Deirdre Sholto Douglas <finch.enter...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> brady r wrote:
>> On Sep 24, 1:53 pm, Deirdre Sholto Douglas
>> <finch.enter
...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>> No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
>>> far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
>>> vermin is on the other side of the line.
>> Groundhogs excepted, one assumes.
> Groundhogs aren't vermin and even if they were, they
> don't reside _inside_ the house.
Ground hogs are a natural reservoir for bubonic plaugue, which is
usually spread by fleas. Fleas have ways of getting inside: we just
found fleas on an old ferret who hasn't been outside in a year and has
had flea treatments since then. Maybe the dog got them from the grass,
like maybe the local fleas have become resistant to this expensive
anti-flea stuff we've been using since the other expensive anti-flea
stuff the vet sold us quit working, or maybe the fleas "hitchhiked" on
our sneakers, or something.
I'm sure you already knew this, you just didn't think about it as you
typed, because groundhogs are cute furry critters. I know, we had one
in our yard back in Louisville. I'd bring him good vegetables to eat.
But I worried about his fleas, every outdoor critter has zillions.
> Anyway, I've not had one under the stoop since the bees
> moved in there,
Are you anaphylactically shockable? I'm probably not but I don't want
to test it. I was a test subject a couple of studies, dental studies:
one that tested whether ibuprofen was effective again the pain of
having wisdom teeth cut out (in my case it wasn't, severely, but I
didn't follow up on the published results) and one that tested whether
fish oil helps the body fight off gum disease (I don't know that it
made any difference, it could be that I followed their instructions to
floss more and brush better, and I haven't found that published study
either). I participated in those because in the first one I needed my
wisdom teeth cut out anyway (and they promised me a GOOD painkiller if
the ibupropen didn't work), and for the second study, the fish oil
one, I didn't see how fish oil could give me any pain and anyway they
paid me just enough to buy some decent beer. But bee sting hurt even
if you're not allergic to the vemon, and I dislike any kind of pain.
> since I haven't had a bible thumper atop the stoop for equally long,
> I'm not inclined to evict my apian friends.
It's things like this that keep me reading your posts. Minimal wit is
better than none.
> The only acceptable substitute for intelligence is silence.
I've been reading "minimalist" fiction and trying to teach myself the
style. I think the idea is to write artlessly like a real person
talks. A real person who might be a typical American in a red state,
as most really real people are. I don't think I can cut it, I keep
reaching for a semicolon, which most really real people must think is
some kind of disease they don't want. Unlike "sugar diabetes" Granny
just takes her shots for. Shots don't scare really real peole, they
grind the Vicodin up really powdery and suck it up a Kools filter.
D.
--
"Ne vestigium quidem ullum est reliquum nobis dignitatis."
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