Itinerant Air-Cooled's Torment In Alabama
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 8:11 pm
No pictures . . . what ever shall we do? Who just reads any more?
You don't need to see pictures of what I have been enduring any how. I left the Cow Interlude hardly aware that I had been bitten hundreds of times, so engrossed was I with the rocker sill repair on Chloe. Those stupid black flies and ants had nipped on me and I swatted and sweated and flailed and kept busy.
Two days later, however, I had welts the size of udders, crusty yellow scabs and little red circles all around my sock lines, but worse yet, the little buggers had nailed me in the arm pits and a couple had managed to bite in more delicate places yet. I don't know about you, but when I see people scratching, I get a little squicked. When I see people scratching their armpits, worse yet. When I see people lift off their seat to scratch in private areas, well, I just hate them.
There I was, legs, ankles, armpits, crotch, back, elbows, just a mess of insane itching, but get this, 95* in Arkansas and 70-90% humidity, I was covered in primer gray goo running off the wet sandpaper down to my armpits, all over my legs, the blood the yellow ooze, the new Arkansas ants and flies just so happy with what Texas delivered, and I am somehow painting myself as much as the car, note to self: YOU CAN'T SWAT AT A FLY WITH THE PAINTBRUSH HAND! it gets worse. In Arkansas, I found a less dusty and more grassy work spot, good for painting, right? Well, I DID note that the local flora had kind of shiny leaves, but I had work to do. I had my towel down as I got up made a new batch of Savannah Beige + Almond Appliance Paint, got down and brushed, got up and made more paint, got down and brushed, got up and made more paint, got down and the towel was sort of out of place by then, in the blistering humid frying sun, along the railroad tracks off US 70 eastbound, and the fly/ant/mosquito bites all made me scratch and scratch and we now have to add poison ivy or oak or whatever this is, to all the bug bites. My right arm pit got the brunt of it, a raging red rash, but there are other places too. By the time I visited Luftwagen, the itching had reached a furious crescendo of what looked like a bad case of crabs and scabs and the humid sticky air was making me sweat poison-whatever oil all over the place, I could barely bear it. 2 miles from his house, I pulled into a sticky hot dirt lot in the afternoon humid air, stripped on down and gave myself a Chlorox bath. Pain is preferable to itchiness, I decided. Rinsed with water, toweled "dry" and powdered myself in all crevasses with Desinex (sic) foot powder, well hell, it SAID "relieves itching" that is all I needed to see. I am newly confident that no foot fungus is in my armpits or knees or elbows. Then I sprayed myself with Benadryl (sic) Spray "do not use over large areas" it said on the label, followed by Off Insect Repellent just because it stings on the itches in what I believed was a beneficial way "do not apply to open sores", aw shut up. Then I put on a topcoat of 100% cornstarch Equate Baby Powder . . . and visited Luftwagen, who is brilliant, you can see it even if you can't understand it, and we talked "sampling" and air fuel ratios and timing with his custom fuel delivery system, and I wanted so bad to scratch and scratch.
Made it through dinner, a very good dinner. The dogs did not even bother a polite crotch sniff, are you kidding? I was a chemical refinery. Took off down I-40 after bidding a gracious, "Thanks for dinner, and keep me posted on your Vanagon," and I was scratching my right leg with my left shoe and scratching my belly button with my right hand while my left steered, and it was sheer irritation. Found a hot muggy field off US 70, and the dew point was around 80*, everything was wet and the mosquitoes were delighted to see me. Another Chlorox bath, too hot to sleep, and mosquitoes and itches. Walked down the road just to keep me distracted. Fell asleep around 2:00AM.
Woke up at 7:00AM. I have blisters arrayed in stripes from my ankles to my knee. The right armpit is enraged, the left has hanging udders of welts glued to the hair with yellow crust. I made an Important Decision at 7:04. Today, I am not going to scratch. This reaction, after all, is not an actual attack against my body, it is an allergic reaction, which means that my body is turning against Itself, and that is something I have control over. I shall pit mind over matter, I shall Ignore . . .
At 7:05 I let loose with a fit of scratching, opening up the night's healing scabs, and I washed them down with Chlorox and Tide at a suitably powerful strength to actually lather as I scrubbed it in. The sweet bliss of pain, followed by more Desinex/Benadril Spray/Off/baby powder.
Tried to do some color-sanding around noon, but sweating makes everything infuriated, so I ducked into a Panera where the over-air-conditioning provided some temporary relief. " . . . may last several weeks," says Wiki-Answers in response to my query "how long does poison oak/ivy/sumac last?"
Now I am hours away from Atlanta. It is blessedly cooler. The itches are currently asleep. And soon, I hope to be as well . . .
Colin
You don't need to see pictures of what I have been enduring any how. I left the Cow Interlude hardly aware that I had been bitten hundreds of times, so engrossed was I with the rocker sill repair on Chloe. Those stupid black flies and ants had nipped on me and I swatted and sweated and flailed and kept busy.
Two days later, however, I had welts the size of udders, crusty yellow scabs and little red circles all around my sock lines, but worse yet, the little buggers had nailed me in the arm pits and a couple had managed to bite in more delicate places yet. I don't know about you, but when I see people scratching, I get a little squicked. When I see people scratching their armpits, worse yet. When I see people lift off their seat to scratch in private areas, well, I just hate them.
There I was, legs, ankles, armpits, crotch, back, elbows, just a mess of insane itching, but get this, 95* in Arkansas and 70-90% humidity, I was covered in primer gray goo running off the wet sandpaper down to my armpits, all over my legs, the blood the yellow ooze, the new Arkansas ants and flies just so happy with what Texas delivered, and I am somehow painting myself as much as the car, note to self: YOU CAN'T SWAT AT A FLY WITH THE PAINTBRUSH HAND! it gets worse. In Arkansas, I found a less dusty and more grassy work spot, good for painting, right? Well, I DID note that the local flora had kind of shiny leaves, but I had work to do. I had my towel down as I got up made a new batch of Savannah Beige + Almond Appliance Paint, got down and brushed, got up and made more paint, got down and brushed, got up and made more paint, got down and the towel was sort of out of place by then, in the blistering humid frying sun, along the railroad tracks off US 70 eastbound, and the fly/ant/mosquito bites all made me scratch and scratch and we now have to add poison ivy or oak or whatever this is, to all the bug bites. My right arm pit got the brunt of it, a raging red rash, but there are other places too. By the time I visited Luftwagen, the itching had reached a furious crescendo of what looked like a bad case of crabs and scabs and the humid sticky air was making me sweat poison-whatever oil all over the place, I could barely bear it. 2 miles from his house, I pulled into a sticky hot dirt lot in the afternoon humid air, stripped on down and gave myself a Chlorox bath. Pain is preferable to itchiness, I decided. Rinsed with water, toweled "dry" and powdered myself in all crevasses with Desinex (sic) foot powder, well hell, it SAID "relieves itching" that is all I needed to see. I am newly confident that no foot fungus is in my armpits or knees or elbows. Then I sprayed myself with Benadryl (sic) Spray "do not use over large areas" it said on the label, followed by Off Insect Repellent just because it stings on the itches in what I believed was a beneficial way "do not apply to open sores", aw shut up. Then I put on a topcoat of 100% cornstarch Equate Baby Powder . . . and visited Luftwagen, who is brilliant, you can see it even if you can't understand it, and we talked "sampling" and air fuel ratios and timing with his custom fuel delivery system, and I wanted so bad to scratch and scratch.
Made it through dinner, a very good dinner. The dogs did not even bother a polite crotch sniff, are you kidding? I was a chemical refinery. Took off down I-40 after bidding a gracious, "Thanks for dinner, and keep me posted on your Vanagon," and I was scratching my right leg with my left shoe and scratching my belly button with my right hand while my left steered, and it was sheer irritation. Found a hot muggy field off US 70, and the dew point was around 80*, everything was wet and the mosquitoes were delighted to see me. Another Chlorox bath, too hot to sleep, and mosquitoes and itches. Walked down the road just to keep me distracted. Fell asleep around 2:00AM.
Woke up at 7:00AM. I have blisters arrayed in stripes from my ankles to my knee. The right armpit is enraged, the left has hanging udders of welts glued to the hair with yellow crust. I made an Important Decision at 7:04. Today, I am not going to scratch. This reaction, after all, is not an actual attack against my body, it is an allergic reaction, which means that my body is turning against Itself, and that is something I have control over. I shall pit mind over matter, I shall Ignore . . .
At 7:05 I let loose with a fit of scratching, opening up the night's healing scabs, and I washed them down with Chlorox and Tide at a suitably powerful strength to actually lather as I scrubbed it in. The sweet bliss of pain, followed by more Desinex/Benadril Spray/Off/baby powder.
Tried to do some color-sanding around noon, but sweating makes everything infuriated, so I ducked into a Panera where the over-air-conditioning provided some temporary relief. " . . . may last several weeks," says Wiki-Answers in response to my query "how long does poison oak/ivy/sumac last?"
Now I am hours away from Atlanta. It is blessedly cooler. The itches are currently asleep. And soon, I hope to be as well . . .
Colin