Last night, during a time when there happened to be a lot of commotion on TV about some sort of impending major news announcement, I made the shocking discovery that there was a tick attached to my dog’s neck.
This tick was literally sucking the blood out of my longtime, faithful canine companion and was possibly spreading diseases that could eventually cause great discomfort and serious illness. I instantly made it my top domestic priority to remove this tick, even though the activity on TV was growing more frantic and all the major news anchors were urgently demanding my attention.
Seeking guidance provided by several intelligence specialists on various websites, I considered many options for the successful removal of this disgusting leech. After careful consideration, I implemented a strategy that employed tweezers, a flashlight and some rubbing alcohol. The tick was determined to hang on, but through persistent, constant pressure without any sudden jerking or twisting, the blood sucking beast was separated from the bone chewing beast, and I was able to gain control of the entire body of the offender, head included. I now have it in my possession though I have no idea what I can do with it that is both appropriate and dignified.
I immediately applied alcohol to the wound to discourage infection.
I am relieved that the tick has been removed, but this does not mean that we can now be blasé about ticks. In fact, we must remain extra vigilant. I know I will, even though my dog will probably charge into those bushes again in spite of my efforts to make her stay on the path whenever we visit our local park.
Many people are going to claim credit for this achievement, and many deserve thanks for a remarkable success. Makers of tweezers, rubbing alcohol and Q-tips performed their duties bravely and with professionalism. Having the proper tools and proceeding with patience and focus led to this most appropriate outcome.
No thanks to the guys who suggested using peanut butter, garden shears and blow torches. Sometimes the decision to skip a particular strategy is as important as the decision to go forward with another one.
I usually don’t think of the death of another creature as a cause for celebration, but in this case the eventual outcome was just and necessary. As a result of our careful conduct of this operation, I entirely missed whatever all the TV fuss was about, but last night I slept peacefully, secure in the knowledge that at least one parasite had been removed from circulation.
What’s the most memorable historic announcement that you’ve witnessed, and why?
Trail Baboon 
I was in 10th grade when the Chernobyl incident happened. I don’t remember how I heard about it, but I was the first one in my Social Studies class to bring it up to the teacher. Panic ensued. More than half the class was taken up by trying to find out if my story was true.
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welcome new guy. thanks for joining in.
i was planing a trip to europe when chernoble blew up. the us had just bombed gadaffis home compound and we were wondering if we should go then chernoble and sent radioactivity across all the vegetables i was going to have to eat because i couldnt speak german italian french spanish and that was the last straw. we switched the trip to the uk and saw a deluxe tour of ireland wales england and scotland instead. it turned out later that the radioactive had basically zipped right over europe and wnet into a holding pattern right over our heads the whole time we were there. but it was nice just the same.
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Great story, Scott.
Generations of 10th graders have tried to derail their social studies class with just that sort of announcement – at least you had truth and history on your side. In today’s classroom, it would take 15 seconds online to confirm or debunk your crazy assertion!
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I was walking to one of my undergrad college classes when I heard that JFK had been shot. Later generations will probably never quite understand what that meant. Kennedy–with his “Camelot” court–represented youth, energy, optimism, culture and a shaking off of the dead hand of the past. He represented hope, and hope was the first casualty of the assassination.
The event was all the more historic because it meant Lyndon Johnson became president, and the whole tragic Vietnam mess developed in a way I don’t think it would have under JFK. Vietnam began the bitter divisions that haunt us to this day, so the losses of that day in November continue to shape our politics.
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I remember driving back from Sioux Falls with my mother when I heard Henry Kissinger (I think it was he) announce on the radio that the Vietnam war was over. I remember the great sense of relief hearing that.
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I was in a fourth grade class when the Principle came in and announced President Kennedy had been been shot and killed. My cousin in that class stupidly boasted ” They will shoot the gunman down.” I thought that won’t bring anyone back to life.
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I was traveling through the west with my family and we had stopped in Las Vegas when Elvis died. All those shows were really weird because the performers were crying.
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I was driving down 8th street in Moorhead, MN when I heard on the radio that John Lennon had been shot. It struck me as so strange that anyone would want to assassinate a musician.
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My mom woke me up with that news in 8th grade. She came and sat on my bed, rubbed my back to gently wake me up and told me she had sad news. I was a huge Beatles fan, and I was stunned. Like you said, Renee, it made no sense – why Lennon?
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Rise and Shine Baboons of a certain age!
That Pres. Obama just could not allow Kate and Wills to have their attention could he? He just had to show them up.
Meanwhile, the answers to this question really dates each of of us doesn’t it? I also am of the JFK generation: In November, 1963 I was out on the playground for 5th grade afternoon recess when rumors began to fly that the President had been shot. Our teachers gathered us into a line early and marched us to the gym where the one and only black and white TV was plugged in and the bunny ears pointed toward the Sioux City station. And then we watched Walter Cronkite and our teachers cry. Indeed our president was dead.
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I was in kindergarten when Kennedy was shot. I have vague memories of the day, and I think I remember seeing the funeral procession on TV.
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i was thinking while the royal wedding was going on that the royals were awfully out in the open for their wedding among the people and thought of how great it was to live in the 6’s with ignorance and bliss. or maybe just a choice to live that way.
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Dale, I understand from the news this morning that they buried Bin Laden at sea. Perhaps you should just flush the tick.
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teehee
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i dont think the tick is muslim. you have time to decide
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I’m not sure it’s entirely appropriate, but I think this is the biggest LOL ever on TB.
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I just got the “flush at sea” part. 🙂 OK, since he’s already pickled, but otherwise he’d still be alive. Husband always chops ’em in half first. Ewwww…
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Is there danger that the dead tick’s burial location will become a shrine for other ticks? I say, flush the bugger.
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a friend likes to throw ticks out the window of his car, going 70 mph on I35. we’ve discussed the physics of that act – can’t decide if the tick would be smushed or just bounce.
just in case, if you are traveling northbound to Duluth, keep your windows closed between Mahtowa and the city.
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I considered burying this tick in the swirly sea, but since it spent the night at the bottom of a small pool of rubbing alcohol without trying to mount an escape, I decided it would be enough to deposit it in the ordinary trash stream.
Perhaps I should check to be sure it is still there?
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Yes.
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yes, for sure. we don’t ever flush them anymore because they do rise from the vortex and perch on the rim to assault again.
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lord voldemort of the ticks reincarnated to come after us all at hogwarts
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my moment would be the kennedy asanation too. 3rd grade and one girl in class just started wailing. i remember wondering what the big deal was. he was dead just like all the other people we heard about on the news. as time wore on i remember the martin luther king bobby kennedy summer and i thought what the heck. is this becoming a trend where if you are a good guy you get shot? i had the bobby kennedy quote on my wall in a poster that said “some men see things as they are and ask why, i see things as they could be and ask why not”
i appreciate the tick story dale. i am a vegetarian who chooses not to eat meat out of reverence for life. i have a bit of an issue celebrating putting a bulet in someones head. but the tick is the issue that puts it in perspective. if my dogs get ticks i do take them out at once without hesitation or berievment as they pass. part of the equation. i swat mosquitoes if it ever warms up and i did celebrate my birhtday in february again this year by eating stone crab. they don’t kill the crab to harvest the claws and the claws grow back so am eating a renewable commodity. lets hope by killing bin laden we didn’t create 23 more.
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Good morning to all:
I think the victory of the pro democracy movement in Egypt earlier this year was one of best things to happen during my life time. It gave me more hope that that the world can become a better place. It seemed impossible that a ruler like Mubarak could be brought down by peaceful demonstrations. The people of Egypt set an example for people all over the world that are suffering under wrong headed governments.
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I was driving down Lake Street on the way to visit a friend in the hospital when I turned the car radio on in the middle of a breaking news story. It took a few moments to piece it together – there was a plane that was down, and a senator, but I didn’t immediately know which senator. I remember briefly thinking it might be Ted Kennedy, since everything bad seems to happen to the Kennedys. I had volunteered on Paul Wellstone’s campaigns, including the one that ended that day, so it seemed more personal to me than a historic event typically would.
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A heart-wrenching day.
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wow sends chills. again.
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Yes, that one was just as devastating as Kennedy’s for me – closer to home. I walked into work and my manager told me as I sat down – I almost missed the chair.
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I heard about that one on the way into work, too – there was one TV in the lunch place in the next building over that we huddled to, along with catching what we could on the internet.
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Apt analogy,Dale. I made one last night that when the queen bee dies, there is still an entire hive that knows how to use its stinger…
Vigilance, brother!
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Thanks, Sally. Nice to see your name in the comments.
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It was Kennedy for me, too. I was a h.s. sophomore, and we were herded into the auditorium and an announcement was made. Talk about shock and awe, and tears. I don’t remember if we went back to class or not. The why is what Steve said quite eloquently.
OT: I hear the white throated sparrow just now, singing away. This is hopeful to me because I was afraid they’d moved farther north and would die in the cold – or stay here and die in the cold… And it’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow, and perhaps our lilac buds won’t freeze.
Renee – did you get your blizzard??
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Yes we did get the blizzard. The interstate was closed and they had to cancel prom.
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My forsythia bush (freshly planted last summer, so it’s tiny) keeps giving me the hairy eyeball when I leave – poor little bush is doing its part to usher in spring, it’s all yellow and sunny, but the world around it is not following its lead and moving into spring. I’m pretty sure it was packing its bag for warmer climes when I left this morning.
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Morning all. I’m of the Kennedy age and remember all the tragedies and disasters that have been mentioned.
I also very clearly remember when Helen Keller died. I was 12. My dad was out of town and my mom and sister and I were eating dinner on tv trays in the living room, something we never did when my dad was home. My mother was just getting up to change the channel (who remembers when we didn’t have remote control?) but the first story of the night got out before she reached the tv. I had always admired Helen Keller and I remember crying on the sofa. She gave so much of herself to the world when it would have been easy to sit back and let everyone else cater to her.
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i cried like a babywhen i heard jim henson died. i was more attatched than i knew.
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Me too, tim, me too.
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Me three. I generally don’t allow myself to cry over the loss of celebrities I really don’t know. He was one of the exceptions. Losing Jim Henson really hurt.
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I remember Elvis died the same summer as Groucho Marx, and was just heartbroken that I’d never have a chance to meet Groucho…my hero. Everyone else was mourning Elvis, and I was upset more people weren’t aware that Groucho had died.
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yeah but i wouldn’t want to be a member of that club
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Two more big ones for me.
I was driving through South Minneapolis when the radio announced that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. I pulled over to the curb and wept. I pretty much knew there would be riots and many needless deaths.
Bobby Kennedy’s assassination was worse (isn’t it terrible that we can rank political assassinations that way?). My wife and I had been lying on the bed on a hot night, watching the political news. We were on top of the covers because of the heat and had the TV just beyond the footboard of the bed . . . so it was the sort of deal where you watch TV framed by your bare toes. We didn’t see the actual shooting, but did see the events just before and after.
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Morning–
First off, regarding the tick, I’m trying to figure out why you saved it? It’s a ‘tick’. There is no “…appropriate and dignified…” Squish that sucker! Wrap it in a kleenex and burn it. Flush it. At the very least, throw it back out in the weeds…
Our indoor dog gets a ‘tick check’ whenever she’s been out but she’s also a Rat Terrier so short hair makes it easy. Our two outdoor dogs, if we find ticks on them I pull them off with my pliers and squish them. Boom. Done.
I am just a bit too young for JFK. But I remember the 25th anniversary of that; I was driving around for work and listening to NPR talk about it. Stopped for lunch at a small town general store and sat in the parking lot.
The space Shuttle Challenger explosion was a significant moment in my life. I have always been so enthralled with the entire space program. I shared that day with a friend whom I still call every January 26th just to say Hello.
Anybody remember Samantha Smith? The little girl that wrote the letter to Yuri Andropov? It broke my heart when she died in that plane crash…
(I couldn’t remember all the details; I Google’d).
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He has to keep the tick – DNA testing.
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Actually, I kept the tick submerged for a while to be sure it was dead. Lots of online advisors hint at the remarkable rejuvanative powers of ticks that were supposedly finished but were really just resting. Even now I’m not sure.
Are there zombie ticks?
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If there are zombie ticks my wife is going to FREAK OUT.
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Did you kill the tick on Easter Sunday, Dale? If so and if it arises from the dead in three days, you might have a public relations problem on your hands.
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unless its a muslim tick
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If it is a tic that believes in reincarnation, it might come back as a politician.
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Sorry, that tic should have a k on the end. I am more accustomed to discussion of the motor and vocal types to tics.
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politicians all have tics already don’t they?
hey did you see seth meyers roasting the donald the other night with obama? he said…
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Without a doubt, Dale, you brought the most memorable announcement of my life.
I had just dropped of the s&h at daycare and had hopped back into the car to race to work where we were on an up-to-our-necks project when I am pretty certain it was you who informed me that a plane had slammed into one of the World Trade Center towers. You further advised that for more details, I should switch over to 91.1.
Yes, I thought, I’ll do that. Life has never been the same since. I don’t suppose it ever will be again.
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I remember that. And I remember thinking that there was something wrong with Dale’s voice. It was my first hint that this was not an accident.
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Yes, me too. He said something like, “I have this bulletin that says a plane crashed into the WTC.” So I turned on the TV and sure enough…
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President Obama’s inauguration. I stood in line in the cold to get into the Riverview Theater to watch on the big screen. I wasn’t working at the time, so I was able to take a couple hours out of the middle of the day to watch the event someplace besides on a computer or alone on my couch. I ran into several people I knew, and was able to get into the theater in part because one of those friends let me budge in line with her (not too far behind us in line, they had to turn people away as they were out of seats). It wasn’t standing on the Mall in D.C., but it was still pretty cool. Everyone in the theater was pretty stoked – they had saved a bunch of seats up front for a local school to bring in some kids, people sang, there was lots of cheering and clapping…when he took the oath, I cried. I remember feeling bad for the musicians out playing in the cold (and wondering if it might be pre-recorded as it didn’t seem likely that a cello could stay in tune at that temp), coveting Aretha Franklin’s hat, and feeling hope, relief, and joy.
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I remember watching Clinton’s inauguration too, feeling euphoric that “my generation” was in the White House, hearing “my music” at the ball, the end to 12 years of Republican rule…
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barbara setrisand and fleetwood mac with bill blowing riffs on the sax .ahhhhh……………
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Interesting that the announcements we remember are mostly negative – Kennedy(s), MLK, Lennon, Wellstone, 9/11, etc. Only a few mentioned so far have to do with an event that made the writer happy.
Is that the nature of history, or the nature of memory?
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I think our memories tend to hang onto to sudden shocks, and most happy events are of a more gradual, hoped for nature.
But please, anyone who would like to use me as a test case, feel free to drop that $1million in my bank account at any time. I’m fairly certain the memory of that would have some staying power.
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I am also willing if the test audience needs to be larger than one. Cash… any size bills is fine by me!
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I don’t know what to say about the tendency to remember the negative and not the positive. I guess that is the way things are in the world today. However, I think a better future is possible where good memories will come to mind more easily.
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One other event in the “yeah, pretty neat” category was watching the Apollo 17 launch. I would have been about six at the time, but I remember watching it at home with my mom on our black and white TV (either she kept me home from kindergarten that day, or it happened in the half of the day when I would have been home anyway). My mom had been a Rhodes scholar at the same time as Harrison Schmitt at the University of Oslo – so as much as it was about watching the launch and the moon landing, it was about watching someone that *mom knew* on the moon…(they weren’t school chums, per se – especially since he studying geology and she was a music student – but part of the same small group of Americans studying in Oslo that year). Still pretty cool to be one degree of separation away from an historic astronaut.
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for those of the semicolonostcomy bent… i asked soneone where the hell an historic event came from. it should be a historic event. the response was that it became proper at the time when there were words like herb for your spice collection and heir to get your inheritance to use an rather than a because the h is silent and makes the vowel sound therefore achieves an status. still gets me but there you have my only grammatical contribution likely in the foreseeable future.
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But Tim, have you tried to say “a historic event” out loud? “An historic . . .” flows more trippingly off the tongue.
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i think thats an difference we will have to agree to disagree on
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Very Pretty Dog, BTW Dale. And what a dazzling smile!
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they say pets begin to look like their masters after a time
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I’ve always hoped it was the other way around? Much better for me to look like an Irish Setter than for her to look like me!
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I’m afraid if she truly looked like me she would be bald on top and hairy on the sides – an odd look for anyone, but especially for dogs. I’m guessing such an unfortunate fate would dim her dazzling smile.
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What about that new ear hair and hair on you belly dale?
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I had to skip the annual “picnic day”at school at the end of my first grade year to check into the Variety Heart Hospital at the U of MN for open heart surgery the day Bobby Kennedy was shot. I had a “fever” (probably more like fear-ver) and was not admitted until a few weeks later.
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way too memorable. the heart surgery went well eh? welcome ye who have cheated the fates. the trail is here waiting to hear what you have done along the way
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well, I have 4 adult children, 4 grandchildren and currently teach 39 piano students weekly.
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thanks for asking, by the way 😉
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Kathy – welcome to the trail. Hope you find some kindred spirits here!
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do you teach little guys? keep going as the grow up? work with oldsters too? at a music school or at your house? 39 is a big number. you must be adaptable to appeal to that many, or are you so good they know they better shape up or lose their place in line? drum teachers at mac phail are that way.
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Welcome, Kathy. I think Fear-ver should be placed in the baboon glossary.
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I love a day with so many new (or maybe semi-new?, my memory is shot) people – welcome Scott, Sally, Kathy.
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It’s a memorable day on the trail!
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Hi everyone! [waving]
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this happens every time we kill the most hated man on the planet doesn’t it?
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Actually the event that come to mind was 9/11. I was out feeding my horses and had The Morning Show on when you, Dale, announced that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers. I first thought that it was part of the show. The rest of the day felt so surreal. I “witnessed” it on the radio and didn’t see the images until I got home that evening.
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Would love to know how you got to be Chip Jack.
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… and welcome.
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that was indeed the eeriest set of events ever. followed by days of not a plane in the sky. i was sleeping in after entertaining a bit too much the night before. i was alerted by my mom the minute after the first plane hit and was awake to see the second one hit. hard enough with a good head on. i was having a real hard time with the absorbtion for a minute but talk about coming around fast.
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