Recently the big storm that brought 20 to 45 foot waves to where I live on the northern California coast also brought down many big trees that cut off power to our area. Luckily we only lost power for about 4 hours total from about 11 pm one night to about 2:30Am the same night. However, many people lost power for a few days in our area from trees bringing power lines down.
As I went to visit a seasonal brook or stream that would have water now from all the rain I noticed a large Monterey Pine (2 or 3 feet across in width) had fallen across the trail I take to get to the stream and redwoods fed by the seasonal stream. (The rest of the year the fog and mist feeds the redwoods, Monterey pines, oaks, Manzinita and bracken ferns in the area where we live along the northern Coast of California so they have enough water to live.
But, I noticed this big Monterey pine fallen across my trail. So, I decided to crawl under the Monterey pine because it still had about 3 feet from the ground or so so I could easily do this.
However, to my horror as I was crawling underneath I went: "Oh NO!" This has poison oak twigs on it!" AT the time I thought poison oak twigs could be a problem or not because I never have gotten poison oak on my skin from poison oak twigs before.
But, I felt the familiar feeling of my skin crawling on my face which isn't good if you have ever had leaf poison oak you know the feeling and know you have to get soap to wash off the poison oak oil before it damages your skin and starts itching really bad within a couple of days.
But, like I said I never have been exposed to JUST the twigs because most of the leaves aren't out yet because it's still winter even though along the trails I have to watch out for the little leaves of poison oak beginning because at the baby leaf stage they are the most deadly and concentrated oil wise.
So, I'm always watching out for poison oak leaves but not so much just for bare poison oak twigs because mostly they climb trees and I'm not climbing trees covered with poison oak twigs.
So, going to the stream and returning from the stream I had to climb under the same monterey pine covered with poison oak twigs. Then I returned home and washed my shirt and pants in hot water in the washing machine to avoid more problems and got into the shower and used a product called TechNu which works very well to get poison oak oil off before it irritates your skin and makes problems.
Well. I made a mistake. I forgot to clean my driver's seat with baby wipes like I always do for my dogs when they run through poison oak to avoid them giving poison oak to myself, my wife or kids or my friends and neighbors. I usually take baby wipes and wipe the oil off and this usually does the trick to protect me and others from the poison oak oil.
So, last night I freaked out because I had driven up from my home in my truck on my seat that I hadn't wiped off for the oil. So, I saw it on my face that was now irritated from the sun from traveling too. So, I got scared because I haven't had to deal with this twig stuff before and I'm not entirely sure exactly what I'm dealing with. Found out it is 70% as bad as leaf poison oak but I'm not sure that tells me a lot about what I should actually do. So, I took the pants and shirt I had driven up on the seat off and put them in a laundry bag, took a shower and soaped off my face and hands as much as possible and went down this morning and wiped off my driver's seat with baby wipes.
The problem with something like this is now I'm not entirely sure what has poison oak oil on it and what doesn't. So, this is a little freaky to deal with if you have ever had this problem before.
So, I'm just hoping this doesn't get any worse on my face or ear at this point. The best I can do now is to keep washing my face and ear and hope for the best and eliminate all possible sources of re-exposure that I can find.
Also, I came up here to ski and be with the mountain and for spiritual renewal around the Mountain.
But, what I get from all this is somehow even this is protecting me. I find life is like that for me. Even things that seem adversities for others actually help protect me and keep me alive for my benefit and for others as well.
I live a pretty amazing life of Grace after All.
By God's Grace
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