Burn Baby Burn

It's good to know that my lizard brain is still working well enough to rouse me from a deep sleep when I smell smoke. I was roused enough to be able to run around and sniff all the rooms to try and figure out what was on fire. Once I confirmed that the smell was sharpest in my living room, I checked the halogen torchiere, and sure enough, its secondary function as bug zapper is working well. I pulled the charcoaled little body out and the smoke smell ceased.

One thing I do worry about with all these newfangled low-power lights - they won't zap the bugs! While it might be good not to have dead bugs in ones kitchen fixture, it does make it easy to keep onesey-twosey bugs from becoming a nuisance if you just have to tip them out of the torchiere every once in a while. Probably the LED lights using almost no energy by comparison will save me enough money I can buy a flyswatter.

I also managed to burn myself. One was the steam burn the microwave steamer bags warn about. I grabbed the bag right when it was done and my wrist was over the side steam vent. YOUCH. Naturally it happened because I was rushing to go somewhere that involved using a mouse. I was late this time because I was doing burn first aid. It's ok now, but it's still heat sensitive.

Then there's the sunburn. I walked around the other day in a wide necked top. But I stopped the SPF15 face lotion at the bottom of my neck. So I got this wacky red ring around my neck that reminded me of the sci-fi miniseries V was on when I was in fifth grade and the human lady got knocked up by the alien and the sure sign of the alien baby was a lizardy-skin ring circling her neck that closed off when the baby was due. I remember even in 5th grade thinking it was kind of a crap program, but I think I remember a lot of things I learned at that age and it stuck.

Anyway, here I am with an alien burn circle around my neck and I can't stand it. So saturday, I slather SPF30 on the burn, and go read in the sun for a while. Between my sunscreen and shade hat, I managed to fill in around the burn so it's all pretty uniform except for a couple of straps, which at least looks normal and not alien. Although I did go a little overboard and fry my knees and shoulders, just a bit. They're already browning up and should be non-burned by tomorrow, but they're still abrasion sensitive today as I found out when doing my body-rev abs stretch that involves pressing shoulders into the carpet and I felt every fiber.

There were interesting things about the tanning. One is that I started packing up when my skin started to feel hot, but dangled my legs in the pool water for a while while sitting in the shade. The parts of my legs that were in the water, despite the exact same sun exposure as the knees, did not burn. Apparently applying cool water for 15 minutes works to prevent sunburn from worsening. On my back, I thought I'd left it a little too long, and I was right. Now that I know to watch for that sensation (first noticed consciously on the beach in Marseille during the eurailing tour) it's really handy. I know that when the skin starts to tingle, I have to cover up or reapply sunscreen pronto to avoid burning. Or, apparently, get in cool, shady water.

That's not to say that life is all bad! These burns weren't hardly noticable, comparatively.

• I've worked my way through most of Robert Crais's back list. I'm enjoying it, but his books put me in kind of a weird funk afterward that I don't know is good for me even though I get like that after I read really good authors. I'm trying to think of it as zen time to reflect, rather than funky time. Spin becomes reality.
• Suz Brockmann will be doing a virtual signing for her next book. I've ordered one for me as of an hour ago, since it comes with an extras booklet again, yet I think I should order one for someone else. But since most of my local friends are due to their being Suz fans themselves, they'll already be getting one. At any rate, it comes in July!
• The weather is beautiful. Not too hot, not too cold, sunny, friendly. Perfect to work on my tan!