Tuesday, October 18, 2011

STATS

Departure: 11:06 am
Breakfast: right here
Lunch: this is ridiculous
Dinner: you know where
Arrival: 2:30 pm EDT, North New York City/Newburgh KOA, Newburgh, NY
Distance: 142 miles
Comments:
I know, we didn’t go very far today. We’re heading for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to see the Amish area, and we figured we’d take our time. So, here we are in Newburgh; we’ll see the Amish tomorrow.

Attention! The following is totally random and has nothing to do with anything! (I figure I need to add this warning after the Sturbridge comparison debacle.)

At breakfast this morning, I poured milk onto my cereal and needed to get a new bottle of milk to add just a little bit more. As I was eating the cereal, I read the milk cartons. (Yes, I admit to needing a hobby.) Both bottles (two different brands) had these words written on them: “No Artificial Growth Hormones*” (notice the asterisk, indicating a footnote in 2-point font). I got out my pocket electron microscope and read the footnotes. On one bottle, the footnote said, “* No significant difference in milk from cows treated with artificial growth hormones.” The other said, “* To satisfy our consumers.” There apparently is a difference, but it’s just not significant. Neither said anything about how it might be better for the kids who drink the milk (maybe they’re not significant, either), or even the cows who give the milk (who are definitely not significant).

When you put the two phrases together and read between the lines, it just seems to me like they’re saying, “There’s absolutely no point to not feeding the cows artificial growth hormones, but you idiots want us to do it, so here it is. I hope you’re satisfied. Please buy our milk.”

Okay! This is the end of the randomness. (Let me know if you liked this warning. I can try to remember to announce when I get random, but don’t hold your breath.)

But this next part is icky!

So, this evening we’re watching a movie, and Barbara points to her side and says to me, “What’s this?”

“It’s your left side,” I say, rather flippantly.

Barbara just looks at me. She’s used to me. She might not like it, but she’s used to me.

I take a closer look at the little black spot that she indicates, and, at first, it looks to me like a small, black mole. But there’s something a little off. I get a flashlight and a magnifying glass (because the light is bad in the RV, and I can’t see very well anymore), peer down at the mole, and see legs. Barbara has a pet deer tick, embedded in her left side. I get tweezers and start pulling. I figure it will just come out. Nope. The little b***** really hangs on. Perseverance pays off, though, and I’m able to extract it, put it in a Ziploc bag, and freeze it (in case it needs to be tested for Lyme disease bacteria).

The ickiness is over! (You like these warnings? Pretty good, huh?)

Barbara was fine, but I felt like throwing up.



Oops! There was still some ickiness in the last sentence! (So much for warnings.)

Update: the next day, Barbara found a tick on Molli. Fortunately, it had not dug in, yet, so she was able to get it off with no trouble. We decided to take Molli to PetSmart to get a flea/tick bath and to take Barbara to a doctor to get the tick bite inspected. The doctor felt that there is little chance of Lyme disease infection, even if the tick were carrying the bacteria, because Barbara felt the tick bite her, and we got it out within 20 minutes or so of the bite. We’ll continue to monitor the site, but it’s looking fine.