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| Offshore fishing near Isla Mujeres and glowing! |
My dad peered over the top of his reading glasses, leveling his gaze at his naïve teenage daughter: “No,” he admonished, “Horses sweat. Men perspire. Ladies glow.”
I guess I
was born a horse.
I am about
99.5% certain that my very proper, very stern and very formidable grandmother,
Nellie Blanche Lyons Gobert, taught my father that expression. She passed away when I was about seven, but I
still remember her upright bearing, and impeccable manners. She was a school principal, one of the first female school principals in Canada. One did not mess with our
grandmother!
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| Nellie Blanche Lyons Gobert about 1915 |
Me, well, I
glow, like an out-of-control nuclear reactor.
Starting about now, June, I usually change my clothing two to three
times per day. From the skin out –
everything!
Normally both Lawrie and I
putter around the house, fixing this, polishing that, applying a coat of paint
to a scuffed wall. Doing little
tasks. Tinkering.
He manages to maintain his cool, barely breaking
a sweat. Pardon me, I meant to say - barely
perspiring. I, on the other hand, have a
nice bright pink face, and a good healthy pore-cleansing glow going on.
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| Working on our Summerland house entrance 2006 |
In Canada if
we were doing a major project like tiling the bathroom, or renovating the front
entrance I could work up a really good glow. Living in the tropics it occurs more
frequently.
Today I fiddled around with
painting one short wall on our upper street-side deck. By the time I had finished I was soaked
through.
Angel, one of three young guys
replacing the netting over our palapas, looked at me with a silly who-me grin on his face, innocently
asking: “Tienes mucho calor amiga?”
Si! You bet your sweet bippy! Mucho calor!
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| The cool dude! It's May and he's comfy in a thick shirt. |
The upside is
that mosquitoes can easily locate me. I have
a heat-signature that is like a flashing red neon sign. Free!
All-you-can-eat-buffet. They bypass
Lawrie preferring to swarm my overheated follicles. If mosquitoes had lips, they would smack them
together in anticipation of a feast. I
am certain the local mosquito population is very appreciative of my
contribution to their well-being.
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| Summerland BC - entrance all done! |
And to
ensure the lovely little mosquitoes don’t over-indulge on my DNA, I spray every
bit of my exposed skin with Off Family
repelente de insectos. In Canada, Lawrie
pampered me with nice expensive perfumes. They were always a much appreciated birthday
or Christmas gift. Somehow insect
repellant doesn’t have quite the same cache, and isn’t nearly as romantic when
received as a gift.
On some
level I think my grandmother would have been proud of me, remembering that
ladies glow, apparently we don’t sweat.
But one thing puzzles me. How did
she manage to remain lady-like raising three active children in the early part
of the 1900’s when women wore long, hot, cumbersome dresses every day, all day?
Just
thinking about that, makes me glow. I
think I’ll go and have another refreshing swim in our pool.
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| One small wall - and I'm glowing! |
Hasta Luego
Lynda and Lawrie
3 comments:
Lynda - you need to try Badger Balm - I found it on the web - only thing that will keep the WI mosquitos away from my son and I. Does not smell like deet (although I would not consider it perfume) - check it out -
My father said the same expression and I try to keep that in mind when I go through periods of what I call thermal combustion. ( I am at that age!)
As for mosquitos. We tried some Vitamin B1 patches while camping. They worked really well last 36 hours and no toxic chemicals.
The only downside is your "glow" smells of vitamin B and eventually your clothes and bedding too. I get eaten alive normally. The mosquitos kinda hovered and then took off
I hadn't heard about Vitamin B1 patches .... probably not available here anyway. Thanks for the tip though. Cheers L
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