And Juggling Three Live Cats

Skunk Cabbage. Not good with taters and onions.

Never think your plate is so full that you can’t balance one more meatball up on top.  You may not like it. You may not want it. But there it is, so get over it.

Today, I was going to accomplish items on the Daily Front Burner and Next 24HR list. But instead, after calling my physician’s office at some point where they actually answer their phone, I’ll try to squeeze myself into today’s schedule. You can imagine how that’s likely to go.

Reason: I woke up at 1 a.m. with an itchy spot in my arm pit. I’ve felt that sensation before, just last week, as a matter of fact. And once more…

…there is a tick not just attached by its mouthparts—which is bad enough.

Oh no. This one, like the last, seems to have dug itself deep and set itself into auto-destruct. The last one I could pick specks of bug parts out of. This one will require a Lyme panel and surgical cut-down. I can’t wait.

No, I take that back. That’s why they call it the Waiting Room.

I’ll have the iPad with my outliner notes for the Eco-Panel Saturday and the Food-and-Faith bits Sunday. And my TEDx cheat sheet notes. It won’t be quality “study time” what with the productive coughing and loud cell-phone talking there on death-row-with-magazines.

BTW, the event outside DogTown for Friday has been rescheduled due to the expected blowing rain.

And life goes on, as illustrated by this late-afternoon bug’s eye view of skunk cabbage (click to enlarge) growing in profusion near the Eco-village conference center. We’ll be stopping here on the “nature walk” on Saturday to talk about this plant.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Hi Fred,

    Be careful on that Lyme panel as most give a false negative when done in the first three weeks after exposure. I contracted Lyme nearly two years ago and had the blood test just five days after symptoms appeared. The results were negative, so my doctor instructed me to stop the antibiotic he prescribed. After reading about false negatives with early tests, I decided to continue on the antibiotic and re-test three weeks later. This later test was VERY positive. If you get any symptoms of Lyme, start the antibiotic treatment immediately, but otherwise you may want to either wait a bit on the Lyme panel or re-test in a few weeks. Not a doctor – just sharing my experience.

    Tom