As the weather has been somewhat magnificent this week, I have taken to walking more rather than driving. All perfectly fine, and no crowded areas so social distancing isn’t an issue. Where there are people, there’s enough space around so we aren’t on top of each other. I don’t need to go to a crowded beach to soak up the Sun. Oh no… just a quick walk around town.
Well, my walk one way was actually thirty to forty-five minutes, which meant the walk back was thirty to forty-five minutes as well. By the time I’d reached my destination I was somewhat moist, to say the least. I had a quick fifteen minute recovery session to dry out, and then my visiting could begin in earnest. And before you say ‘visiting?! in this climate?!’ that’s fine too as I’m part of a bubble.
Who’d have thought that at the beginning of the 21st Century we’d be living in bubbles? I suppose many science fiction writers did, back in the last century, but I think they meant actual bubbles and not virtual interconnected agreed bubbles which are only agreed by the people living in them.
The thing with walking in the brilliant sunshine is that occasionally one has to walk through an area covered in trees… or across a meadow… or by a stream or river… or over/under a bridge. All places where they lurk. They. Them. The little blood-sucking and biting insects that appear to think nothing whatsoever about their next victim as long as they can get their fill.
The thing is, these pesky little creatures also have an anaesthetic built into their mouths or pincers or beaks or whatever they use to feed. So they pierce the skin leaving us blissfully unaware they’re there until after they’ve had their fill and gone.
It was on my walk back the first time that my right hand started to itch. Bear in mind I’d already been cooked once, and was now being reheated. The itch felt like it was on the side of my hand , just beneath my little finger. I scratched and scratched, but the itch wouldn’t go. It turns out, it was my mind telling me the itch was there. It was actually all over the back of my hand, as one of these little bloodsuckers seemed to either have difficulty finding a good place to feed, or a whole family of them decided to have a banquet on my hand. I now have lots of tiny little bite marks in one area, and a large one which seems to be the place where the little critters struck gold.
Obviously, apart from the itching in the heat, the bite marks themselves didn’t appear until after, so there was no way I would have been able to find the culprit and give them a good telling off.
The hand is still itchy today, although my mind has now worked out where the itch actually is. Using an antiseptic cream helps for a short while, but until the bites clear I think the itch is here for a while longer yet.
I’ll be walking again later today. It seems a bit cooler, although it’s early and looks are definitely deceiving here at the Mansion. Out there, in the real world, is where the heat is.
And the thunder and lightning. And rain – although on all of my walks so far I’ve managed to avoid that, and only wet myself. Which sounds so wrong, but is one hundred per cent accurate in the right context. Please.
But it’s Friday. The first day of the weekend. Absolutely fabulous!
Have a great weekend!
The Mansionic Perspective 
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