Ticked Off

I just saw a segment about summer bugs, i.e., ticks. In a departure from my usual blog fare, here's a cautionary word about ticks. If you live where there are ticks, or if you have pets, be sure to check every day to make sure you don't come down with some of the scary diseases that can happen after a tick has been attached to you for over twenty-four hours!



So, get those ticks off with tweezers, if you find any, and be on the look-out for red spots that spread. If you have those, get to the doctor for some antibiotics as soon as you can! (Tweezer tip: grab the body of the tick and pull slowly until it comes out. If you pull too fast, you can leave the head inside you.)



Another tip for getting rid of ticks came to me through the internet: liquid soap. I actually had occasion to use this tip last year, and it works. Take liquid soap, put onto a tissue or some cotton, and start rubbing the tick. If it hasn't gone too far in yet, it will come out. This is handy if you can't reach the spot with tweezers (e.g., the middle of your back). I discovered a tick right before our church band gave a concert at another church in the state next door, and the liquid soap trick rescued me!

Suggestion for Summer (and Winter!)

If you're like me, and I know a lot of you are, you're finding Daylight Saving Time getting longer and longer, and Standard Time getting shorter and shorter. Since I'm not one to like wasting resources, it occurred to me that we need a new time to switch over the batteries in our smoke alarms. After all, switching after eight months and then four months just doesn't make sense, especially in today's economy.

Here's my suggestion: Choose either the Equinoxes or the Solstices to change the batteries. They come six months apart, giving the batteries a chance to be useful and not wasting them. Just be sure to choose one or the other, so that you aren't changing batteries every season.

I'm choosing the solstices, since summer solstice is today in the northern hemisphere, and winter solstice in the southern hemisphere.

It's just a suggestion, but it could be a life-saver. Pass it on!

Do You Blog Every Day?

It has come to my attention (through reading books on the subject, etc.) that the blogs with the largest readership are the blogs with continuous new content. I've added sidebars with changing info on this and my other web pages (including the ones I manage), but still, the idea of having to write something every day just seems wrong.

It takes blogging out of the realm of the fun and jams it firmly into the domain of work. It turns it into a daily column. Not a work of art, but a work of necessity. And this (most often) without pay, a volunteer position.

How many of us have something interesting to say every single day? And, if we do, how many of us have the chutzpah to post it online, where anybody in the world can read it? If I stopped to think about how many page hits I get, would it make me blog more or less? And does it really matter?

Today's blog is only interesting if you're a blogger, I think. Tomorrow's blog: well, that should be something completely different!

And the winner is~~~

Cheryl, who posted at another blog.

Remember to check the blog post again for more links to Misty's life coaching information, and thank you for entering!