Well, I was planning on driving back to Gulfport today, but I managed to step on some sort of stinging creature out by the pool. I hope I killed the damn thing when I stepped on it. I now have my foot elevated while my toe swells. I took an antihistime thingy and some Aleve and am waiting to see if it gets any worse. I'm not usually prone to allergic reactions (other than to antibiotics) but I got bit by a tick last week and had that swell up on me pretty nastily, and I think I'd rather have an allergic reaction while I'm at my parent's house rather than while I'm driving home.

I also found a snake by the pool--a speckled king snake, about 2 feet long. He wasn't real happy about me picking me up, and promptly shat on me. So then I handed him to my mother while I was busy trying to figure out why my foot was suddenly beginning to hurt, and by the time I figured out that I'd been stung, she'd finished oohing and ahhing over it and had let it go. So I got snake shit and an insect sting.

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I'm using my parent's ISP while I'm over here, and everything is working fine except that for some reason I'm unable to send mail. I can get my mail just fine, but I keep getting a mail delivery error when I try to send it. So if anyone is expecting some sort of email response from me, that's why you haven't received it.

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I ransomed my truck back from the mechanic (though it really wasn't expensive at all.) Found out that the bolts on my oil pan had loosened up (which explained my oil leak.) I'm glad I got that fixed, since losing the oil pan would be rather disastrous to the performance of the engine in general.

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It rained for about ten minutes last night--nowhere near enough to cool anything off. My parents don't have central AC, but at least they do have a pool. It's really pretty relaxing over here. They live in the woods, so it's very quiet and shady. There's an enormous live oak in the front yard (note: live oak is a variety of oak... not a statement on its health) with a canopy about 75' across. It shades the entire front yard, and it's a fairly large front yard. I used to climb that tree all the time when I was a kid. It had several branches that swept all the way to the ground that were perfect for scrambling up. Those branches had to be removed later because of general tree rot and safety concerns, so the tree is nowhere near as climbable as it once was. Probably a good thing since I'd end up trying to climb it for nostalgia's sake and break something vital (on myself, not the tree). I'm not quite as nimble as I once was.

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Well I waited about an hour to see if my throat was going to close up, and when it failed to do so I drove on back home. Now that the swelling has receded slightly I can see that it was probably a caterpillar that stung me, since I see about 6 sting marks (which would also explain why it hurt like bloody blazes.)