Piece of My A55

That's right, this entry is all about you seeing a piece of my a$$. I would have never believed I would ever post a picture of a piece of my a55 on the internet, but I'm doing it, and it ain't pretty.

Remember I went for a quick exercise hike Monday evening? Last night, just after posting the pics of Mark's egg recovery operation, I realized I was scratching my butt. Now I do have problems with skin itching, and even a couple of chigger or mosquito bites can tend to go systemic on me. I actually take daily medication to prevent such a thing from happening.

So on this hike, the lovely hike after the rains when the birds were chirping, butterflies flitting, frogs chorusing, tiger beetles racing, roly polies moseying, etc, I got a couple of bites and one bramble scratch on my shin. Those things alone are enough to keep me cautious for a while and use a lot of anti-itch cream. When I got home after that hike I scratched an itch on my arm and the culprit was a tick crawling on me. No problem, I simply put it in a little tight container to let it suffocate.

OK, back to my butt. So all yesterday evening I was itchy all over, and me scratching my butt was no big deal. I was wearing shorts and finally I reached in the leg of my shorts to really give it a good scratch and there was a tick. On my butt. Attached. I plucked it off, and noticed a chunk of my butt tissue was in its mouthparts. Dang.

This evening I got it out of course for a photo op. I didn't take time to set up the tripod, and getting and staying focused on the teeny tiny mouthpart that was clutching a PIECE OF MY A$$ was difficult. I apologize now for not having perfectly clear, tack sharp pics of my A$$, but it's the best I'm willing to spend time doing.


This is a tick's mouthparts when they aren't clutching a PIIECE OF MY A$$. It looks like 4 little short legs at the front of the body. This is the tick that was crawling on my arm.


And this is the tick that is clutching a real PIECE OF MY A$$. The 4 little leg-like mouth parts are bent around it like a spring-claw grabber


This is a close-up of a POMA. My butt may be itching for months. Really. Sometimes that's how long a tick bite on me may itch.
So Cranky Lady may be writing and gloating about her She-agra and She-alis, but I'm actually posting a PIECE OF MY A$$. Hope you like it!