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March 7, 2007
Clean the Sheets
There is only one good thing that comes from a really bad itch: when you are in the shower you can blast the itchy area with hot water -- water that is hotter than you could normally stand -- and it feels so incredibly good. The more tender the areas you are blasting the better it feels. And you can use water that is so hot that even as your body is telling you that you are in the middle of one of the best things going your mind is telling you while this feels pretty good, you may be scalding yourself ... it's not like you're a doctor or anything. Maybe you should back off. That's "back," with a "b."
I've been aware of this trick for years. I've had poison ivy numerous times, poison something so bad on both of my wrists (where the gloves and shirt failed to meet) about 14 years ago that I thought it would never heal, and several things after that and before whatever it is I've got going on now. The hot-water trick has never failed me and alone is worth the purchase of a hand-held shower massager.
And what it is I've got going on now? Yesterday, and for several days before that, I thought it was dry skin.
However, I wasn't sure that explained the bumps I found on my back -- the bumps that are hard to see due to their location -- the bumps that itch -- the bumps that have been identified by three out of three boys as "bumps."
Dry skin made sense to me until this afternoon. Today I started thinking about my history of itching and how dry skin might fit in.
As for my history of itching, it normally involved a skin irritant -- something I was allergic to like poison ivy or poison oak. Well, once, a brunette in Massachusetts.
Dry skin had never led to itching like I'm having and I haven't been to New England in over a decade, so a skin irritant was starting to look pretty good.
I thought back to when the itching started and it seemed like it had been waking me up in the night for about a week. Or right about the time I cleaned my sheets using a detergent I've used before but that the company had added a special bonus good-smelling feature too. Sure, I'd been washing my clothes in it for a couple of weeks but I'd typically strip out of them and into a pair of unwashed-for-months sweats as soon as I got home from work. Maybe laying on the sheets for eight hours at a time pushed me over the edge.
Tonight Sammo and I made the big trip to Target for some Tide Free (and I paid less than you'll see at that link).
I'm currently in the middle of cleaning my sheets for the second time in two weeks. Which many of you, women mostly, will consider to be just about right.
I am a guy, however, and twice in two weeks seems to be pushing it a bit. This doesn't make me the dirty pig you might think as I have a really big bed and will sleep on one side until I think it's time to flip the mattress or clean the sheets. I'll then sleep on the other side until I think it's time to clean the sheets or flip the mattress. This way I cut my mattress flipping and sheet cleaning in half.
Naturally, if I expect to do any entertaining I'll clean the sheets that morning.
If I expect to entertain brunettes from New England I'll clean the sheets and put the Orkin man on speed dial.
Posted by delmer at March 7, 2007 12:05 AM
Comments
There is nothing quite like clean sheets! The only thing better is brand NEW sheets,.....mmmmmmm.....oops am I still here?
Hope you're feeling better today :)
Posted by: Pen at March 7, 2007 10:59 AM
My mother called today to remind me I had additional sheets in one of the closets. Just in case I needed them to help in my anti-itching campaign.
I don't think they're new, however.
Posted by: delmer at March 7, 2007 8:25 PM