Fuzzy Green Caterpillar

Because I currently have nothing fun to blog about, and I'm sitting at school and don't have any personal photos. I'm choosing to tell a story from last August, well maybe it was September.

Anyways. I had a Friday off of school for some reason, so I went to Walmart that morning and picked up many necessities. One of those was garden clippers, two kinds in fact. The long ones for bushes, and the more exact one for single thick branches.

It was a beautiful sunny day, so I decided to put my new hedge trimmers to use. I only planned on spending an hour or less outside, I had a soccer game that night and did not want to get too worn out from the sun.

Next thing I know, I am going to town, taking out whole bushes (that were ugly of course), and really re-doing the landscape (if you want to call it that, how about untamed years of growth bushes, almost jungly, yeah that's better). So anyways, I finally realized, I need to stop and clean up or I'll never be ready for my game, plus I need to be eating my pre-game dinner in about 15 minutes.

So I pulled out some trash bags and began putting away the scraps. Next thing I know, I feel something on my back, like a bug, tickling me. So I use my gloved hand to brush off my back and continue working. But, I still have that tickling feeling, so I try again. Finally, I get frustrated and so I take off my glove and grab my shirt, pulling it around me so that I can see the lower back of my shirt (can you picture this?)

And that's when it happened. My hand felt like it was on fire, immediately. I shook my hand and tried to fling off whatever it was that was causing the fire on my hand. And onto the ground fell a fuzzy green caterpillar. I had no time to waste, my hand and my back were on fire.

I ran inside, frantic that I had been poisoned, was allergic, and would die. I called my husband at work, he just said "what? a fuzzy green caterpillar? I think you'll be okay."

I held my hand under the running faucet, I washed with antibacterial soap, 20 times, I grabbed an ice pack, then turned on the internet, I had some research to do.

I found out that this fuzzy green caterpillar may in fact be poisonous, I may in fact have a reaction, it may be bad. I was home alone.

I did the only thing I could think to do next, I called the school nurse on her cell phone. Had she heard of fuzzy green caterpillar stings before? was this normal? Would I die? Should I drive to the hospital?

No. I would be fine. but I needed to make a paste of water and meat tenderizer to pull out the venom. Oh ok. Wait, meat tenderizer? What in tarnation is that?

I immediately drove the grocery store, calling my mom to ask "Where is meat tenderizer in the grocery store???" Spice aisle. Got it. Flew in, bought the stuff, drove home, made the paste, covered my back and my burning hand. And then with my left hand tried to eat my pre-game meal, I had a soccer game to play. Fuzzy green caterpillar sting and all.

The moral of the story? Fuzzy green caterpillars are NOT cute. Oh, and by the way, before leaving for my soccer game, I did take a huge rock and smash that fuzzy green caterpillar.

But I haven't done any yard work since.