This Beautiful Time of Year

 

It is that time of year, beautiful in the woods with leaves and flowers popping out in the warmer weather. But something else is popping out. 

I was much tougher when I was a kid than I am now. Back in the day, after we yanked a stuck wood tick off of our leg, we'd twist the little bugger's body into two with our bare fingernails.

Or if we were in the house, we might flush it down the toilet if Dad wasn't around. He'd yell at us for wasting water.

If Dad was around, he would light a match and burn the scallywag. I can't remember, though, what he burned it on. The ground? His pant leg? His finger? Any of those locations would explain a lot.

But here we are in 2025, and I'm an adult making adult choices. But, man, those wood ticks are still wicked this time of year. And killing one can still be highly satisfying.

A few weeks ago, I was ironing a piece of fabric I had bought at Joann Fabrics, coz you know they are going out of business, so I had to buy lots of cloth I didn't need.

I saw a dark speck on the end of the ironing board. What is that? I asked myself.

Ohhh, nooo, a wood tick. How did it get on my ironing board? Who knows, it's just the curse of living in the woods and having a dog in the house again.

But there I stood with the ultimate killing machine in my hand—a hot iron.

           I lowered my weapon to the villain until it was a millimeter over its nasty head. The steam kicked in, and the tick's legs curled under it.

Total and complete satisfaction on my part. But I still flushed the tiny carcass down the toilet.

(I didn't take a picture of my back yard just for this post, because I have so many pictures of my back yard. Or not. The one above is from 2014 and is the only spring-time one I could find.)