Sickness and Sunburn

Some things going on...

Tanner is sick. He woke up Sunday morning complaining of a sore throat and a cough. He stayed home from church and seemed to act pretty well even though he kept coughing all day. By bedtime he had a fever of 101.5 f. I drugged him up with cough and pain meds and put a humidifier in his room. Around 5 am he needed more meds. Yesterday he seemed on the verge of needing motrin but since he seemed functional and pleasant I held off until about dinner time. His fever was again about 101 f. He also gave himself a nap just before dinnertime.
Today he seems a tad better but his cough is nonstop. It seems to be a tickling kind of cough though and not real gross. The poor kid. Something that concerns me is the fact that on Saturday when we all went out to eat at Carl's Jr, he, Garrett, and I all shared a straw. I'm crossing my fingers.

I have a bad sunburn. Since the mowing didn't get done on Saturday I had planned on doing it on Monday (yesterday). After taking care of some things on the inside of the house I ventured out around 11:30 and started on the front yard. It was about 60* and I had a lightweight sweatshirt on. When I headed to the back I took my sweatshirt off. I also started off not bagging the grass since I had already mowed that part before getting the tune-up on the mower. It obviously goes faster that way. By this point Tanner and Garrett had joined me outside too, which kinda slows things down. I ran out of gas in the mower and grabbed the gas can from the garage which only had about 8 oz. of gasoline left in it. So the race was on. Could I finish mowing before I ran out? There were several stops and starts as I emptied the bag but I tried to be as efficient as I could. Since there was probably more than 1/2 the backyard left at the point I refilled I was amazed when I finished before it dried up.

I ALMOST just left the mower out in the back in hopes that when Jon got home he would clean the underside of the mower. As a side-note I never cleaned or even thought about cleaning a lawn mower after every cut but Jon has always insisted. And I tell you, it is truly amazing at how much grass gunk sticks to the mower and the blade after just one mow. If you use a powerful spray to the underside it can usually take the stuff off but if you don't do it one time it is impossible to just use water and you have to scrape it. So...this was the predicament I was in. After my last attempt at mowing it was not cleaned on the underside because it wasn't a full mow and didn't seem necessary. I cannot remember if it was cleaned at the end of the season last year but after how long it took me to clean it I think it wasn't.

Obviously I decided to clean it. I was hungry and thirsty but I just had this feeling that Jon would not get around to cleaning it that day and if I went in the house to rest I wouldn't get myself to go back out. I sprayed and scraped, repeated several times. I spent a lot more time scraping and then finally spraying. It was such a lovely weather day that I didn't realize how fried my arms were getting. By the time I got inside they didn't look bad at all but I did feel pain. After I ate and then showered they were hot pink, burning, and very painful. They seemed to get worse and worse even hours after I came inside. Every wrinkle or stretch of the skin hurts. Even when I got goosebumps last night it hurt. I'm sure if I was out there for even 5 more minutes I would have a few blisters. It sure makes me feel sorry for people that have had serious burns and have to be in the hospital. It is so painful.

To end on a happy note, I AM soooo glad that I don't have to be all bundled up this week and there is no snow in the forecast. Next time I'll just take a minute to put on sunblock.