Falling in love . . . again

We've been in our house for 39 years.  I remember seeing her for the first time.  I was with my best friend, Sue Lange.  We were here visiting from PA where we were living at the time.  She told me there was a house downtown that was for sale and we should look at it.

This old girl had been vacant for 5 years and I can't even imagine how long she stood still (no updating or renovation whatsoever) before we walked through the front door.

Sue had an eye.  I couldn't see what she was seeing even if I squinted.  Really, really hard.  

We ended up buying this old house and have repainted, re-papered, repainted, re-papered, etc. many, many times.

Recently Petey and I have started talking about moving to another home.  One with two bathrooms and an attached garage.  Only one story.  You get the idea.  We're older now - thinking old.

However.  Petey has been chomping at the bit to make some changes.

First he painted the inside of our enclosed back porch.  We rearranged the furniture back there and added a small table and chairs.  It's lovely.  We sit back there and look out on our little yard. Peaceful.

Then he decided to rip up the carpeting in our living room.  Wow! The hard wood floors look great. We moved a few things around in there and replaced a few pieces.  Digging the new feel and look.

Many years ago we brought the washer and dryer up from the basement and moved our bedroom down from upstairs.

We've fallen in love with the old girl.  Again.  

Guess we'll stay . . . for a while, anyway.

So . . . . the tick thing.

Petey and I were coming back from Kazoo yesterday and I scratched what I thought was . . . I'm really not sure what I thought it was - but it was a bump at the back of my neck at the hairline.
I performed fingernail surgery without giving it a second thought.

That was until I saw a damn tick wedged underneath said fingernail.

I did not shriek.  I did not swear (very unusual for me) nor did I cry out in any way.  I'm pretty sure I didn't - time kind of stopped for me.

I kept that bad boy pinched between my thumb and forefinger until we could pull into a parking lot whereupon Petey squished it in a piece of paper.  We went into the market and I got a zip bag from the deli and dropped Mr.Tick into it for safe keeping.

I don't panic about that kind of thing but the stories on the news and some personal experience with friends and family had me worried about Lyme disease.

I called the health department today and spoke to a wonderful nurse who told me to email a picture of the little bugger.

I put him in my hillbilly light booth and snapped away.  Guess what, the damn thing was still alive!  And I thought roaches and palmetto bugs were hard to kill.

The nurse (Erin) got back to me right away and said it looked like the common "dog" or "wood" tick (is there supposed to be a "k" there or not?  Never mind, I don't really care) and they don't carry Lyme but she'd be sending the picture along to MSU for confirmation anyway.

I wouldn't have known to call the health department if my Jazz buddy, Kendra, hadn't told me to so, THANKS, KENDRA!!!

All this before a holiday.  Whew.