Leaving in about an hour to pick up my grandson from school. The school year is winding down and he's getting antsy. When he gets here he has a snack then does his homework. With whatever time is left we play or watch TV/movie.
Beginning with July, I'll have him for two full days every other week and I'll have to find stuff to keep him amused and active. It's getting to be more work as he gets older.
By all means have fun with your grandson, Andy! But since you live in Massachusetts be careful about ticks.
"UC Berkeley researcher Denise Steinlein demonstrates the three actions found to be riskiest for acquiring the western black-legged tick: leaning against a tree, carrying wood and
sitting on a log. (Photos by Robert Lane)
"We sat on logs for only five minutes at a time, and in 30 percent of the cases, it resulted in exposure to ticks," said Robert Lane, professor in the Division of Insect Biology at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and lead investigator of the study. "It didn't matter if we sat on moss or the bare surface; the ticks were all over the log surface.
The next riskiest behavior was gathering wood, followed by sitting against trees, which resulted in tick exposure 23 and 17% of the time, respectively."
Where Ticks Come From on eMedicineHealth.com
(The tick named in that article is the western version of what is out on the east coast. The only good news is that not all ticks will carry Lyme disease but in Massachusetts a fairly high percentage of them do.)
Many easterners carry doxycycline with them when hiking/camping or just enjoying being outside so they can start the antibiotics that same day.
This may seem like a buzz-kill of a post but I've seen/read about all the children who lost their childhood to Lyme disease. So I'm taking the chance of you or other people thinking I'm interfering.
I'm not suggesting that kids should be kept inside and never allowed to play as they should.
Children should have all the fun they want and not have to worry but the adults should know how best to reduce the problem.
If you, Andy, have any questions, please P.M. me.