Welcome, Summer, Ouch!

I have a great, new product that I want to tell all of you about. It is this Bull Frog Sport Spray Quik Gel, and it is just fantastic. You just spray it on and don't touch your skin for like 30 seconds. It is already a bit sticky when it hits your skin, so you couldn't rub it in even if you wanted to.

I demonstrated this technique to Peggy and Lauren who both said that they thought it would result in a blochy burn. But thankfully they were wrong. No burn at all. And others, who used inferior products, did get burned. So it wasn't just a good day for a tan.

I did, however, get a sunburn this week in Galveston after leaving my great new product in Austin with Peggy, who asked, "Do you really want me to mail this to you?" Well, fine, I don't. But I also didn't want to get a small triangle burned into my back in the very center where I just barely didn't reach with my "special for my face" sunscreen. But what are you gonna do? It's Houston in the summer.

What I'm going to do now is go and buy some more Bull Frog and then get some Burt's Bees Chemical Free Sunblock. I just read that chemical sunscreens have to be reapplied every hour, but that they might not even protect you for that long. Zinc, however hard it is to rub in, will protect all day. Zinc forms a physical barrier. That just sounds better to me.

I do worry that in 20 years they will discover that they chemicals in sunscreen are really bad for us. I also think that a complete block will do a better job of stopping the invisible skin damage that will lead to signs of aging later. Do I have any support for this? No, but has that ever stopped me in the past.

So, swimming lessons start this Monday. I will report back on the Burt's next week. You, on the other hand, should start preparing yourself for summer, and for avoiding an uncomfortable and unsightly burn. Really people, no one looks good in red this summer.