Owie!

Well, I had one of those “Welcome to Africa” moments last night. I had been watching a Gaither Vocal Band DVD with the Ronald’s in the main sitting room. I was knitting until I got such a big tangle that I decided I couldn’t deal with it in the low light. When the video was over and I was picking up my backpack when there was a sudden sharp pain on my left thumb. I was wondering what bug could have got me (I was thinking, “There was a wasp in here?”) or if perhaps it might be something bigger, so I looked down. Sure enough, there was a scorpion about the size of the one I killed in my house a few weeks ago. Mrs. Ronald put some ice on it and gave me some suggestions of things to take that would help with the pain. If you’ve ever wondered how it feels to be stung by a scorpion, let me tell you, DON’T DO IT. I don’t think I got its whole load, or because it was smaller it didn’t have as much venom, but to quote Beth, OWIE! I would have to say that in the scale of bits I’ve gotten, its worse than a wasp sting, but not as bad as a fuzzy caterpillar! Luckily when I came home there was still some ice in my defrosting fridge, so I was able to put that on until the ibuprofen kicked in.

Speaking of the fridge—URGH! Because the power goes out frequently out here, most of the fridges have serious ice problems. Ours was getting to the point where we had only about half of the top shelf for our use because of the ice. Well, yesterday I took all the had-to-be-refrigerateables down to another house, unplugged the fridge, and waited. I unplugged it at about 1:30, and when I got home with my scorpion sting at 9:30ish, there was still quite a bit of ice in the fridge. I chipped it out, and left the fridge to air out overnight. I wanted to get it up and running again before Beth arrived back home with her friend Crystal.

Today I’ve been cleaning house, doing laundry, and trying to be ready for Beth and Crystal’s arrival. My thumb feels much better today—its rather tingly and if I bump it it hurts, but not its not near as bad as it was last night. The moral of the story? Stay away from scorpions! I’m hoping the fridge will be cold enough to put stuff back in it soon. Thinking of which, I need to go get some more milk. In this tea drinking household, it disappears quite quickly!