A Tim Tale

My friend Joel ask that I post one of my more humorous adventures so here goes... I originally sent this as an email to some friends.

It seemed like a good idea at the time….

You see I had been hiking at Dan Daniels Park the day before and was very conscious that this was tick season. I checked carefully after my hike and was relieved to find no parasites.

The next morning however, courtesy of my wonderful cat that felt compelled to rub against my shin repeatedly, on taking the boys to the bus stop, I find a tick. No problem I give it a pull, but I won’t budge. Hmm…my mom always said to burn the little suckers so as to get the whole thing out.

I get home and cannot find matches. Then it hits, “ why not freeze it!” So I go downstairs and find my can of compressed air. I give the tick one more pull with tweezers, and it is a no go. Time for operation freeze.

It stung a bit but it not only came off, it SHATTERED. Good deal, although my leg had a significant red spot. No problem I thought.

Until the next morning when the red spot had grown, a knot was forming under the skin, it itched and hurt. That did not seem right. Better not tell Carolyn; she will make me go the doctor. And definitely don’t mention operation freeze…

Until Wednesday when the knot, well…. it burst. And then turned black. Time to tell the wife.

So now it is Thursday and I am at the doctors. The nurse does the prep work, you know fever check, blood pressure etc… Then she asks what happened.

“Well I had a tick and I froze it off with a can of compressed air, and then it turned red and then… Do I have frostbite or bite infection?

She smiled.”Both”

The doctor comes in next. I tell her about the bite and show her the wound.

“How did you get it off? Did you get it all?”

“Yep I froze it with a can of compressed air and it shattered”. I sounded so proud.

She smiled; you know the smile women do when men are being men.

“Freezing. That explains the skin burns. You have a bite infection all right and damaged tissue from the freezing (frostbite). You will need a tetanus shot, it is pretty nasty and antibiotics.”

OK.

As she was leaving I said “I bet you will love telling this to your husband tonight!”

“Oh no. If I did he would try it.”

As she went out the door she turned and with a wry smile said, “Oh and Tim, don’t do this anymore ok?”

“Yes Mam”

Only me! This is almost as good as the time when we found bricks in the woods while playing army.

“Hey guys you know what we can do with these bricks!” But that is another story…