Problems in Paradise

Oh the sunsets are still as beautiful and the weather just as warm as when we posted Paradise Found.  

But for any who might begrudge us escaping the horrible winter back home, you might find some small satisfaction knowing there are problems in paradise too.

Though it didn't materialize and isn't a likely future event, the tsunami scare earlier this week opened our eyes to a possible challenge of beachfront living.

And of course there are critters in the ocean that can ruin a day of wave-jumping.  While boogie boarding with Baxter, Shelly felt a sting in her foot.  By the time she walked back down the beach to the house, the sting had become an unbearable pain.  The locals recognized the symptoms: Shelly had stepped on the barb of a stingray.

With the Internet service temporarily offline at the house, we didn't have a way to look up remedies so we went with our instinct: put ice on the red, swollen area on her foot.  You can imagine our surprise when the gardener we summoned for help told us we were doing it exactly wrong.  He said heat was the key and fetched for us mentholated balm, a candle, and matches.  Together, he and I probed the wound for any remnant of the barb.  Then we rubbed on the balm and lit the candle.  We dripped hot wax onto the whole swollen area, let it cool, then peeled it off.  

I repeated this process for 2 hours until Shelly's perceived pain reduced from a 10 to a 2.  Currently, she has negligible pain and only a weeping blister on the site.  We now know to shuffle our feet in the ocean to scare off other stingrays.

Now, it is Atticus with the malady.  He awoke with chicken pox.  

Unfortunately, his newfound love of floatie-free pool swimming will have to go on hold for the next 10-15 days while this virus runs its course.  The rest of us in the family have already had the pox, but we still have to keep him away from staff and guests at the B&B.  I think there'll be lots of games of Uno in store!