Tick Invasion
It’s beginning to feel like summer here in Stephen King Country. The air is growing muggy and hot, the black flies and noseeums are beginning to bite and try to crawl into your eyes and nose whenever you go outside, and the summer people are back in town, bringing with them their poor driving habits and lack of respect for the peace and quiet that normally hold sway out here in the woods. I’m sure they bring some sort of economic boost to the area, but I could do without them. It’s not that I’ve grown more antisocial since being out here in the sticks, but I’ve never been one to enjoy tourists, even when I lived in a big tourist trap of a city in my younger days.
I have been doing a week or so of covering for someone else’s vacation at work, which has meant that my schedule has been a little wonky. My days have been starting at 5:30 in the morning, which is a rough time to have to crawl out of bed. True, it’s a few hours later than my old broadcasting job, but i am out of practice for waking so early. At least the sun is up a little by then, unlike in the winter months. Getting up with the dawn is very much easier than getting up while it’s still dark outside.
We are fairly certain that our feral Ssaquatch chicken has been devoured by some woodland predator, after refusing to sleep in the coop at night. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen her, and while I’ve learned that it doesn’t necessaily prove that she’s been made a meal of, the odds are certainly not in her favor.
The ticks are maddening this year. Everyone I talk to agrees that their numbers are legion this season, and we definitely are seeing that reflected in how many of them we’re picking off ourselves right now. Strangely, the dog seems to be the only one of us who we haven’t had to pluck one from, although I am certain that some of the little buggy bastards must be catching a ride in on her, even though we keep her up to date on her tick medication. It’s the time of year where we keep paths and dog areas of the grass mowed, so hopefully that will help in keeping the ticks off of us and out of the house.
I am feeling old today, but that may just be the weather and the lack of enough sleep talking. Maybe I’ll have a little nap on my lunch break at work, and see if that puts any extra gas in my tank.
(Wouldn’t you know it: I was just helping an old man at the counter, and he said to me, “Not to get too personal, but you have a tick on your finger.” I rolled my hand at an awkward angle, and on the far side of my middle finger, squeezed between it and my ring finger, was one of those irritating little bastards. The struggle is real.)
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