This little ditty goes out to all those ignorant folks I have met that insist you can't get poison ivy in the winter. Come on down, I'll meet you at the front door and make a believer out of all of you. The reason this is noteworthy at all is because this particular rash is easily the worst one I have had in the last 12 months and here it is, February. It runs from just to the right of my adam's apple to all the way around to the back of my neck on the left side, and is nothing but a patch of angry scarlet blisters. The last time this happened my mother, who has the dermal form of lupus, took one look and had an absolute fit thinking the disease had become active in me as well. I guess that's one reason to be thankful that it IS only ivy.

And all of this is mine to enjoy, compliments of my cat who sleeps draped across my neck every night of the year. I take him out every day when I walk my dog, and I have always known that this is taking a big gamble considering the sleeping arrangements. But he had just had his monthly bath and I didn't think anything of it. Of course, the temps have been in the 60s off and on for several weeks so I am sure there was probably 'juice' in all those leafless ivy thickets along the trails. Now my neck looks like I was attacked by a giant squid. I swear, the next person who asks if that's a hickie on my neck is going to receive a beating.

Dragging out the Rhuli gel and all of those assorted bottles of creams and gels and salves makes me wonder how I ever make it through the summer months!!