After so many years, while I still don’t like them, I don’t find them nearly as unnerving as I once did. Discovering them, removing them, is just something you end up doing if you’re inclined to get off the beaten path.

Ticks, I have decided, are a bit like leeches in that they take some getting used to.

Unappealing creatures, those blood-sucking buggers really

didn’t have much value until someone back in the 1960s discovered that walleyes love ’em.

Nowadays, we gladly spend four or five bucks for a dozen of ’em.

Say, you don’t suppose ...

John Cross is a Free Press staff writer. Contact him at 344-6376 or by e-mail at jcross@mankatofreepress.com.