Catchin' Up.......

It's been a proverbial long, hot summer.  I guess in my old age I'm starting to enjoy the dog days less and less.  My favorite season, however---fall---is almost upon us; and then winter and spring, both of which I enjoy much more than summer.  So I have all of that to look forward to.....and that's a good thing.

Some months back I re-started my daily diary.  Each day I write down all of any significance that occurred that day, along with my personal feelings about the events.  I suppose this endeavor has crowded out my blogging, and I miss doing my posts.  In a way, a daily diary and a daily blog posting are related, at least in as much as they parallel my thoughts and interests on a daily basis.

But a blog and a diary are not the same.  And something is missing if I do without one or the other.  So I will try to do my best to resume my postings as often as I can work them in.  Plus, let's face it:  it's also hard to not see the posts of my friends regularly.

There has been a lot that has happened the last few months.  Of course, there is not enough space to relate all of it here, but of interest are these:

---a few weeks back, an ambulance pulled up to the house across the street from us.  Funny, you know, how ambulance personnel move so slowly.  You ever notice that?  I mean, they come screaming up to their assigned target location, siren blaring, and then when the vehicle is stopped, they move like zombies.

Of course, we heard the commotion and looked outside to see this drama unfolding.  The zombies slowly and laboriously exited the front of the ambulance...slowly moved to the rear of the vehicle, slowly opened the rear doors, slowly removed the special transport....all this happening while the lady of the house, who was in a panic, tried to implore them to "HURRY---she's not moving!!!"

Of course, her urging them onward did not speed them up one iota.  By and by, the tortoises disguised as paramedics made their way into the home, where they stayed for about 40 minutes.  When they came out, the patient---a daughter of the lady of the house---was on the transport and was being given CPR as they wheeled her to the ambulance.  When the patient had been loaded into the vehicle, the ambulance remained there for a good 20 minutes before it departed, sirens ablaze.

The next day we heard that the patient---a 49 year old lady---had died.  Cause:  asthma.

Of course, this devastated the mom and dad.  They have been trying to deal with the sudden death of a beloved daughter.  We don't know these folks well at all, but we have done what we could for them. 

Life is short and today could be our last.

---I developed a sore spot on my lower lip.  Once or twice a year I get a fever blister around my mouth, and these clear up in a few days.  But this thing was not like a fever blister---it just got red and itched a little.  And it didn't go away.  It stayed for weeks.  It wasn't really very noticeable, but it began to bother me that it was not healing.  So, I did some on-line research, and determined that I had oral cancer.

I called the doc and got an appointment for that very afternoon.  When he entered the treatment room, I told him why I was there and he looked very closely at the affected area.  He said, "Well, it might be cancer.  We'll have to do a biopsy."

I asked him what his opinion was.  "Well, I don't think it's life-threatening." 

Gee, I thought---he sure is treating this pretty lightly. 

Then, he started talking about a song he had written.  He handed me a small, hand-held recorder and turned it on so I could hear his recording of him singing a song accompained by his guitar.  Can you believe this?

It was all I could do to keep from yelling "HEY YOU STUPID ASS!!!---I'M A STEP AWAY FROM DYING AND YOU WANT ME TO LISTEN TO THIS S***?!!?

I gently returned to the topic at hand---namely, that I might have cancer of the lip.  He pretty much brushed me off, saying, "Well, they'll do a biopsy and then if it is cancer they'll do whatever they do."

I swear you can't make this stuff up.

Anyway, then he said he didn't know whether to send me to the oral surgeon or the dermatologist for the biopsy because he said the lesion was right on the outside edge of my lower lip.  He finally decided on the dermatologist.  Fine.

The next day, the derm's office called and told me the nearest opening they had was September 5.  Sheeez.  I told Cindy I was gonna die before I could see a doc.

So.....after having this thing on my lip for weeks, and with an appointment for a biopsy weeks away, I awoke the next morning and looked in the mirror and could see that it had shrunk a little bit.  And the same thing happened the next day and the next day and the day after that.....until now----it has disappeared. 

Don't tell me the good Lord ain't got a sense of humor.  I guess whatever it was wasn't cancer, but it wasn't a fever blister, either.  I don't know what it was, but I am ecstatic it is gone.  I think I'll wait a couple weeks before I cancel my appointment.

---I'm losing my mind.  I was talking with my mom about visiting her, and we were discussing the best date for the visit.  I started looking for my cell phone, because it has a calendar function that I use.   I looked everywhere.  It was not to be found.  I asked Cindy to help me find it, as mom was waiting for me to tell her what days would be best. 

Cindy calmly said "You're TALKING on your cell phone."  Besides a dermatologist, maybe I also need a psychiatrist.