Generally, I don’t burn in the sun. I occasionally get a little red, and then over a day or two, the red turns into a tan.

Of course, with the recent heat wave (37 on Friday) we have had here in Moose Jaw, and the high UV index (it was at 9 – whatever that means) I was pushing it. Add to that, the fact that I seldom wear shorts, so there was white legs that never see the sun exposed for long days, a sunburn was inevitable.

If you have been following my posts, I have been spending long days working on the yard at my “other” house. I want to get the back yard fixed up, because it was such a plain yard. I have been working over there from early in the morning – about 7:00 AM – till late in the evening – 9:00 PM or later. Anyway, it was just too damn hot to wear my usual jeans and t-shirt, and I opted for the shorts and muscle shirt thing.

Because I am working with shovels and picks and lawn mowers and some power tools, I thought it was wise to have some sort of safety shoes. I decided on my steel toed, steel shanked running shoes. I wore socks the first day, but I did push them down as far as possible so that I wouldn’t get that goofy tan line at the ankle.

Apparently, I didn’t push them down far enough, because after one day, my legs turned a lovely shade of red (slight burn) but i had a definite white cutoff just at the ankle bone. Permanent white socks.

The next day, I decided to abandon the socks. I reasoned that since I got white socks in just one day, I should be able to average it out the next day and all would be well.

As it turns out, working that long in the sun is not a wise idea. My legs burned so bad that the skin is starting to peel. But the white socks burned worse than the rest of my legs. Now I have permanent bright red socks.

The sad thing is, I realize now that I am a sick, demented man. I have slightly red legs, bright red socks, and white feet where the shoes were. I thinking the next move is barefoot – to get rid of the line where the shoes were. Any suggestions?