Ugh UGH UGH UGH!!!!!!
I was sitting out in the yard with the cats and saw what I thought was a tiny spider on me. Like I always do I tried to squish it between my fingers. And like always, I felt that deep gut wrench of disgust and horror when I realized it was a tick.
Then even as I stood up to do something with it I saw another one (I was wearing a white t shirt) even tinier. With my other hand I pinched that one off my shirt too, and rushed into the house, grabbed a little saucer somehow, ran into the bathroom and dropped them into the bowl. Yep, they were ticks. Not the kind with the red half body, but unmistakable. I poured some rubbing alcohol over them (first thing my eyes lit on) it did not kill them. I then remembered that soap drowns fleas so I thought it might drown ticks too. As I had that thought I remembered I'd been cleaning the toilet earlier and it was still "soaking. I tipped them into the soapy toilet and they drowned instantly.
I ran back downstairs and got the shake jug of Diatomaceous Earth and went out in the yard and shook it all around the edges of the fence where I had been doing yard work earlier, cutting away grown up grass, pulling out "cat nip imitator" weeds and so on.
But then I realized I didn't know if the ticks had come from my yard work, or from earlier when I had been up in the woods on my ridge (more on that later). Gawd, I could have gotten them then and brought them in the house!
There was no hope for it, I had to treat the cats. Back in the house I flew, grabbed the frontline plus and the little jar of PureBites and the scissors and marker (I mark each tube, just in case there is a problem) and back out I went. Got the cats treated with the frontline plus as they enjoyed their surprise treat of purebites. Jennie was still very offended once she realized what I had done..
After all that I settled back down in my chair and in a few minutes found another tick on my shirt, miniscule, it's amazing you can see them when they are so tiny but unmistakable. Back up stairs with it, dropped it in the toilet and squirted more soap in the toilet and watched it drown.
Back outside I got the DE back out and shook in a few more places just in case. I had to refill the shake jug and got some on my hands, so I rubbed my hands all over Queen Eva, she being the most vulnerable, because she is the only one who gets into the "jungle" areas.
The reason I had been up in my woods earlier was this:
All last week when I come home for lunch and sometimes in the evening there's been this really really horrible awful noise coming from the house up behind me on the hill. Some kind of machine noise (and stench to go with it) but just unbearable. I did not know what it was, but with my already intolerance to noise, it was so awful, even when it wasn't hot, I had to shut up the house and put on the a/c.
To have to hear it on a Sunday, , especially right when I was about to take the cats out was just..too much. It was too much. With that noise drilling into my head I was..I really felt like a crazy person, I ran out of the house and crashed up the hill through the woods to the house. What I saw was a younger (than I) woman with a weed whacker and on the other side of the yard nearer the house a man throwing brush and leaves into a shredder.
I waved my arm to get the woman's attention and she turned off her weed whacker and I asked her did he have to do that on a Sunday? It's my only day to be home and enjoy my yard.
She said, well it's our only day too. I was quick to point out that I had heard it all week.
She said "well this is the last day we have it" (they must be renting it.) I said but it so awful, and it's SUNDAY! Are you going to be doing it all day? And I know she must have seen the despair in my face. I probably seemed deranged, because that is what happens to me when I am exposed to noise like that.
I know it's awful she said I'm sorry, but he probably will be doing it for a least a few more hours. I said again it's so awful, do you HAVE to do it on Sunday? And she again said she was sorry but it was also awful to have a tree fall on your house. I thought but didn't say "okay you win" and with a half apologetic look (I hope ) I said okay and came back home again. (even though at the time I was up there he WASN'T doing wood or a tree, he was grabbing handfuls of leaves and things, so I think they were done with the tree and he was just taking advantage of having it and doing brush and leaves too.)
I came in the house and just sat down and cried because the noise was just intolerable. After about a half hour, the noise stopped and has not started up again. that makes me think even more that he really was done with the tree and was just taking advantage of having it to make mulch.
Which of course I suppose he has every right to do, but my gosh. I was so thankful he stopped it. I refused to start to feel guilty, because they are noisy in other ways that I never complained about. They used to have a dog that barked constantly, when they first moved there. And they put in a pool last summer and the pool filter noise drives me insane. I never stop hearing that filter running.
The chipper was the last straw.
She was very nice about it, but regardless what she thinks of me, I am glad I said something, since they did stop.
Anyway so that's why I think I might have got the ticks in the woods, but I don't really know.
I am covered with scratches, I was so out of my mind from the noise I didn't even notice I was plowing through the bramble bushes to get up the hill.