A Deck, Some Floors, and Unnecessary Itching

A quick update on our home improvement project:

After 2 days the deck which had mistakenly been painted with redwood colored paint 8 years ago is back to its original lovely wood.  It will be stained after it dries completely, never to be painted again I hope!  (The dark patches are just water from the hours of power-washing.)

The family room floor is gleaming as the sun falls on it.  The black spot from hidden dog urine has been sanded out.  It may be too pretty to walk on when it is done.  But for now it’s still off limits.  I managed to sneak my camera in an opening of the taped plastic.



It took Jake exactly 1-1/2 days to find 2 escape routes.  He surprised my husband in his office earlier this afternoon.  So as of tomorrow he will be doing doggie daycare with our neighbor Sam, who is like a Pied Piper for all 4-legged creatures. 

I was amazed to read the WaPo Health section this morning, which reported on the 18-month diagnostic path of a woman who itched incessantly.  She went to 3 dermatologists.  She went to an MD, who told her the itching might be a symptom of cancer.  In the end she found another dermatologist who told her she had head lice. 

Something is wrong with our medical system when it takes all that time and money and itching to find out the problem is something with an over-the-counter instant cure.  I can’t believe the woman wasn’t combing them out of her hair during that long itchy period.  After the diagnosis she remembered having treated her son’s head lice right before she started itching.  Duhhh...

I remember so vividly when after treating my daughter’s lice for the second or third round, I combed a bug out of my hair one morning before work.  It looked like a flea but it didn’t hop.  I put it in a bag and took it to our pediatrician’s office who quickly confirmed that I had lice and shooed me out the door.

For years after that episode, every time my head itched I wondered.  But they have never come back thank God!

So day #2 is coming to an end.  The floors will be done tomorrow and painting will begin in earnest.

As a consequence of wearing earplugs, I think I have forced a piece of wax down into my ear canal.  So tomorrow morning I will go into Deborah’s office to have my ears irrigated, sort of a trippy experience as you hear the water swishing around in your head.  Maybe I will be able to hear my cell phone better after the wax is gone.