Not so much all of me is feeling hot, but the back of my head is feeling scorched!
I spent a good portion of the day Saturday and Sunday working outside. Thus, the first thing I did in the morning, aside from brushing my teeth and putting in my contacts, was to slather my arms and face with sunscreen - SPF 45. I wore long pants and a t-shirt, donned my sunglasses and my dirty looking UVM baseball hat. The hat was a gift from my sister years and years ago - go catamounts!
Sun protection is totally necessary out here (don't ask Thomas about it, though). Miami is about 6300' above sea level - 1000' feet higher than Denver. The sun shines hotter and burns faster and dries everything out. I have both family and friends who love the "burn and let it fade" method or coloring their skin, but out here one rarely finds a burn before it has progressed to the fried stage. Re-hydrating becomes harder, and then usually no amount of pills will soothe the headache. Not to mention how alcohol consumption intensifies the headache and dehydration. I feel like Debbie Downer, but the truth is we generally never learn this lesson from someone else's mistakes. I have certainly had my share of red skin and seen it even worse on other people. And I can't count on two hands all the people I know who have had melanoma removed. Okay - enough scare for one Monday....I need to give it a rest. So anyway....
Yesterday I did take my hat off when the wind kicked up because I couldn't keep it from blowing away. However, this is not the culprit so much as the gaping hole in the back of the hat that totally let the sun get me. I wonder now if I didn't sleep well last night because I kept rolling around trying not to rest my head on that tender spot. This morning as I tried to rub aloe into my hair without matting it, I realized why cowboy hats make so much more sense. Yes, indeed, I will be putting the baseball cap to rest unless I wear a handkerchief over the back of my head.
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