Ouchy!

The desert is not the place to walk barefoot.  The desert, in fact, requires, nay demands, strong footwear.  Neither Shirley's backyard nor front yard nor side yard has that green stuff on the ground that back east we call lawn.  Shirley's yard is desert.  So walking Abbey in the back desert with me wearing flipflops was....

Not intelligent, as you can see from a couple of the critters which I removed from one foot.  I call them critters rather than plants because, without any provocation whatsoever, three of them leaped off the ground and viciously attached themselves to my foot.  They are impossible to remove by hand.  And they seem to have little barbs which imbed themselves into tender, innocent flesh.  I had to remove my flipflop and limp, with the maimed foot bare, over rocky ground, back to the house.  Now, an efficient and effective way to remove these barbarians from flesh is with a comb, but I'd forgotten that technique.  Altogether, I had 11 barbarian invasions from the three pods.  Several were in so deeply that their departure left little puncture wounds.  Fortunately, no infection.    Damn dog!!!