On weekends, when I'm not brewing I'm likely to be hiking.
Last weekend (the day after I brewed), I did a five-mile hike with my dog.
I didn't know it until I got home, but a Lone Star tick bit me.
When I got home I saw him on my back but couldn't get to him with tweezers well enough to remove him. I went over to a friend's house (where incidentally, a couple of my homebrews are on tap) for a beer or two and had him pull it off me.
Fast forward to yesterday (six days later), and I ended up at the urgent care center to make sure I didn't get Lyme disease.
I had a baseball-diameter red patch around the bite. Lyme disease typically comes with a bullseye-shaped mark, but I didn't want to take any chances.
As it turns out, I am apparently extremely allergic to ticks, or at least that particular one. Not allergic enough to have a systemic (throat swelling, etc.) reaction, but enough the local skin reaction was really something.
So I ended up on a seven-day course of antibiotic, in case the bite was infected, some heavy duty hydrocortisone cream, and Benadryl in addition to my normal every day allergy medication.
Moral of the story: Brew on Saturdays and Sundays to keep ticks at bay.
Worst that ever happened to me while I was brewing was getting stung by a wasp. I'm not allergic to those.
Last weekend (the day after I brewed), I did a five-mile hike with my dog.
I didn't know it until I got home, but a Lone Star tick bit me.
When I got home I saw him on my back but couldn't get to him with tweezers well enough to remove him. I went over to a friend's house (where incidentally, a couple of my homebrews are on tap) for a beer or two and had him pull it off me.
Fast forward to yesterday (six days later), and I ended up at the urgent care center to make sure I didn't get Lyme disease.
I had a baseball-diameter red patch around the bite. Lyme disease typically comes with a bullseye-shaped mark, but I didn't want to take any chances.
As it turns out, I am apparently extremely allergic to ticks, or at least that particular one. Not allergic enough to have a systemic (throat swelling, etc.) reaction, but enough the local skin reaction was really something.
So I ended up on a seven-day course of antibiotic, in case the bite was infected, some heavy duty hydrocortisone cream, and Benadryl in addition to my normal every day allergy medication.
Moral of the story: Brew on Saturdays and Sundays to keep ticks at bay.
Worst that ever happened to me while I was brewing was getting stung by a wasp. I'm not allergic to those.