BEDBUGS & BIRTHDAYS

BIRTHDAYS were a big deal in the Sullivan household as the three of us were growing up.("PEE birthday to you" chimed the revolving musical cakeplate when it was on it's last legs.)

Birthday meals were special. Mine was stuffed pork chops, mashed potatos, corn, and homemade butterscotch cake with mint green icing. It was fun to watch my younger siblings rushing to the bathroom.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't recall the parents ever rounding up our friends and us to head out to Chuck E Cheese. That's probably because old Chuckee hadn't celebrated his own birthday yet.

Well, I just celebrated one (quietly) and heard from a few family members. The kids are busy but still find time to drop me a line, make a call, or buy me a gift. Usually all three. I am grateful.

My wife Phyl & I normally find some way to honor each other's B-days, both of which fall in the same month - with different birth signs. We're no longer "late nighters" so going clubbing is definitely not an option.

This year Phyl went to NFL.com and ordered me a fantastic long sleeve (extra -extra - big) Steeler shirt with the new official color and design.

I love it. I carefully unwrapped it and hung it on my side of the closet in a place of honor - not far from my other Steeler clothing gifts courtesy of daughter Beth and son Bruce.

BEDBUGS . Today my BW came out front to my office to discuss bedbugs. She again related the story about new clothing that was imported from China and contained bedbugs.

Due to some good advice from friend Harry, I immediately went on line to "Snopes.com" to research this latest foreign threat to our liberties and health from the strange and mysterious East.

I learned a lot, including their opinion that the threat was real, but not necessarily a new and vicious plot by our neighbors from the Orient. Limited space here causes me to suggest you research the article yourself if this has piqued your interest. My Snopes E-mail is entitled: "Bedbugs Clothes Dryer Extermination."

It seems that there are as few points of agreement as to the cure for the bedbugs as there are about The Tea Party candidates. Snopes did note, however: "The U.S. is experiencing an explosion in it's bedbug population."

The one item in their review that caught my fancy had to do with putting new clothes in the dryer before hanging them in the closet. (Little late for that one, huh?).

However, Snopes writes "the warning about new clothing seems to be a bit over the top though; we've yet to happen upon credible reports of bedbugs being found in such garments."

"Yeah," I thought, " but what if you're wrong and I have to put my new glorious Steeler jersey in the dryer? The cause of my concern is that, to my wife's consternation, I will not allow any of my shirts in the dryer for more than 4 to 5 minutes tops when doing the laundry.

Now, of course, they are wet going in and my new "official" jersey would not be.

Snopes allows that "bedbugs will not survive a hot tumble in the appliance." I opted not to read anything into that. But, I did recall a weird friend who had on occasion placed his wife's prized cat in the dryer. ("Just the short spin cycle," he hastened to explain after the divorce.)

Assuming nobody has adopted bedbugs as pets (an assumption nowadays you really shouldn't make) I decided to read further to try and resolve my own problems.

Snopes says, "they (bedbugs) won't survive PROVIDED the temperature in (the dryer's interior) reaches (and then doesn't go below) 113 degree farenheit.

They also tell us, "There is some dispute about the minimum temperature required to eradicate bedbugs; we've also seen it credibly listed as 120 degrees."

Finally, Snopes adds that the drying cycle favored for succesful eradication varies from source to source. (most commonly cited is from 20 to 25 minutes but other estimates range from as little as 5 minutes to as much as 45 minutes.)

I happen to own a time piece with stop watch capability. My problem is trying to get those little critters to hold on to a thermometer as they're spinning around.

After reading the rough draft of this blog to my wife, the RN, she asked, "and where are their rectums, anyway?"

Go Steelers!