Hello Everyone!
Not the best rest, Frigging pestilence, Taking down the tent & If it is not broken I probably do not own it!
Alright, I am starting my writing routine right on time this evening... even though I kind of want to zone out some more before doing so. I guess that the little bump to my morale (by being on time) will do much more for me than the 'zoning out' will so go figure.
Last night, I was not up too terribly late... but once again I awoke repeatedly throughout the evening much like I did the night before. This time though I kept waking up because the damned fleas kept crawling on me... which yeah is rather annoying.
I had noticed over the last few days that they were starting to get bad from the warmer temperatures... but thought that I had them under control after dosing all the dogs with nitenpyram... but that just was not the case. As I have said countless times before the pestilence has been playing fucking hell on me my whole journey here... and no matter what I do I just cannot seem to rid myself of them.
Since the pests had reached the point of disrupting my sleep... I decided that today I would take the time to get a bit extreme with them... and see if I could put a dent in their population by submerging all my bedding (and pillows) into some one hundred and forty degree (sixty degree Celcius) water. Apparently from what I have been reading that temperature water will not only kill the fleas and their eggs... but will also kill mites and their eggs as well.
Not having the convenience of a washing machine has assuredly played its part in my ongoing battle with the pests (because otherwise I would nuke them all with borax) but per usual there is no damned reason to complain about things that I cannot change. I have also been washing my clothes (and other laundry) in my used bath water... which is never at the kind of heat necessary to kill those buggers off.
Not wanting to struggle with keeping everything submerged in the tub... I decided to clean out the barrel that I have been using to wash everything in... and then use it to soak all the bedding in. Using the barrel also made it so that I could use less hot water... and not have to pump the tub out between each of the two loads that I had to do... because I could just tilt the barrel over instead.
Anyways, once I got the first load soaking I decided that it was time to take the tent down that I had setup on the deck... before it could rain again and fill it with water. The whole process was rather easy... but when I began folding it up I realized that it was still damp on the bottom where it came into contact with the deck... so I had to drag it to a dry part of the deck... and let it dry out fully before folding it up.
All in all, that tent has seen much better days... but it should work for my purposes as long as I can find some kind of plastic (or get a large enough tarp) to cover it with. The only real challenge (aside from the door not really closing) will be where the 'groundsheet' (the attached floor) material is worn out on the sides... which will allow water in.
As with most things that I own the tent is damaged and/or broken... but lacking anything else it is going to have to work... much like everything else! At least I got that new cheap tent to sleep in... and although it will be incredibly cramped for me and the dogs... at least it will be somewhere that we can stay dry at.
Well, I have now begun to think a bit too hard about dragging all my gear from place to place over the years, the beating it has all taken... and how time after time all my efforts were for naught... which yeah I am allowing to sour my desire to keep writing this evening. I hope that everyone is well and in good spirits. Ciao.
