Ticks and pics

Writing a portion of a grant proposal for Budgets tonight, in my own little study. I should have set up in this room a year ago. Even being slightly cramped in here lends to a comfortable sense of privacy and security. I am vying for space with a futon, a dresser full of quilt fabric, this dining room table that doubles as desk/sewing table, a couple dozen boxes of photographs and a sleeping dog. Yet somehow it works. 

Shared a very brief IM conversation with Jo about her near-camping experience tonight. It seems she was all set to sleep in a tent, when she found a tick on the bed. She quickly changed to a cabin. I guess all will be well now.

Wireless in the woods. Oh, the world we live in!

We might have an excuse to go camping in Santa Cruz later this summer, but I wonder if we'll really do it. Camp, I mean. The last time we camped was four years ago, and also, as it happens, in Santa Cruz. BB's family has been going to that particular park since the 1920's, if you can believe it. I have the pictures to prove it, here in one of these boxes. In fact, on that trip Bunny found a 1912 dime right in our campsite. It made us daydream that one of his ancestors dropped it at that very spot, generations before.

That trip ended badly, however. BB burned himself with scalding hot water down his chest. He needed medical attention urgently, but I'm embarrassed to say we weren't smart enough to manage an "urgent" reaction time, with the result (I believe) that he took longer to make a full recovery than he might have. Since then, it's got me thinking of all the dreadful things that can go wrong on camping trips, compounded by the bad judgement people are capable of.

It was my first camp as a Mommy, maybe that has something to do with my new lack of confidence. Plus with BB's knee, I don't want him schlepping tents and bags and other heavy stuff. Plus, did I mention the ticks? Those are new-fangled ticks, you know, with wireless access, and diseases that they didn't have when I was a kid. (Or at least science didn't know about the diseases - whatever.)

So maybe instead I will look forward to a nice bed and breakfast getaway, after the semester is over. Speaking of the semester - back to work.

Comments

[Jo]

It was the size of a ladybug! The front desk people told me that particular kind of tick never carries Lyme disease, which is a good thing, but hey, it's still a stinking PARASITE, know what I mean? Glech!

[maya]

I haven't been camping since last August. It's driving me nuts. I know some people have problems with technology in the woods, but I think it's very cool. You can moblog everything!