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Hoping for a Not Too Lousy New Year
Dec. 31st, 2019 11:12 pmToday, I was looking forward to the rare occasion of a day where I'm off work but Eris still has daycare. Unfortunately, Eris has come down with a bad case of head lice, and that was detected on Monday. No idea how she got it, but between her usual daycare and gym daycare and conference daycare and other travel, she's been around a lot of other kids.
For those unfamiliar, head lice are generally transmitted directly person to person, usually between children, who are not reluctant to literally put their heads together. Normal washing is ineffective at removing them. They're hard to detect visually, and the symptomatic itching is often absent or delayed. But they're a nuisance, not a disease vector or otherwise a serious threat. Was kind of annoyed to learn, after the kid was pulled from daycare midday, that such a response runs counter to AAP recommendations on the subject.
So today was instead spent on pest remediation: literal nitpicking with a literal fine-toothed comb and a huge amount of laundry. Much of that could have been done yesterday evening, except we had a prolonged power outage due to some bad weather causing the sort of electrical equipment failure where a nearby telephone pole literally caught fire.
Fortunately for me, this seems to be the one situation where having basically no hair on my head anymore is an advantage. Julie has all the hair, though, so if the bugs get a foothold it will be a real annoyance, and she's definitely been exposed.
After all of that excitement (and so many weeks of travel), we didn't want to venture far from home this evening. Had a very nice dinner at Loyal Nine. Eris was a well-behaved dinner companion, though she only tried a few things and wanted to dance in the aisles come dessert time. Still, she was pleasant company.
So that's the end of my 2019. Eris turns four calendar-tomorrow (in two days).
For those unfamiliar, head lice are generally transmitted directly person to person, usually between children, who are not reluctant to literally put their heads together. Normal washing is ineffective at removing them. They're hard to detect visually, and the symptomatic itching is often absent or delayed. But they're a nuisance, not a disease vector or otherwise a serious threat. Was kind of annoyed to learn, after the kid was pulled from daycare midday, that such a response runs counter to AAP recommendations on the subject.
So today was instead spent on pest remediation: literal nitpicking with a literal fine-toothed comb and a huge amount of laundry. Much of that could have been done yesterday evening, except we had a prolonged power outage due to some bad weather causing the sort of electrical equipment failure where a nearby telephone pole literally caught fire.
Fortunately for me, this seems to be the one situation where having basically no hair on my head anymore is an advantage. Julie has all the hair, though, so if the bugs get a foothold it will be a real annoyance, and she's definitely been exposed.
After all of that excitement (and so many weeks of travel), we didn't want to venture far from home this evening. Had a very nice dinner at Loyal Nine. Eris was a well-behaved dinner companion, though she only tried a few things and wanted to dance in the aisles come dessert time. Still, she was pleasant company.
So that's the end of my 2019. Eris turns four calendar-tomorrow (in two days).
