How to relieve poison ivy torture

Background
I have this wretched affliction as I type this. I was exposed last Sunday while working in the yard. The only body parts exposed were a few inches between my wrists and elbows. The rash appeared on Day 1 after exposure in a few manageable spots on my forearms. It more than doubled on Day 2 and also produced large, bubbly clusters of blisters, which doubled again on Day 3. It continued to spread north and south on my arms by Day 4, when I finally saw a doctor and was prescribed Predisone (a steroid), which (I think) started helping dry up the horrific blisters within hours.

(Photo at right was taken after a couple days of healing had begun. It is now 2 months later and I still have scarring.)

At the onset of my misery, I searched the Internet for suggestions on how to eradicate the blisters and the itch and viewed the variety of suggestions here: http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/misc.html. From those suggestions, I concocted my own remedies and this one worked GREAT for me:

Remedy for reducing itching
Gather the following:

• Baking soda (regular stuff in yellow box: Arm & Hammer)
  
• Rubbing alcohol (or hot water works too)
• Gold Bond Extra Strength medicated powder (the kind in the green bottle, but the regular kind in the yellow bottle would probably work also)

1. Make a paste with the baking soda and alcohol (hot water also works, but I think the alcohol provided a more "tingly" feeling).
2. The "paste"should be wet -- kind of like the consistency of gravy.
3. Use your hands to gently rub the paste all over your affected areas.
4. Allow the pasted areas to mostly dry, then sprinkle the Gold Bond over that and gently pat it on.

That's it. Works great for me. It makes a bit of a mess and you'll probably shed the powder all around, but oh well. I re-apply the concoction two or three times a day and have had very, very little itching. The worst part of the poison ivy for me this time around (I've had it several times before) has been its hideousness, the bubbles of ooze, the inconvenience, and the fact that I have to wear long sleeves to cover my disgustingly gross-looking arms.

If you're reading this, you're probably afflicted and I feel for you and your misery. I hope this helps you find relief. And I highly recommend seeing the doctor if your symptoms progress and spread like mine. Like my doctor said, it had affected my whole system (regardless of location of physical exposure) and was popping out in other places, like my stomach, forehead, etc.

You can bet I'll take even more precautions next time I work in the yard (today). I've already attacked the yard with Round Up poison ivy killer, and I'll be completely covered head to toe, no matter how hot it is. And when finished, my clothes will go carefully and immediately into the wash.

Good luck!

Toughen Up

The link at the bottom of my comments here is a commentary from The Washington Times about something that got me riled up:

What is happening to us? It appears we've become not only a nation of wussies but a wussy nation. What's with all the pandering and political correctness? It continues to get worse. The movie, "Gran Torino" illustrates that a person who uses so-called "derogatory" or "offensive" terms toward people is not necessarily ignorant or insensitive or -- most importantly -- "hateful" toward a particular group.

Was it the 1960s when our nation's practice of pandering began? Like a snowball gathering size as it rolls downhill, so has the culture of politically-correct pandering. And in so doing, the "offended," i.e., weak people, have become strong.

How could this happen? Apparently easily: The panderers have repeatedly accused non-panderers of being "ignorant" for using "hate speech" (like displaying a Rebel flag, stating the belief that marriage is between a man and woman, or using the term "Islamic terrorist"), and have thereby established themselves as being intellectually superior. Non-panderers may not have agreed with the panderers' nonsensical "reasoning," but were in the inexplicably complicated position of being unable to defend a position of "hate." Therefore, over 30-40 years, the panderers' ranks have snowballed, gathering people who were, in fact, too ignorant to cognize and articulate the defense that pandering to weakness begets weakness.

But my accusation of the ignorance of the non-panderers who succumbed to the pandering way is not said with the same disdain and intellectual superiority of the panderers. It is simply a fact of nature that some people are deeper thinkers than others. The trouble is, too many people succumbed -- it does take work to think these things through -- and we all know that many panderers are actually closet non-panderers. A nation of wussies. Too afraid to come out of the closet and proclaim their intolerance of weakness. As in Clint Eastwood's character in "Gran Torino," he used a downright cornucopia of politically-incorrect, stereotypical slurs, but he had more strength, guts, and tolerance than any weak panderer could ever have.

Now we have a president who can repeatedly refer to the Koran as "holy." Even if an American politician did refer to the Bible, he certainly couldn't get away with calling it "holy," even though it is part of its title.

We need to turn this around. We need to develop a defense that even inarticulate people can easily argue. The panderers' weapon of intellectual superiority -- however false in reality it is -- has proven powerful enough to weaken us more than I could have ever imagined.

Oh, and by the way, I'm guilty too: I didn't want to offend when I said, "It appears we've become not only a nation of wussies but a wussy nation." I'll amend that by saying we've become not only a nation of pussies but a pussy nation. That's more accurate. No offense.

Victoria


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/09/americas-first-muslim-president/?feat=article_top10_read

Supposed to be?

It recently dawned on me: Is that where the non-word "supposably" comes from? [Is that from where the non-word "supposably" comes?]

(See my previous post on the subject.)

Just a thought.

Ladies room signs in Bally's, A.C.

I visited Bally's Atlantic City recently and got a giggle out of the following sign -- a copy of the sign hung over the back of every toilet in every ladies room I entered (and that was a lot):

Please Do Not Throw Soiled Feminine Hygiene Products in the Toilet*

I have several issues with this sign:

1) Since it doesn't want me to "throw" soiled product into the toilet, does that mean it's ok if I place it in the toilet gently?

2) Since the sign specifies "soiled" products, does that mean it's ok if I throw (or place) "unsoiled" product into the toilet?

3) I could get picky over use of the word "in" instead of "into," but I'm repeating this verbiage by memory from a couple weeks ago and am not sure which of the two were used. (Also see asterisk below.)

4. Sign makers are notoriously bad spellers and grammarians. In this particular case, you know damned well that a whole group of suits lamented the wording of that sign in an effort to say what they had to say in a non-offensive way. I don't understand how some signs, including this one, get all the way through the process of requisition, order, proof, approval, printing, shipping, receiving, and hanging. Think of all the people involved in that process. Granted, this one isn't the worst or most obviously incorrect, but still...

It's important to note that my strong opinions on this subject matter refer to those things I know to be correct (or at least pretty sure!) BUT I don't claim to be a perfect grammarian myself!

*As I said above, the verbiage I reported was by memory, so the part that says "feminine hygiene product" could've said something different, like "sanitary napkins" instead. But the main points of "throw" and "soiled" were definitely on the sign. If somebody goes to Bally's and can confirm, please do!

On presumed words

Since this blog is about my ramblings, I'll begin with a theory to explain one of my most annoying peeves: use of the non-word "supposably." How prevalent is the use of this non-word? I don't know, except that I hear it frequently. Maybe it's a testament to the crowd with whom I mingle (scary), or it's a Southern Maryland thing, but it drives me SO nuts. I've corrected one person numerous times and told her the word is "supposedly," but still she gets it wrong. "WHY?" I puzzled, driving down the road one day after the same person -- again -- used the despised non-word with me while on the phone. I couldn't be so bitchy as to correct her for the thousandth time. So I bit my tongue and spent my frustration pondering why anyone would so backwardly confuse their suffixes.

And then it hit me: Perhaps people confuse "presumably" with "supposedly" and blend the two, getting "supposably." Yes! That must be the explanation!

But wait...It that's right, then how come I never hear the reverse of the equation, which would be "presumedly"?

The latter issue notwithstanding, I was so impressed with myself for having discovered a fairly reasonable explanation for the issue that I quickly called Lori to report my findings via voice mail. I then proceeded to tell several people over the next few days. (Mysteriously, most people are not nearly as fascinated with this topic as I.)

Then, remembering that I had also emailed somebody about it (Kevin), I searched the term "supposably" in my email and found the following note to Lori:

I've lamented my hatred over the non-word 'supposably' too many times while using the contrasting example of 'presumedly' as a possible explanation for the flub. I've now TWICE -- yes, TWICE in the past 3 days -- used the word 'presumedly' in conversation. I quickly recovered, but clearly my brain is misfiring. Dammit!!!

[FYI Lori's response was to "get out and play with adults."]

I've now learned that
1. Lots of people probably don't care about this issue;
2. My own use of the word "presumedly" results from my repeated telling of this story and presumedly...ahem...presumably NOT a result of mixing the two words; and
3. The explanation for use of the non-word is not necessarily solved.

This first blog post may set the tone for what is to come and may possibly ensure that nobody will ever read it! Ha! [That's ok!]

Welcome to My Ramblings

Hello all! Finally, I have a created a repository for my random ramblings other than Lori's voice mail or her email inbox. We'll see how it goes!