UP ON THE ROOF

It was one of those sticky sultry sweltering Ozarks ninety~ eight degree summer days. Ya, know the kind that makes the most proper woman break into a sweat just liftin' a tall glass of cold iced tea to her luscious lips. Mom was visiting, our children were young and the forecast was muggily humid but clear. A perfect day for Mom to entertain the kids while Hubby and I stripped the roof down to its bare necked bones to re-shingle our leaking addition. We had the tar paper, shingles and roofin' nails at hand. I was dressed in shorts, a cute little tee, ponytail and tennis shoes ready for the task with hammer in hand. Hubby and I play well together and we had the old roofing off in no time when out of nowhere like a sonic boom came the loudest clap a thunder this Ozarks farm chicks ears have ever heard. Yep folks, a thunderstorm was movin' in faster than a cheetah chasing a frightened deer. The sky opened up with a cloudburst creating a deluge upon our roof. There was an abundance of white lightning streakin' through the sky over our heads. No, not moonshine but firebolts of lightning discharging atmospheric energy with their vivid flashes. Busier than a couple stumped tailed cows swattin' flies Hubby and I tried to hammer down a barrier when we heard Mama holler like a stuck hog, "It's leaking in the house...BAD!" We desperately needed our shingles. Today I want to talk about another kind of shingles.

Shingles also known as Herpes Zoster is the same virus as chickenpox. The United States reports one million cases of this painful prickly rash a year. If you have ever had the poultrypox you are susceptible to gettin' shingles sometime your lifetime. The virus lives in the nerve roots just waiting like a cat to pounce on a mouse for your immune system to be compromised. It has many long term complications and once you have shingles they are never really gone. They wait patiently in the nerve line until you get sick, lack sleep, get stressed or all of the above and emerge like army of gnawing fire ants runnin' under your skin. This is a subject I have had years of experience with.

What I did not tell ya'll is that when I left for Texas after the big Thanksgiving Dinner , the trip that included the Red Tide, frigid temperatures, windy cold rain and parental duties, that climbing into the car to travel the long 1145 miles I was attacked with shingles. One of the first signs of the agonizing booger is " itchin' like a man on a fuzzy tree" and Elvis is not in the building. I have a natural cure for this nasty condition found in the Prescription for Nutritional Healing Guide. It's cured people who have been under doctors care and hospitalized without results. This chicks kinda like Karl Malden in those old American Express Travelers Checks commercials and I "don't leave home without them." I always mix some up and take it with me just in case.

You mix one tablespoon of sweet almond oil as a carrier then add 4-5 drops of eucalyptus oil and 4-5 drops of lemon oil to it. You use the sweet almond oil to cut the other oil because they can burn you skin if used in full strength. Apply the mixture directly to the lesions at the first sign of and outbreak several times a day. In most instances, the lesions dry up and disappear completely within five days after starting this treatment. When you first start using it you'll think it's not doin' anything then it just starts drying up like grapes in the sun. You can use a cortisone cream between applications to keep ya'll from itchin' like a hound dog with fleas. I just wanted to share this with ya'll so if ya ever get caught with the shingles you won't be like a wounded squirrel in pain, sang by the drifters in 1962, "Up On The Roof!!! "