Hello! Happy Spring!
Did you feel all equal and balanced on Friday morning as Spring officially rolled in? Are you so excited the days are now longer than the nights? Can you feel it?
That was an oddly enthusiastic and energetic opener. Maybe I am feeling a little extra energetic? Maybe it’s more anticipatory. After the rollercoaster weather this past week (4 degrees to 77 degrees) I am feeling like the warm outdoor season may actually be upon us.
The outdoor world is showing all it’s signs. There is a tinge of green when I look out across the landscape. The migratory birds are back and singing all their songs (although perhaps they may have regretted their return date given Tuesdays very cold temps) the boxelders (trees) are in bud and the box elders (bugs) are starting to arrive - soon to clapboard the south facing side of the house in sunny days.
And the usuals - the daffodils and tulips shooting through, the iris shooting up little peaks of leaves, a few glossy strawberry leaves, the light green of the chrysanthemum leaves, the oriental poppy leaves - so many leaves. I forget how excited I am to see leaves in spring!
So many things in spring!
Late this morning I was sitting next to the dog on the floor. Roux was zonked from a long trail walk with M, and I was asking her all about her morning adventures.
And then I saw it - the think I have been anxious about these last two weeks - a tiny black-brown-red short of shiny little guy crawling up my sock. It’s the sort of double take I hate - because I really do know what it is as soon as I see it.
A tick. A very small tick crawling up my sock. Trying to burrow through my sock.
Ew. Gross. Yuck. Blech. Worry.
Ticks are my spring anxiety. They are so small and sneaky. And so eager. And I am outside so much, so matter how hard I prepare I can’t always keep them off me. Even worse, Roux is outside rolling and sniffing in everything - she’s the absolute perfect host to bring these shit-dangerous little arachnids into the house.
We do our best to stay safe - and it’s very possible (probable!) to stay safe. But even then, just know I’ll spend the next four weeks freaking out about ticks. (As in, right now, I am pretty sure that every itch I feel on my body is a tick - even though I just took a shower and I am wearing clean clothes.) Roux is on all the ticks medication and gets the vaccine. We try to spray her with deterrent too for walks in the brush. We try to spray ourselves with repellant, but I don’t always remember. I’m usually pretty covered up this time of year and I always do tick checks at the end of the day.
Doesn’t make it any less gross or creepy crawly. (And also the fact that Roux hangs on the sofa and sleeps in our bed really doesn’t help at all either. Maybe I should say we do some of the things we should to keep us safe?)
A few things I am going to say to you - because this is what I like to remind myself of each year:
A tick has to be attached 36-48 hours before it can infect you with the Lyme bacterium.
Your odds of preventing Lyme are really good if you remove the tick within 24 hours.
A good scrub with a loofah in the shower is a great way to push off any un-attached crawlers.
There’s a lot of really bad and scary stuff in the world right now. And so it’s good to know I can add one more seasonal scary to the list.
But - as a reminder of ways to make things less scary - if you life in Wisconsin make your plan to vote on Tuesday, April 7 (including voting for Chris Taylor for Supreme Court). You can find all the races on your ballot here: myvote.wi.gov .
I shall now have dreams about ticks all night long (but I hope you don’t).
🎯vanessa