Home Improvement

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been busy.....cutting holes in my house.

Daleen and I bought a home that was what we would call a fixer-upper. But one that we could live in while we did it. What we didn't realize at the time was that our ideas of what we wanted our home to be like would require a substantial amount of work, and money. Take our kitchen for example. I live with a woman who can cook. Yet we have a kitchen from the early 80's that has original appliances (except for the refrigerator which we had to buy). It pains me to see her trying to work her magic in this space with these tools.

In addition to the kitchen, there are the floors. You can't sneak up on anybody in this house. Our sneaky 5 pound cat can't even walk around without making a racket. I went under the house and checked out the subfloor and it is thinner than the floor in my toolshed. So now someday I have to fix the flooring. And then there is the siding that has vinyl replacement written all over it... again, someday.

We have done a lot so far though to our home. In the past four years we have:
- Rewired the upstairs and installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms
- Installed gutters
- Ran electricity to the shed
- Completely renovated two bathrooms
- Renovated two bedrooms and the dining room (except for the floors)
- Painted the living room
- Painted all the windows (those are also slated for vinyl replacement)
- Installed a dry well and drainage system for our lawn and downspouts
- Installed a french drain in the backyard
- Added two dump truck loads of dirt and regraded the yard
- Installed a lawn sprinkler system
- Installed several brick-enclosed flower beds and tree rings
- Renovated our front and side porches (new railings, paint, lighting, etc)

So we've been busy. Now we have started with our new fall project, the mud room.

I started in earnest last Wednesday with the first part of the project, which is the wiring upgrade. I am one of those people who, when doing a project, will go into total overkill mode. We are installing new cabinets and a deep sink on one side of the room and I noticed that one of the outlets was going to be covered up. I was concerned about losing the outlet, so I decided to put a new outlet in over where the new countertop would be. Simple, right? Well, then I remembered that I was thinking about how nice it would look to have some small recessed lights over the deep sink, with a dimmer. You know, mood lighting.... So after cutting several holes in my drywall and doing some work with my drill, the new outlet is in and man, do those new lights look great!

Then I turned my attention to the other side of the room. Daleen's pantry had a cheesy, cheap light fixture which is really just a lightbulb with a pull string. I have always hated this and decided she deserved a proper light fixture with a switch to operate it. Then of course I expanded on this and realized that the new cabinets that are going over the washer and dryer needed one of those cool xenon light fixtures under it. Those fixtures run off a plug which means I needed another outlet with a switch to operate that. All this work involved cutting even more holes in the drywall and doing some more drilling.

Daleen was out of town Friday night and Saturday at a women's retreat for our church. So I was at home alone with Colin during a lot of this work. I will say that he is quite the helper (for a 2 1/2 year-old). After he got over being scared of the drill noise, he was more than happy to fetch me some screws, throw away small bits of drywall, and he even helped pull some wire I was trying to fish through the wall. He really likes to help with projects and I know it will not always be this way. Someday it won't be cool anymore for him to hang out with his daddy and help, so I'm taking advantage if this while I can.

Needless to say, I think Daleen was a bit surprised by all the holes in the mudroom walls when she got home. I don't think she was as impressed as me with the new mood lighting. She is not always riding the same wave as me when it comes to projects and usually there are a few details of the project that don't come out as she had "envisioned". This often leads to some arguing and hurt feelings (usually mine). However, this time she said it looked nice and wasn't going to say anything else. I found out one of the focus points of the retreat she went on was to cut back on being negative and I'm pretty sure this worked in my favor!

The next phase is going to be fixing the drywall to prepare to paint. My little helper buddy has already shown an interest in the mesh drywall tape, although I'm going to have to schedule a day where he will be gone to do the sanding so he won't be around all that dust. Daleen has a job too. She has to pick out the paint colors and verify the cabinets, countertop, and deep sink are what she wants. Daleen and Colin are going to visit her parents soon, so I am hoping we can get to painting before they leave. Daleen is great with doing the room painting.

I'll keep you posted on our progress with the mudroom. I have to say that I really like turning off my phone, putting on the radio, and just working on my house. It's very therapeutic. This time I am going to get my family more involved as well. It's another thing we can do together, have some fun with, and get one step closer to the house we want. Plus we can enjoy the new mood lighting as we work.......

Good Times and Fast Cars

Is there something you like to do with your dad? Something that is just for the two of you?

As I have mentioned in previous postings, for some reason my birthday usually ends up being a string of various events that runs over the better part of a week. However, for the past couple of years, the week has been finished off with a father/son trip to the NHRA Nationals Drag Race at Virginia Motorsports Park. We made our annual trip yesterday and it was a great time.

My father and I are pretty different. He is really into Civil War history and I am not. I am really into doing outdoorsy stuff and he is not. Like most dads and their sons, we're different. But going to this race is something we both look forward to going to. Now, my dad loves drag racing a lot more than I do. He follows it all year and knows all the drivers and where they stand in the points bracket and who has the most to win or lose at any given race. He even likes going to races at other tracks.

I guess he has always loved cars. When I was young, my dad was the original backyard mechanic. He was always working on our cars. Unfortunately, he is also a total night-owl and would want to start working on the car after dinner and would go well into the night with it. So I would have to stay up late on school nights, holding the flashlight or fetching tools. Unfortunately, I would always be in trouble for not holding the light so my dad could see what he was doing (although I could always see just fine) and when he sent me to get a particular tool, I couldn't ever seem to find it in the four toolboxes and several buckets that he stored his tools in. Because of this, I think my dad's favorite phrase was that I, "couldn't find my ass with both hands." It was this experience that makes me cringe at the very thought of having to work on a car myself. I can do it, but I'd really rather just pay someone else to take care of whatever needs to be done.

We used to go to Richmond Dragway when I was young though, and I have always loved drag racing. I guess I like that the cars are really fast and loud and you don't have to watch the cars go round and round for hours before there is a winner. Its simple. Two cars, and whoever gets to the end first, wins. Instant closure. I like that.

The race at Virginia Motorsports Park is a major stop on the annual NHRA drag racing national tour. This race is where you can go to see the major teams in the sport and some legendary drivers. The one thing I really do like about the NHRA event, and drag racing in general, is that it is very fan-friendly. When you go to the race, everyone has the opportunity to walk around the pit area and see the cars up close. The racing teams work right there in the open and they are always happy to talk to the fans and explain what they are doing. Often the drivers are there as well to talk to the race fans, sign autographs, and get their pictures taken. You instantly realize these guys truly value the people who come to see them and they do their best not to dissappoint.

Another thing I like about the NHRA event is that the teams all seem to form a well-knit community. They are all competing, but you can tell the way they interract that there is a bond there as well. There is a type of sportsmanship that is often missing in other sports. You see the drivers and other teams cheering each other on, and when there is an accident, they are all affected. I suppose this is due to the fact that while they are competing against one another, there is a common enemy in the form of run time. All of the teams are working their hardest to make it down the track faster to get a lower time. When two cars are racing, even though one has to lose, everyone cheers for a new lowest time. I believe it is this common goal that prevents any sort of petty rivalry.

Besides the drivers, the fans are pretty amazing. I will say that a lot of folks you see at the race are some pretty hard looking people. I can tell you from our trip yesterday that certain hairstyles such as the rat-tail and the mullet are still quite alive. There are also lots of bikers and many-many tattoos. Hard looking people, but probably some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I saw lots of people cheering on their favorite drivers and any car that would turn a good run time. I didn't see anyone get over the top drunk, out of control, or any fighting. I did see groups of people you would never expect to get along having a great time together.

My dad and I had great seats right over the starting line. When the nitrous-fueled drag cars would take off, our noses a and eyes would burn from the fumes. The racing was great, there were no accidents, and we spent the entire afternoon sitting out in the sun, cheering and trying to talk in between runs. I couldn't think of many better ways to spend a fall day.

I really love my dad and I feel lucky I have one that thinks enough of me to take me to this race every year. We had some time to just talk without all the other interferences that usually get in the way and re-cemented our relationship for another year. Sure, we'll see each other plenty in the next twelve months and we'll talk a lot and go do things together, but we'll both be ready to sneak off to the race again next year, just the two of us.

The NHRA Nationals race is held at Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie county every year, usually right around Columbus Day. As I mentioned, it is extremely fan friendly and they put on a show that pretty much anyone would like. (By the way, drag racing is REALLY good for ADD types....) I have never had a bad time and it is another one of those things that is a definite event on my calendar. I really would like to invite you to come with me next year, but unfortunately my group of two is full, and I'll just have to hope to run into you there. I'll be sitting next to my dad. We'll look like we're crying, but its just from the nitro fumes. You can tell from our smiles....

Hell On Earth... but not for me

Do you believe in hell on earth? My wife Daleen does. She believes it's called Bass Pro Shops.

My birthday was last week. For some reason, every year my birthday ends up being a week-long string of activities. One night it was a birthday dinner at our house. Then one night it was birthday cake with our small group from church. Tonight it was a dinner at my parents house and now I am at home with a leftover piece of my birthday cake (homemade carrot cake if you must know.) I know I'm getting fat from this, but hey, it's my birthday. Anyway, we usually also try and do a date night during the birthday week where I get to decide where I want to go. This year I chose Bass Pro Shops.

This fall Bass Pro Shops opened a gigantic store called "Outdoor World" just north of Richmond. It has everything for any kind of outdoor sporting activity: fishing, hunting, camping, boating, you name it. The also have some specialized parts such as a food store and NASCAR area with merchandising and auto racing video games. And this store is absolutely mind-boggling in its size. Inside they have huge fish-tanks with a waterfall, an archery range, and a boat dealership.

As many of you know, I am into just about everything having to do with the great outdoors. If it involves being in the woods or away from civilization, I am probably severely into it. Daleen did not really know this about me when we met, sort of started figuring it out when we lived in Boston, and then really found out when we moved back to VA and I reconnected with old friends. What I'm getting at here is, Bass Pro Shops is huge and it doesn't have anything I do not want.

But you are probably wondering how going to BPS can be like going on a "date". Ah-ha, because like IKEA, they have a restaurant at the store. They even have a restaurant Daleen likes going to. The Islamorada Fish Company. Daleen's sister used to live in Ft. Lauderdale and took us to the one at her BPS. We both liked the food, so going there was an easy sell for me.

On the drive over from our house, I said I figured we probably wouldn't have to wait very long at the restaurant. This was after Daleen tells me she is starving. My reasoning was that I was certain there wouldn't be hordes of people going to a restaurant at a sporting goods store for a Friday night date. I mean, who does that? Then after we were told there was an hour and forty-five minute wait, I then understood..... lots of people do that.

I will say that I am a good guy and gave her the option to go to dinner elsewhere. But I have to confess, I was extremely happy when in a quiet voice she said, "no we can just go look around first until our table is ready". What a woman!

We spent an hour walking around the store. BPS has racks of outdoorsy junk food such as trail mix, pork rinds, and beef jerky. Daleen was starting to look faint so I suggested several times that we just buy some to snack on. She repeatedly said no as she didn't want to ruin her appetite. Meanwhile, we looked at everything from boats to crossbows. From boots to binoculars. I mean everything.

The best part of the trip though was the people watching. There was the widest variety of people I have ever seen there. By the fishing rods, there were guys in very expensive suits standing next to guys who looked like hobos in bib overalls. Then, you know the kind of moms who go over the top and try and look more trendy than their high-school kids? There was one of those checking out a big bag of deer corn feed with her teenage daughter. Wierd... Then I was over in the gun section when I overheard this sort of older ex-hippie lady talking to the guy behind the counter about handguns. She had a ton of questions about which one would be best for her and she was very animated and overwhelmed by all of the choices and options. The best one of the night though was a man and his young son, dressed from head to toe in camoflauge (store tags still attached) just walking through the store like they were heading to the fishing section. I couldn't help but wonder where were they going, and where on earth were the clothes they came to the store in?

By the end of the hour, Daleen was sagging and dragging her feet and looked like I do when going clothing shopping with her. She had been through enough torture. Our table still wasn't ready (they really meant an hour and a half), so we were able to get a chair at the bar and after a cold drink and a plate of loaded potato chips (think a plate of loaded nachos but with chips), she quickly recovered.

In the end, dinner was good... not great. The clam chowder was dissappointing (it was a VERY thick grey-brown substance), the calamari was insanely spicy, and our server was continuously apologising for every little thing. We had to repeatedly tell her she was fine and she shouldn't worry. The tuna was excellent though and everything was reasonably priced.

Daleen survived the evening and has since fully recovered. She's not ready to go back anytime soon and I'm ok with that. I did eventually find out why the wait was so long that evening. The restaurant itself is very small. There just aren't a lot of tables. The reason? After the novelty wears off, who would go to a sporting goods store on a Friday night date?

Can I Get Some Fries With That?

My 401K account was battered again today, but at least now it is extra crispy. Hopefully, there will be a spicy aftertaste.

When the Wall St. news folks say over and over again that "stocks have been battered in another day of trading", I can't help but picture a bunch of fat country guys sitting around a deep fryer, taking my savings, dipping them in egg and rolling them in some flour before chucking them in. But then, I go to my account online every day, as now I am almost obsessed with it, and notice more of it is just gone. "It was there just yesterday.", I think. Then, when I am not looking, an evil computer somewhere accesses my account and changes the balance number yet again, in the negative direction.


I was out the other night and a person I had met was telling me that her dad, who just recently retired, now has to un-retire and get a job. I have also heard of people who were ready to finally stop working after all their years of labor, and are unable to because of the economic times we are in. That to me is a tragedy.

But who are we to be angry with? The government? They waste untold millions of our money already, have been for decades, and then bail out businesses who made bad decisions and are continuing to make even more bad decisions. In the news this morning, I learned AIG, the insurance giant who the American taxpayers now own a huge chunk of, just sent all of their top folks on a half-million dollar business retreat. I would almost rather they let me keep all that money, cut my taxes substantially, and tell big business to get their own act together. But on the other hand, they are (with our tax money) trying to prop up the big business that helps provide the investment income my retirement is supposed to grow on.

Should we be angry with the corporations and banks? They run off greed and profit. Ahhh, good old capitalism. I do love it so. I fault these guys for running themselves out so thin and risking my investment money. However, by doing so they create higher dividends and returns for me and other stockholders which I do like. You really can't blame them. When in trouble, they ran to Uncle Sam with an open hand and he almost automatically pulled out the piggybank. It's so much easier to take big risks with a giant safety net under you.

In the end though, I blame myself. I live in a country where I am ultimately the decider of where I want to work, live, go to church, and where I keep my retirement money. I pay money to the businesses I choose to buy from. I decide on the causes I want to donate my money to. Also, I choose to bank with a big business and have another big business handle my insurance needs, and yet another to handle my mortgage. No one comes to me and tells me where to put my retirement money. On top of this, I decide who I get to vote on for the government. I just wish I could vote for someone who would let me keep a lot more of what I make and agree to cut government spending back to a reasonable level, but that probably isn't going to happen anytime soon. One of my friends did suggest a write-in campaign for the upcoming presidential election, which in light of the current campaign rhetoric, is starting to sound like a good idea.

Through all of this, I have decided to remain optimistic. I really don't think the sky is falling and hope I'm right. I have always put my retirement in fairly high risk vehicles because I am still fairly young (I think), and time is on my side. Later on, I will decide to begin decreasing my risk and move my money to safer and safer havens. I have a friend who moved all of his retirement out of the stock market and is not even in the negative right now. While a lot of people out there are depressed and feel they are getting clobbered, I feel like although my retirement balance is dropping, right now I am buying extra shares and building my retirement on the cheap. I just hope it works out. My only real fear is that those shares will continue getting battered and fried and there won't be any ketchup to go with it.

An Evening With David Sedaris

Was hanging out with David Sedaris last night in downtown Richmond.

Well, he was talking from the stage at the Landmark Theater in downtown Richmond, while I was about as far as you could be from the stage and still be in the building. But we were in the same room for an hour and a half....

For those of you who don't know, David Sedaris is a writer. In my opinion, a great writer who primarily writes some very humorous essays. Some are memoir, and many just capture the normally unnoticed details of ordinary people's personalities and lives. Often he and his characters are in normal situations where they react badly, or they are in impossible situations and do the best they can. Either way, its always a great read. In addition to his books, he is a frequent contributor to the radio show "This American Life" on NPR.

My sister Carla took me to the show last night for my birthday. I didn't even know he was going to be in town, but she has seen him a few times and wouldn't miss it. We ended up going with a few of Carla's friends and it was a fun group. The crowd at the show was really great and although we were really in the nosebleed section, there isn't a bad seat at the Landmark.

When David Sedaris walked out, the first thing I noticed was how short he is. Carla warned me ahead of time about this. But he carried a simple green folder out to a podium and pulled a pencil out of his shirt pocket. "What's the pencil for?", I wondered. Then he opened the show with a funny talk about what it is like to be out on a book tour, nearly going blind from having his picture taken all the time, and what it is like to sit at a book signing table at a Costco in Canada for two hours. He didn't sign or sell a single book, people just walked by looking at him funny, and he had a large sign off to the side of him which said, "Please Do Not Take Pictures".

The majority of his show was spent reading to us. He read some things he was working on and some things he had written but hadn't published or used on the NPR show. It was all funny. The pencil he carried, I found, was to write notes on his material after he read it. He explained later that he often tried out different things in his essays at different shows to try and settle on what would work best. I would guess that is a pretty good way to improve on your material.

He concluded his last reading by bringing the house lights up and fielding questions from the audience. There were some great questions. One of the best was the question, "What do you think of politically when you hear the word, Change?" He simply said the only real change that he paid attention to was the change he got when he paid for something, and that he would like to reverse his current trend of getting less back. He was recently in Europe and said many people there are of the opinion that Americans are not ready to elect a black man as president. He said he corrected them as saying that was true, but that apparently half of America is ready to elect a half-black man.

I bought his latest book, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames", after the show and am already a quarter of the way through. I was hoping to get it signed but the line was way too long. He said he often has a special category of people he lets cut to the front of the line. One time it was men under 5'6" and women with braces on their teeth. Last night it was people who are fluent in German which wasn't me. So we left and headed over to Mojo's for some drinks and late night snacks. It was funny to be around all these people who are avid NPR listeners. I mentioned that when he started reading his first essay, I closed my eyes as I am just used to hearing him on the radio, and everyone else in the group admitted they did the same.

In the end, there was only bad part of the entire evening and that occurred at Mojo's, where I actually met someone who loved NPR, but didn't like A Prairie Home Companion. How is that possible?.............

A trip to Maymont

My friend Rob is fairly new to the area and has two sons. One is Colin's age and one is younger, less than two. He was home today with the boys and Daleen needed a break from mommy duty, so Rob and I hatched a plan to take the boys over to Maymont Park. He had never been before and it's a great place for kids to run around like little crazy people.

Maymont Park is in the city of Richmond, right on the James River. It was originally the estate of James Dooley, who was highly influential in the reconstruction of the South, especially the railroads, after the Civil War. The Maymont estate was donated to the City of Richmond and the park is one of the city's true treasures.

The park consists of tree-covered rolling hills, elaborate gardens, a petting zoo, and animal exhibits ranging from white tailed deer to bears, buffalo, and now even bald eagles. The animals in the park have all been rescued and were unable to be returned to the wild. It was seeing these animals that was the primary focus of our journey today.

Needless to say, the boys had a lot of fun. They ran around and we almost had a hard time keeping up. They started with feeding some goats and sheep at the petting area. Well, since they are still a bit young and were a little scared of being too close to the animals, feeding them initially meant sort of throwing handfuls of these seed grains at the animals. Eventually, after we showed them the goats wouldn't bite their fingers off, they relaxed a little and had their new furry friends eating right out of their hands. The only downside to this whole process is the animal food. Maymont prefers you feed the animals this special animal food that they have in vending machines, which are not unlike gumball machines. You pop in a quarter, turn the handle, and the machine dumps out a large handful. The only problem with this is, the vending machine is kind of away from the actual animals. So there I was, with my bag of quarters, dumping these fine grains of food into my hands, then quickly carrying them to the boys, spilling some along the way, spilling more during the transfer into their tiny hands, only to have them initially throwing the food at the ground in front of goat, but just out of it's reach. (Very frustrating to the goats...) The boys would feed their particular animal and then look to me to run for another load as they found another new sheep which looked hungry. Eventually, I'd had enough exercise so I dumped all the quarters into my pocket and used the bag I had them in to contain a large supply of food. However, when I returned with this bag of animal food, they had pretty much lost interest in feeding and were heading off to the next thing. So after telling Colin not to to throw the food to the animals, I ended up throwing the contents of the baggie over the fence.

The feeding frenzy was followed by checking out some elk. The new eagle and raptor exhibit was excellent and the boys were very impressed by these enormous birds which included several types of hawk and owl and a giant, live, bald eagle.

Following the raptors were the famous Maymont bears. There are two and they put on quite a show today. We watched them play and then go for a swim on their pond. After the bears, we strolled over to the Japanese Garden to feed the ton of enormous Koi that reside in another pond.

The fish feeding was the second main part of our visit. Maymont has an entire pond of these gigantic koi goldfish that will pretty much eat anything. There is a little gazebo-looking hut that sits out over the water and Colin loves to feed the fish from there. Rob was a bit surprised at my preparedness when I produced a bag of quarters at the petting zoo. He was even more surprised when I pulled out an entire bag of stale hamburger buns at the pond. Within fifteen minutes, Colin and his new buddy Luke had the water looking like it was boiling over with all the fish fighting over the scraps of bread.

Colin and Luke ran around some more after feeding the fish and then we headed back to the car. Rob and I both seemed pretty pleased when on the ride home, the children all looked like they had been drugged with Lunesta. "Yesssss", I thought. "They are going to sleep goooood tonight..." Daleen was happy to see us when we got home, and she said she really enjoyed her day off. She needed it and I needed a day to just pal around with Colin. Sometimes I think even Colin needs a little break from Mommy just to change up his routine.

If you live in the Richmond area and you have never been to Maymont, you should go. It really is one of the best things the city has in the way of parks and rec, and it's free, which is in everybody's price range. Besides the animals and large park areas, there is a great visitor center with all sorts of nature exhibits and giant fish tanks showing the various fish that live in different parts of the James River. If you have been to the park, but not recently, you should definitely go again just to see the new eagle/raptor exhibit. Seeing a real bald eagle is something else. Just be sure to bring your walking shoes and plenty of quarters.

The Road To Wellville

I am happy to report I have finally managed to survive my poison ivy and am almost completely mended.

I can tell you though that I haven't been that miserable in a very long time. I found myself not really wanting to do anything, even writing on this blog. I just wanted to scratch myself to death. I ended up having it everywhere. I suppose this was due to working outside, sweating, and it just got all over me and I am just that allergic to it. At the worst of it, I looked like a beaten up Rocky Balboa with leprosy. I honestly am starting to think when Job was struck down, he was afflicted with poison ivy from head to toe..... just to make him as miserable as possible. (The bible does say he scratched himself after being afflicted you know.....)

Anyhow, I initially started treating it with my usual weapon, an OTC remedy called Ivy Dry. This stuff is great and usually does the trick. It dries the rash out (so dry it turns almost white), and stops the itch. However, I still had a couple of spots that continued to itch, even after drowning them in Ivy Dry. So I took it up a notch and on the advice of my wife, reached for her can of Zambuk. Zambuk is a sort of herbal remedy (it's really just Camphor Oil and Eucalyptus Oil) that comes from South Africa, where Daleen is from. Did you ever see "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? You know how the dad in the movie uses Windex as a cure-all for everything from cuts to boils, to joint pain? Well, Zambuk is pretty much South African Windex. I have had it put on scrapes, cuts, and even a nasty spider bite one time. It actually seemed to help with those cases, and the can does say it is also an itch remedy, so I tried it. I can tell you, that I now could be the poster child for Zambuk. That stuff worked even better than the Ivy Dry and would temporarily relieve the itching on all my worst spots. Zambuk... it looks like a can of snake-oil, but it works wonders, it smells particularly lovely, and ....it's expeditious!

So I had temporary relief fom the itching, so I wouldn't run around scratching myself silly in public and embarrassing myself, but I still needed something to speed up the removal of the rash. Now, as I stated in my last post, an ivy rash is actually an autoimmune condition. (Apparently, I have a very strong immune system that will basically try to cream anything my body thinks might be a potential invader.) Knowing this to be the case, that my problem was inside my body, I still went back to the drugstore and bought a tube of soapy stuff called Zanfel and a big old box of Benadryl tablets. The cheap box of Benadryl helped a lot with longer term itch relief. The expensive tube of Zanfel soap which advertises it will remove the rash right away didn't seem to do anything.

Finally, after reading the comment that Connie left on my last posting, I shuffled over to my doctor and was hooked up with what I really needed. I guess I never thought the doctor could do anything to help. The doctor seemed pretty amazed by my case, commented on how miserable I was probably feeling, and started my new treatment right away. The treatment consisted of two parts, a shot of some kind of steriod and a prescription for Prednisone. I normally hate needles. I mean I HATE them. But when the nurse came in to stick me this time, I told her that I wanted to hug her and that she could feel free to give me two shots if she wanted. From the look I got, I think she was beginning to believe that I really did need two. But I only got the one and it felt great! Since then, I have been on a steady diet of Prednisone and Benadryl, although I get to start cutting back on both today. A couple of the rashes are still there but they are much smaller and all on my swelling has gone back down. My eyes are also back to normal now.

Thanks for all your prayers and sympathy. And thanks for the tip Connie, I owe you one. I am definitely going to be a lot more careful in the future. Unfortunately though, when cutting my grass the other day, along the edge of our property, I found three new patches of poison ivy that I am going to have to deal with..... someday.