I was born and raised in California in the heart of Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the San Fernando Valley. While I loved to hike, oddly, I rarely encountered one of nature's most dreaded pests, the tick.
Cut to the Covid pandemic in 2021, when I found myself, like so many others, taking a midlife inventory of what the future might hold for me in LA. That’s when I decided it was time for a major life change, and I spontaneously moved to the Midwest to be closer to my daughter. I bought a new house in the Northland of Kansas City, Missouri, at the far end of a relatively newly developed area, in the middle of nature, surrounded by trees, lush hillsides, and open space.
