Why Didn't I listen?
It was a beautiful Tuesday evening. The good wife and I decided to go for a late afternoon walk. I was of the belief that we were just going to walk around the block.
While she went out back and sprayed herself with bug spray. I puttered around in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner. When she came back in, she asked me "Aren't you going to put on some bug spray?"
In my mind, we were just going around the block, so I didn't think I'd need bug spray.
What I didn't realize is that at some point, we had agreed on going for a walk where there's a beautiful path that often has deer ... meandering around the perimeter of a swamp. The trailhead is about a 10 minute car ride away.
As we were driving to the parking lot, I remember thinking to myself ... "How bad could it possibly be?"
As we exited the car, I didn't think the bugs were very bad, so I was cautiously optimistic. But, as we left the parking lot and entered the wooded area, the clouds of bugs started to acquire me as their target.
I began to walk a little faster, keeping my pace just under a jog. I was swatting my legs with my hat while trying to protect my face. It looked a little like this.
Of course, the good wife found this quite amusing, as she was completely invisible to the predators. She thought that maybe we should slow down a little to enjoy the walk a little.
The trail usually takes about 45 minutes to complete. I think we finished this time in a little under 30 minutes.
As we were returning to the parking lot, she asked if I'd like to run ahead and get in the car. My immune system was screaming "RUN!!! Start the Car!!!!!" but my inner bravado softly replied ... "Nah, I'd prefer to walk with you."
We got in the car and drove home. I was counting the seconds that it would take before I could smear myself with anti-itch cream and pop an anti-allergy pill.
When we arrived home, I took off for the bathroom and applied the cream and took the pill. Then I looked down. I could count 27 bites, but some were large enough that I thought they might be two bites close together.
I didn't think to take a picture until after I'd applied the cream. But here is the gory image
For the next two days, I've been applying the anti-itch cream twice a day and taking an allergy pill before be.
I keep asking myself ...
Why didn't I listen ...
- When we changed our plans to walk around the swamp?
- When I was asked if I'd like to apply some bug spray?
The lesson has been learned... I hope.
Those mosquitoes can be a real pain.