Getting Ready for India

Treating the India clothes with Permethrin

I spent the day crossing things off of the "to do" list.  Today was about the house and getting stuff ready to pack.

Since we will be returning in mid-October and since Minnesota weather is not always very nice in October and since I didn't want to worry about it when I got back from India, I decided that I should probably do something about my garden.  Every fall I put off taking out my garden, and then have to deal with it in the spring making the garden go in later and later every year.  Not this year!  I am actually getting my garden out in the fall like I am supposed to.  Unfortunately with the trip timing that meant pulling out plants that were still alive and tossing them in the dumpster.  I tell myself that they were done producing anyway.  Hopefully they don't curse next year's garden.

We are very lucky that a friend volunteered to house and dog sit for us while we are in India.  Now we don't have to oppose on friends and neighbors AGAIN to watch our dogs and our house for us while on a trip.  This way we have someone here in case the furnace goes out or the sump pump stops working or something along those lines.  As we are going through the house "stuff" I realize that I am giving a lot of directions on appliances.....the dryer will dry, but only if you run it for a long time, the washer works, but the safety stop doesn't - so don't stick your hand in there while running, the dishwasher works, but the timer doesn't - so only run it when you're home and you'll probably have to shut it off after a while.

I think that we need new appliances.

I also spent some time picking out what I was going to pack for India.  For me, packing is a process.  I spend time pulling clothes out of my closet and making piles on the floor near my suitcase.  I then start putting together outfits.  I then put back away about 1/3 of the clothes that I had originally pulled out of the closet.  I then make a second round of picking in which I try to mix and match a few times to make the same number of outfits with less clothes.  I then put away another 1/3 of the clothes that I had originally picked out.  Even with this process I STILL end up overpacking.

Since we are going to a country where mosquito borne illness is kind of an issue, insect repellant is a MUST.  It was recommended that we treat all of our clothing with Permethrin (in addition to gooping on DEET) to help repel mosquitos. According to Wikipedia - Permethrin is a common synthetic chemical, widely used as an insecticide, acaricide, and insect repellent.  It is not known to rapidly harm most mammals or birds, but is dangerously toxic to fish and to cats: in cats it may induce hyperexcitability, tremors, seizures, and even death.  Well, good to know that it will only potentially slowly harm me since I am not a cat or a fish.

I read the directions on my Permethrin and it says to apply outdoors and to try to avoid getting any on your bare skin and inhaling fumes (is this stuff REALLY safe for most mammals?).  So, I hang all of my clothes outside and keep the dogs inside to make sure they don't accidentally ingest any of this stuff.  I am sure that the neighbors are starting to really wonder where the heck we are going on our "vacation" that we have to spray out stuff down with insect repellant.  Hopefully this stuff works.  Hopefully it really is safe and I don't produce offspring with extra limbs.....time will tell.