Saturday, April 22, 2017

Bitten by a Black Widow

When I worked under the bus on Friday last week, something must have crawled onto my overalls. When I sat inside the bus, doing my last blog entry I felt something crawling on my back, inside my overalls and reached up to brush it off. I felt a sharp pain and thought nothing of it.

The next day I didn't feel particularly well and my back hurt where whatever it was had bitten me. Sunday I did one or two completely insignificant things in the bus and was exhausted. I grabbed my thermometer out of interest and came up with a temperature not far shy of 100F. It was later confirmed I did have a temperature. In the evening, the bite mark was spotted. Two indentations quarter of an inch apart in an inch diameter very red, very hot ring with a white center. Looking at pictures of various bites, only the Black Widow was an exact match. That would tie in with the fever and the fact I still have the mark a week later.

Even today, 8 days later I'm not feeling so good. I've worked all week but as work is 3 hours in the morning then 3 hours in the afternoon with a nap in between, it hasn't been too bad. Today I went to a work meeting then shopping. When it came to putting stuff away, I was shattered and almost unable to perform even that simple task!

Today's shopping was pretty simple and consisted solely of Harbor Freight and Sportsmans Warehouse. Harbor Freight had shrink wrap cable sleeving, cable conduit and another steel ammunition box. Sportsmans Warehouse had some interesting water jerrycans but they were far more expensive than Walmart. They did, however carry plenty pistol ammunition so I stocked up with 9mm and .357 Magnum, 9mm is ok for general fun on the range but .357 is my self defense caliber.

Thursday and Friday after work I'd been to Radio Shack where the closing sale was up to 90% off. So, on Thursday I bought a few small things including some reed switches but mainly, two 7ah lead acid batteries. Those will fit an ammunition box and will work as a portable power pack for charging electronics. The reed switches will work with a battery and a buzzer. I had a buzzer already and discovered it was very loud when used with a 1.5V battery. To switch them on and off, only the presence or absence of a magnet is needed. Thus, putting the switch, buzzer and battery on a door frame and the magnet on the door produces a very nice door alarm. I figure an alarm for the back and side doors. The front door would benefit from a lamp that comes on when the door is opened.

No photos. I'm just too exhausted. I just hope recovery isn't going to take too much longer! And before you ask, I have health insurance. I can barely afford the premiums and cannot afford the copay to actually benefit from it. So, no - can't afford to visit the doctor. I just have to tough it out.

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