Deloused
My plan this evening was to write some sort of end of the year post, but then the lice thing surfaced, and all plans that did not involve delousing myself and my children were shot to hell. But, they're dead now. The fuckers are dead (lice, not children). I have engaged in mass extermination and I have no regrets.
I could have gone the natural route which as best I understand it involves saturating one's hair with mayonnaise and sleeping that way (which a shower cap to cover it all up), and then rinsing in the morning with vinegar. It supposedly suffocates the little beasts, but the thought of spending the night slip-sliding around in my own mayonnaise grease did not appeal so I opted for the better living through chemicals opfion.
I've also gotta say that, yes, lice are pests, but part of me wonders what the big deal is. We are animals after all, and animals tend to be hosts for little creatures galore. Just last week I heard about some sort of tiny organism that likes to feast off of women's eye-makeup. They live only between the eyebrows and eyelashes, and when the makeup isn't there they go to town on the eyelashes themselves. So why do we get so freaked out about bugs (and their eggs) in the hair?
Well, they're fucking uncomfortable, that's why. And while critters on my or my own family's head are one thing, I'm not about to inflict them upon anyone else, and we've got big plans tomorrow with KDD, CB & Bean. So I deloused with a vengeance on this, the second to last day of 2007. I'm not going to ramble on with the details, 'cause if you don't know then you probably don't need to know. All that's important is that my hair feels like chemically-treated straw, every soft thing in the house has either been washed in hot water or sealed up in plastic bags for the next two weeks, and the fuckers are dead.
Out with the old and in with the new? Goodbye 2007, and I can't say I'll miss you.