laundry, tortoises, and surprising uses for bug names

Today I learned that I can pretty much decontaminate new clothing and bedding in two days if I run the washer and dryer constantly while I'm awake, and I soaked the quilt overnight in vinegar. Tomorrow my husband intends to remove me from Tucson for the day for mental health reasons, and then I'll go straight back to trying to decontaminate my old stuff. I am not looking forward to my water or electric bills, but since it's hard to go anywhere or do anything if you never sleep or wear clothes, it'll all be worth it.

In other news, one of these fine days I'm going to adopt one of Arizona's captive tortoises, and you're supposed to grow their food for them, and all I have is prickly pear and spurge. (Spurge is a weed, so that one was easy.) The stuff I think I want is some rock hibiscus, some globemallow, some deer grass, and some trailing 4 o'clock. I will consider some petunias, but from my experience with the Arizona sun, I would think they would fry before 10 am around here, but if the Desert Museum says you can feed them to tortoises, they must know something about petunias that I don't.

Also, if your friend who would probably know said there are chiggers in the Chiricahuas, so you can't sleep on the ground, and you look up chiggers on the internet, you can end up with a page full of more ethnic slurs than I ever knew existed.