Spring Is Here — And So Are The Ticks
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
The weather has been absolutely beautiful and spring is in full swing. All the roses are blooming, so that means that my phone’s camera roll is filling up with more pictures of flowers than it has of my own children. The outside temperatures during my morning walks around town are so perfect as to be neither hot nor cold – only “just right” like all the third options to which Goldilocks helps herself at the Three Bears’ house. I keep waiting for a big, bad tornado to show up and ruin the tranquility, but, for now, we’ve got perfect weather going!
But we Water Vallians and our roses aren’t the only ones enjoying this spring temperatures. It seems that ticks have shown up and they are ready to party. Don’t ask me how I know.
I’ve read that tick populations are surging across the country. I can attest that they are definitely surging in my backyard on Wood Street. And it’s not just the regular old deer ticks that are so kind as to deposit a dose of Lyme disease into your body. No, not those. My yard specializes in the Lone Star tick, which is pure evil, despite it seemingly being named for a 1950s cowboy TV series or a traditional quilt block. These ticks have the tell-tale white dots on their backs and can give you Alpha-gal Syndrome.
Aside from being a great all-girl band name, Alpha-gal causes you to not be able to eat red meat due to a high probability of death! My sister-in-law once got Alpha-gal from a tick bite and couldn’t eat red meat for eight entire years. What a nightmare! She’s from Texas, so not being able to eat red meat meant BBQ was totally off-limits, since Texans obnoxiously make their BBQ from beef. I once used my sister-in-law’s inability to eat her home state’s BBQ for eight years as an argument as to why pork BBQ is always superior to beef BBQ – the argument being that you can still eat pork BBQ even if you get Alpha-gal Syndrome from a tick bite, since pork is a white meat.
And that, my friends, is the day I learned that pork is a red meat. Who knew? Certainly not me. I always thought it was a white meat – the other white meat, in fact. I’m glad I did not have Alpha-gal Syndrome during this time period as I surely would have accidentally overdosed on a pulled-pork sandwich. But, if you get to choose your way to go out, I can think of worse ways than doing something you love.
Ticks excluded, I hope everyone else is getting out and enjoying the spring. The recent sidewalk works in town are making that a lot easier. Three sidewalk ramps have been installed so far, and I imagine more are to come. I look forward to the day that we get the new sidewalk across the town creek bridge on Main Street going south toward Crawford Sports Complex and it no longer feels like I’m walking four inches from the speedway at Talladega.
Lastly, thank you to all the volunteers who went out to pick up litter in town this past Saturday morning! Y’all are very much appreciated. I hope karma repays you all with a tick-free 2026!
