poison ivy

Have you ever said something, and then in retrospect it is so stupid that you actually said it that you don't want to talk about it again, even to clear up the matter? Like, for instance, let's pretend this scenario actually happened, but of course this is strictly hypothetical. You announce that you are covered in insect bites, which leads to a long rambling story about poison ivy, and how you don't believe you're all that allergic to it anymore. But yet, your insect bites don't go away and continue to itch like mad, and then your husband starts having the very same insect bites pop up and turn into large welts, and you remark on whether or not there's something in your house causing them. Then he takes his insect rashes to work, where they all say, "Dude! You have poison ivy!" and "That is so poison ivy. Cut it open and bleach it." and "No doubt about it, that sure is poison ivy."

Okay, so that story may not be entirely hypothetical, and it appears that our lovely new house has both English ivy and poison ivy. Yay. I'm only telling you this because I have a few things to say in my defense. 1. I actually did a bit of Googling on the idea that it was poison ivy after the strange blister popped up and kind of convinced myself that it might be. 2.) It is nothing like the poison ivy rashes I got as a child, so perhaps I'm not actually severely allergic like I was in the past, even if I am still sensitive to it 3.) I brought it up with M after my Googling as a possiblity, but he continued to think it was insect bites--though really, he's never seen the stuff before so how would he know? and 4.) I did mention that I was wondering if it was a plant reaction. So, I'm not totally an idiot or anything, really! (I am just someone who has spent as little time as possible outside for the past fifteen years and has never been interested in plants.)

On the bright side, we have been wearing gloves, so that's probably what's kept it from becoming a major problem and just led to it breaking out in very small isolated areas. On the bad side.. we have ripped out a LOT of vines and weeds and thrown everything on the pile of things to burn, and apparently you should, under no circumstances, burn the stuff. If that's the case, then I don't know how we will get rid of that pile of brush that is taller than me and twice as wide. Also, it contains a dead woodpecker, which I don't relish the thought of inspecting again at this late date. (We found it in the yard the day after we took pictures of two red-bellied--I google the strangest things lately, like, what kind of woodpecker we found dead in our yard--woodpeckers.)

Anyway, I figure I have a few more days of itchy in store for me no matter what I do, but at least I can stop worrying about bugs biting me in my bed.