Season of the Itch
For what it's worth, This entry has a soundtrack. In my head, the lyrics slightly modified from the original Donovan version, but the original instrumentals work beautifully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAzTnsSgs2s
Recent days have found me aflame with little itches which grow into bite-size welts. It feels like the same outbreak I suffered last year, though I blamed last year's outbreak to the dirtiest part of the honey barn project. The decades of neglect inside the old dairy barn had developed a dazzling array of insect cultures. I felt like I rather deserved the wrath of their combined armies as I methodically wiped out culture after culture. There goes the United Nations. . . No regrets as I watch the honey barn swing into action, but it was a bloody war to gain that turf.
I have no such scapegoat this year. Sure, I have my usual outdoor dirt and weed play, but this collection of welts doesn't fit the exposure. It feels and looks like last year's outbreak. The more I think on it, the more I believe I have broken out in similar itches at various times throughout my life. Not often enough to feel routine, but often enough to feel familiar. This go-round I find myself calling the outbreak, "Travel Bugs." Another factor in play both last year and this year is the sense that I *ought* to be working on my own river dreams instead of Hubby's honey dreams. My river den sits empty and neglected. The precious friend who agreed to house sit for a month is still house sitting, 15 months later. Am I neglecting her, as well? She assures me I am not, but I feel abusive, nonetheless.
The work here still feels magical, but the rivers call. . . So much world and so little time. . .
This morning finds me deep cleaning the area I have been sleeping in and unable to bear the thought of dressing. The worst of the outbreak has been happening beneath my clothing. Even my simplest summer shifts have been reproducing their shapes with the itchy welts. Is it progress that I haven't scratched any of the welts into sores yet? Been rubbing in mustard oil instead of scratching with my fingernails.
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I like this version better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWkMMXgQohc
Glad there is a version for you, as well, Chris. A good song is worthy of many versions.
My version is more groovy ;-)
:-P
More groovy 4 U. The version I am hearing in my head hasn't been written or recorded, much less youtubed.
More on, good buddy. Here are 40 odd more versions if you want to test the more limits further. You might even find a new groove.
https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/4665
Ill stick with the Bloomfield version. I like the groovy organ.
Understood, groove master.
The mosquitos here in Chicago and burbs have been horrible so far! Feels like a bad movie.
Good song, first heard it on an Underground Garage compilation and love mimicking the ´when I look out my winnndooow’ vocal stylings
The whole Super session album is awesome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaS_MTHqyqc
It rewrites easily to put a tad of humor into the misery of those summer mosquitoes, poison plants, etc. If nothing else, the chorus can make a fun, venting moan. I love the irony of mosquitoes getting bigger as you get closer to the Arctic. I thought the mosquitoes on Lake Superior were going to carry me off to their sacrificial altar.
Thanks for the youtube link, Groove Master. How 21st century ungroovy is it that I still spend my music budget on live instruments? Don't even have a stereo. The speaker in my laptop sucks.
Good morning Arfie. Coffee on.
I hope to today is a less itchy day for you.
I get a flare up of rash when my mind is not mindful of my anxieties. It's really a form of lupus type rash that anxiety kicks into high gear. Unfortunately I also rash when the new leaves first bud, the shiny slick coating from the new leaves evaporating in the air will do it, and fresh cut grass if I am thoughtless enough to sit on it with shorts or bare feet. So I am in the season of itch myself. Yet I pull the weeds, grasses and undesirables from my garden anyway. Then plant even more in the bare spots.
Because this has been an off and on thing for you maybe? Lyme disease? It usually will have several years of build up symptoms before becoming a royal pain. You have traveled many areas up in our environment prone petri dish of cool moist air and greenery. All of which holds more than ants and chiggers. Some exposures can go dormant and reappear. Infections can usually be found in a blood test 6-8 weeks after occurrence, but not before since the antibodies take that long to develop.
Another thing that gets me is scented soaps and fabric softener, so have you had and changes to your uses, this includes any bee products.
Hugs I am here but not always visible....Yay for June.
I've had more than one "First World" medico put on biohazard gear and turn me into a lab rat inside an isolation ward when they've heard of some of the exotic ports I've dug around in. Some of those exotic ports are just outside the back yards of their gated NIMBY shelters. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if I have picked up one of the media darlings and/or lesser known diseases along the way, but It would be a surprise if I volunteer for lab rat duty again. Life is a fatal proposition. Let me die free.
These rashes look like bug bites and I'm sure that one or twenty of them really are bug bites. Sun and air baths (nude) are the best remedy I've found yet. I've been wearing a lightweight bed sheet when I have to wear anything, at all, but even nude, I can't keep myself out of those spots bugs find as intriguing as I do. At least the itch is not worse today.
We have these tiny little aphids that it's bite is at least 10x their size. If not them the knats fly in the eyes...Hoping the healing continues.
Last year the honey barn was infested with more than enough macroscopic critters to make me suspect both aphids and mites. Additionally, I was alone for most of the outbreak, so I wasn't ruling out any of those possibilities. It passed in time and even that didn't rule out the critter possibilities. Infestations often go as suddenly as they come.
This year there are 3 other people on the job site and they are spending more time in the honey barn than I am. I'm the only one breaking out. My brain's pulled meaner tricks on me than hives.
Arfie,
Is your itching caused from stress? I know youve been under alot of stress with everything youve taken on lately. Theres nothing worse than an itch you cant scratch. I recently had poisen ivy...i put rubbing alcohol and then muscle rub on top of that. It burned like the dickens but the alcohol dried it up and the muscle rub contained aspiran so it numbed the area and stoped the itch...of course..the Ben Gay smell was strong but I know they make odorless creams too. Hope that itch goes away soon for ya.
I am happy to say that the itch let up quite a few weeks ago. Yea, I think it was caused by stress. Over the course of the infestation, I took to calling them, "Travel Bugs," from the stress of having to stay in one place. This is the longest I've been without a road trip in quite a few years.