the landlord over for another water leak as well that originally I thought was the same leak, but upon inspection, I noticed that the water that was dripping on the basement floor was not coming from where a crack in the tub would be sending water, but was coming from a completely different place. So it looks like the crack in the tub either isn’t cracked all the way through or isn’t leaking water in the same area If it is indeed cracked enough for water to get through.
Hung out with my mom doing those things and running loads of laundry.
Headed to harbor freight going as quickly as I could because I was running out of time to get the lights up for the family reunion.
Tried to find things I could use to hang lights from trees without causing any harm to the trees. Ended up buying a whole bunch of camouflage bungee cords and two boxes of carabiners.
Showed up to start installing everything, and Jim had already done it. 🙃
I felt bad. That was one of my two assignments. 😕
I still had time to get it done, but from their perspective, things were definitely down to the wire, and they were.
They said they weren’t worried about it, so I guess I’ll take that. I still feel crappy about it. But I’m trying to do what I can, and the poison ivy, or Virginia grim creeper mini emergency sort of sidelined me temporarily.
Since they had already done that, I grabbed the cushions for One of the swings that I bought for my mom that I ended up putting down at the deck when we moved out.
The cushions had been out in the weather so long that they were growing algae on them and Moss and mold and what not, so I borrowed Jim’s pressure washer, and pressure washed the cushions in the hopes of having them ready for the reunion, but That was another thing I got done just too late, as there was not a chance the cushions would dry out in time for people to actually sit on them.
Gratefully, the swing is that woven woody stuff, so people could still sit on it. There just weren’t cushions to sit on. I don’t even know if it came with cushions, so it was still functional and fine.
I also grabbed the loppers and lopped off a tree next to the deck where the shindig was that had bent over in one of the storms and was split. It was just a little sapling thing that I could take right at ground level. Maybe an inch and a half Or 2 in thick.
So I at least got that done.
After that, it was Time for the festivities. Gazillions of people. Arkansas family that I don’t see very often at all. Utah Family that I’ve never even met before.
I’m so awkward at things like this. Nobody thinks I am, but inside I’m just a Little knotted ball of nervousness–very easily embarrassed. Always feeling awkward and out of place.
But I’ve often come across to other people as a social butterfly, the life of the party, the goofball, the class clown, whatever you want to call it.
It’s just inside I’m a little ball of awkward nervousness. 😅🙃
Anyway, chatted my way through several conversations. Chowed on the food. Listened to music.
Thunder and lightning came rolling in, and I loved that. We did suspend the festivities, cutting out the dancing and the fireworks for today. We rescheduled those for tomorrow.
A few of us stayed at the deck enjoying the rain and thunder and lightning.
It was lovely. 🥰
It was a much better day today for me than other days have been recently. 🥳
Once we round down at the deck area, people were headed up to Jim and Steph’s place To play games. The Utah right clan is staying over there, at least some of them, and I’d not met any of them until today, and I only met one of them today at the deck, so I figured I should probably head up to meet everybody else. I don’t generally like game nights. I think that’s the social awkwardness inside my brain. I usually end up having fun, but I don’t think of them as fun. I always think of them as… awkward And embarrassing for me.
Tonight was no different. We played one of those games where you’re supposed to act something out without being able to use words and your team has to guess what you’re trying to represent.
Those are like the worst for me. My shy little boy insides got twisted all up in nervous knots. I dread my turn to act things out. Of course, when the time comes to act things out, then I get all into it and do everything as if I weren’t embarrassed and nervous at all, but inside… woooweee!!! 😅
We had a lot of fun. And yes, I had a lot of fun as well. 😊
Funny how Roseanne and I were the two people who said we were just going to be observers, but somehow we got drafted into playing. 😆
After the game night, I goofed around, chatting with Landon and Eleanor and Paul and company. Fun stuff. 😊 I was starting to be in in my little goofball, make everybody laugh state.
Starting to feel a little bit like myself.
I haven’t been like that for… so many years. It’s possible maybe I just don’t remember? but… it at least feels like it’s been… many many years now.
From the game night at Jim and Steph’s, I headed over to my mom’s place to get the last of my laundry that I had left there. I had left a load running, and my mom put that one in the dryer, started another load to wash my bedding, And I hung out with my mom while we waited for that one to dry.
Just cracked midnight, so happy 5th. 🙃
- I’m grateful that it was a much better day for me today. A lot less stress and pressure.
- I’m grateful for John for taking time out of his day off to get me medically taken care of to stop the breakout from getting really bad.
- I’m grateful that as of writing this right now, the poison ivy reaction/ Virginia death creeper reaction has not just been stopped in its tracks but has actually reversed. The blisters are getting smaller, looking almost non-existent at this point. Hale-freaking-luya!
- I’m grateful to my mother for helping me in my little mini emergency, making me a PB&j sandwich and helping me with the laundry when I had to leave to try and get everything ready for the Family shindig.
- I’m grateful to Brianna for taking time out of her night to chat with me about what’s been going on for me. I’m really grateful for her and all of Jim and Steph and Liz’s families for how wonderful they are to me. 🥰
- I’m grateful for the rain. We have badly needed it, and I very much appreciate the lower temperatures and the cloudy skies and just… yeah. I’m grateful for the beautiful storms. I love love love love them.
- I’m grateful that I was able to overcome my inclination to bow out of further festivities and actually went over and enjoyed myself at Jim and Steph’s. Hopefully I was able to add to the enjoyment of others while I was there. 🤞
- Though I don’t have a wife and kids of my own, it is fun to be able to be sort of an uncle/great uncle for the kids out here. I was able to be one of the little goofball play friends for two of Paul and Brianna’s kids. Fun stuff. 🙂
12:11 my time.
I’m enjoying the rain on the roof of my Civic as I get ready to make the mad dash from my car to Rover. Not a mad dash because of the rain… But a mad dash because of the ticks And bugs shiitake breaking myself 😆
G’night, world.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 