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Plenty Already

There are a lot of Google image searches you shouldn't do, and "gnat bites" is on that list. Not as high up on the list as "logging accident" or "dental malpractice" but still, I wouldn't recommend it.

I am prone to gnat bites. Last summer I took the family blueberry picking at a farm near our house, and I was in shorts with no bug spray and my legs got eaten up to the point where I could barely walk a few days later. I had to taxi it to the doctor that I can easily walk to in normal circumstances.

As the summer cools, the insects are getting comfy. And ambitious. When it's 35 degrees outside it's hot for a lunchtime walk but at least the mosquitos and gnats and all their friends have the good sense to stay in their hive or whatever they live in.

Sometime over the last couple of days, probably the night before last on my evening walk, I got three doozies. And they bubbled up and swelled like usual. And they're painful. When I go walking, which is several times a day for 30 minutes or more, those bug bites give me a lump in my throat. I've never been bitten by a piranha, but it feels like little piranhas are nibbling on my ankles.

It's gross, but I had to poke the boils and drain them. After bath time, where I did my very best to keep my infected leg out of the bath water, Eri presented me with a gnat bite care package - disinfectant, medicine, and special bandages. 

I cleaned it all up and feel great. Best of all I didn't take a picture of said gnat bites. The world has plenty already.

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