I am surely going to Hell for this one...

[Paolo]

A bit of levity for you all...

This weekend, my ten year old nephew (along with various other relations, friends, and strays) stayed the weekend.

Last night, he began to complain of an itch...where most intact males don't WANT an itch.

After about 5 minutes of intense digging at it, I diagnosed an acute case of poison ivy! Given the state of his fingernails and the way he was digging, this was not a good sign.

Figuring that Calamine is good for the poison ivy, and Lanacaine is good for antibiotic action, and Benzocane cream is better for itching, I mixed up a bit of ointment for "the cure," which was vigorously applied - quite liberally to the affected area.

Five minutes later, the boy's eyes went very wide and his hand went down the front of his boxers. Then his mouth dropped open.

"It's dead!" He cried, with a very white face. He then began an earnest effort to produce SOME kind of feeling. It didn't work. "It feels like it fell off!" He said in a rather distraught voice.

"It doesn't itch, though, does it?" I replied.

Halfway through X-men 1.5, he fell asleep, though.

Everything was back to normal by this morning.

Hell probably has a really good spot on the guestbook for me by now!

:redbounce

[JesusA (imported)]

You’re too hard on yourself. You took quick and effective steps to eliminate his pain and suffering and to prevent the possibility of a nasty infection given 10-year-old fingernails. Your Fundamentalist relatives would, more likely, argue that you may have even begun to move away from Hell (though I thought you already lived there) by preventing him from taking any "immoral" actions that might derive from the itch. (I have never understood why doing something that provides pleasure and harms no one could ever possibly be immoral.)

I would argue that you’ve performed a virtuous act that is worthy of reward. It’s certainly deserving of a chuckle from everyone who hears about it – which will probably include everyone in southern Indiana by this time next week. I’ll do my part to spread the story in my part of the world.

And, how DID he get poison ivy in that location???