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Sunburn... ow!

>> Thursday, February 26, 2009

Yesterday was a beach day. Today...ow. Well, let's just say that even with SPF 45 reapplied liberally, when you live at 18 degrees North latitude, sometimes the sun is a bit intense. Luckily, my Latin gene pool allows me to still look tan and not like a tomato even though it still hurts a bit. In the end it was a productive day, so not too bad for February.

So what causes sunburn anyway? Ah yes, there is always a reference to science! Sunburn is caused by UV light. If your body cannot produce enough melanin (pigment that acts like nature's sunscreen), you burn. A pale person can burn in 15 minutes while a dark person can take hours to burn.

Well, I was out for hours and I'm somewhere in the middle. And it burns. The worst of it is the major effects won't be noticeable till 24 hours after the exposure. Pretty much means I'm still cooking. I have already taken a few cool showers (I have a cistern so please don't gripe about water conservation) and applied liberal amounts of Aloe vera to my poor shoulders. I knew I kept that smelly succulent around for something.

Do you have any sun-damage horror stories?


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