must have been a friend of ronnie's

"Hey, because you have your window down, you get a free joke!"

 

For real, that's what the guy said to me.

I was returning from a trip to Whitmarsh Island, just to feel I'd been somewhere.

Apparently, I'd gotten poisoned yesterday, because I'd had diarrhea and chills last night, with the symptoms persisting well into the afternoon.

Just how had that happened?

Well, I didn't know wild cherry trees had cyanide in their leaves and twigs.

I had simply gone after the tree outside the bedroom window, as I tend to do every other year or so, not thinking about the fumes from the wood as I sawed away at it, not considering the smell of the crushed leaves, not guarding my skin against the broken stems as I made them the right size for the city to haul away.

Not only did I breathe in those fumes and odors, but I also had a sharp twig tattoo its way across the back of my left hand, raising a series of bloody spots.

Honestly, that blood flow is what got me to cease my efforts.

If I had been wearing gloves, as I tend to do in the yard...

and if I had on a face mask to help block out particulate matter...

I might have been okay.

As it was, that hour in the side yard left me in ill health for well over half a day, with a nagging little headache and so very many trips to the bathroom.

Here's the thing: I've done this very thing, to that very tree, multiple times over the last two decades and been just fine...

but I am older now, and my body chemistry is not the same as it was then.

Sigh.

At least I still managed to finish mowing the back yard.

I thought I'd go to a movie, but, no.

The thought of driving across town just didn't appeal to me.

Hence, the drive to the CVS that always has the Ensure I like, and subsequent encounter with the panhandler at the corner of Victory and Skidaway, the one who noticed my window was rolled down and I was catching some rays and fresh air.

 

"Hey, because you have your window down, you get a free joke.

How do you cure a dog with a fever?

You put catsup on him.

A hotdog is always better with catsup!"

I had given him a big grin and he said, "Keep smiling, pretty lady!"

 

I most def feel better now.

(smile!)