The Dangers To Dining Al Fresco

As I was doing some midnight chores -- cleaning dishes, going through receipts -- my right arm started to itch.  Really badly.  That's what I get for dining outdoors.

I am/was scheduled for second shift yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday).  Since I had a large chunk of my afternoons off, I decided that for yesterday/Monday I would eat at Centro, a real good Mexican place not too far from where I live.  I have dined there several times.  I consider it the closest place to me that is 1) well regarded among serious foodies and 2) open weekday afternoons.  I love Centro; their tacos are real good, they have a knockoff Taco Bell Crunchwrap that obviously is miles better than that fast food place, and I always have a good drink to calm me down on an ideal afternoon.

For all but one of the times I've been to Centro, I have dined outdoors.  I usually hate eating outdoors.  The wind blows away my napkins and there's a high probability insects will, well, bug me (like they did yesterday).  Worst-case scenario: I get eaten alive by mosquitos.  That happened one summer night when eating ice cream at a patio.  But Centro's outdoor patio, I think, looks cool; it's outside the front door, and while it faces railroad tracks (I drove through those tracks once and blew out a tire -- did I blog post about it?), I think that scene looks way cool.  And also, of course, there is the pandemic, where eating outside apparently is vastly safer than dining indoors.

That was the calculus baked into my thinking when I sat outside and ordered.  Since I got there just after it opened, there was only one other group eating al fresco, and they were more than sufficiently distanced from me.  I usually get Centro's lunch special (two tacos and chips & salsa), but I got a rice bowl and their knockoff Crunchwrap, both of whom were tasty.  The frozen mescal was great, too.  But a usual annoyance came back, reminding me of a big downside to eating outside: The damn sun bearing down on me while I eat.  It started to hurt the last time I ate outside at Centro, and it hurt this time around, too.  It was baking my skin, to the point where my skin started to itch.  All I could think of is the radiation poisoning me -- the consequences of which I felt last night.

I put some Aquaphor on my right arm (that's where I felt the burn) before going to bed.  I feel good now.  But I have to wonder if it's worth eating outside at Centro again.  Maybe I have to put sunscreen on me before I do the next time I decide to eat there.  Or, maybe I'll wait until the fall.  I ate outside on a day either barely going into or just getting out of last winter.  The server looked at me funny, but the patio was open (I called ahead to check) and even though it was fairly cold, I didn't get COVID then!