Why You Need Boots in Texas

Also, Why I Bought Ice Cream at 10:30 Last Night for a Little Boy Who was Supposed to be Sleeping

Part I

There are a ton of jackrabbits all over our apartment complex right now.  They mostly live in the field on the other side of the fence, but that fence is no problem for them, and every time I take Tik for a walk, he thinks he is going to catch at least one of them.

Do you know what likes to eat jackrabbits?  Rattlesnakes.  And the fence isn't really a problem for them either.

Tik and I found the skin that a rattlesnake had shed the other day.  I knew it was a rattlesnake because it also shed the outer part of its rattle.

Then, we got text message notifications from the apartment complex that there had been quite a few rattlesnakes seen on the property, and to be careful.

Kevin asked what they were planning to do about it.  They were warning us, and that was enough, apparently.  This is why you need boots.

Part II

Last night, after we put Lex to bed for the seventh time, he complained that the reason he was having so much trouble falling asleep was because his back was itching.  So I pulled his shirt off and was putting some lotion on his back when I noticed that the spot he said was the itchiest had a tick lodged in his skin.  So I hugged him real tight to hold him still while Daddy took the tick out with a pair of tweezers.  Then, Lex said he was too stressed out to go to sleep and that he needed some ice cream to calm down.

And so, at 10:30 last night, I drove over to the store and bought Mint Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blue Bell ice cream.

This was our third tick encounter this summer.  The first one got me in the leg.  (I'm fine, thanks for asking.  The hole it left in my skin has finally healed.)  The second one (which was huge) was just hanging out on the bathroom wall, and it ended up spending a few weeks in a test tube for observation until it was observed to death.

Snakes.  Ticks.  Boots.  Welcome to Texas, y'all.