May 2009 – Page 2 – Uncle Crappy

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May 23, 2009

very nice.

Today was a good day.

I slept in until 9. We shut of the AC when we went to bed, and it didn’t take long for the upstairs to cool off to the point where it was just about exactly perfect.
We started the day at Tangers, where I picked up another cool linen shirt. And Mrs. Crappy is now a member of the Cult of Crocs.
She didn't, however, select these.
We stopped to visit Burgh Baby, who offered to give us some gerber daisies and some other stuff from her garden. We also found a very talkative Alexis, who was very happy to tell us about the planned decor for her new bedroom.
From there we drove to McTighe’s in Shaler, to buy some more flowers and stuff for the boxes that hang from our front porch.
Once at home, we cut grass, planted stuff, and got ready to plant more stuff. BB’s daisies have a new home and I hope we can have this in its place in the front yard in the next day or two.
After a couple hours — and a good shot of water from the sprinkler, the stuff we imported from BB’s garden hadn’t died yet. Score!
When I had my tumor removed on Monday, I got yet another bottle of antibiotics, complete with instructions about not drinking until I was through with them. I was not pleased about this; I had just completed nearly two weeks of involuntary sobriety as I was getting over The Plague, and I wasn’t happy about having to do it again. My mind was changed by Mrs. Crappy; she almost always sides with the doctors, but in this case, she made an interesting point — I’ve been taking antibiotics for more than three weeks, and at this point I could probably heal people simply by touching them. I agreed wholeheartedly; the seal was broken with a Great Lakes Grassroots Ale.
Pens win! Pens win!

May 21, 2009May 21, 2009

switched at birth.

It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh, and on Twitter, that inevitably means a onslaught of letangssexhair hashtags.

I’m not entirely clear on who started the best-ever unofficial Penguins hashtag on the whole internet; I do know it began during the series against the Caps, and I’m going guess it was the creation of either @kdudders or @adriennemcc, my two favorite Twittering Pens fans. Maybe one of them can set me straight on this.

I’ve been struck by something else in regards to letangssexhair. While I watched a post-game interview a few days ago, I was struck by a resemblence I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It took a minute, but I eventually figured out who it was: Kris Letang has a famous, long-lost brother in one of my favorite bands.

I’m just sayin’…

May 20, 2009

not sure which.

Yesterday’s post was the 900th I’ve written. There’s a lesson there, either in perserverance or stupidity.

May 19, 2009May 20, 2009

demolition.

The box shrubs in front of our house are gone.

We both had night shifts at our respective papers today, because of the election, so Mrs. Crappy decided this morning would be perfect to pull up the bushes. The fact that I had instructions from my doc to not lift anything with my left arm as to not harm my stitches didn’t seem to matter. I was good at bringing stuff to her, though.

The bushes didn’t give up so easy. We ended up strapping them to a tow bar on the truck of our neighbor — who generously offered his help — and pulling them out that way.

We know what will be the primary occupant of the newly vacant space — a Japanese maple we’ve already purchased. We have some power washing and painting of the porch to take care of first, but I think by the time the weekend is over, the front of the house will look very, very different.

May 18, 2009June 1, 2009

fried.

A few years back, I decided have a doctor look at a little sore on my shoulder, that one that didn’t want to heal. It had been there for nearly two years. It would dry up, and I think it was finally going away; then, out of nowhere, it would blister again.

I had no idea what it was, but I wasn’t prepared to hear what my doc told me — I had skin cancer.

When I went to see a dermatologist today, I knew what was coming. The dime-sized red blotch on my shoulder was behaving just like the first one did. I didn’t think she’d want to remove it right away, but she seemed to think we shouldn’t wait.

So her assistant numbed my upper arm and while I anxiously stared at the wall on the opposite side of the room while she dug the growth out.

– – –

When I write here, I often point out my intellectual shortcomings. I do it enough that there’s a whole tag devoted to the subject of me being an idiot.

Much of the time, I’m joking. Today, I am not.

Skin cancer isn’t hard to prevent. But when I was a kid, I just didn’t do what I needed to do to avoid it later. I shrugged off my mother when she reminded me to put on sunscreen. I didn’t think anything of working outside all afternoon with my shirt off. And when I got those blistering sunburns, I just thought it was a normal part of summer.

It’s not. It’s easy to take care of. And I didn’t do it.

I’ve been lucky. My first tumor was a squamous cell growth, one of the two most common — and not especially serious — kinds. My current doc believes that’s what this one is too. Squamous tumors — and the even more common basal cell carcinomas — don’t grow quickly and are easy to treat.

That’s not to say this stuff should be taken lightly. If you’re diagnosed with melanoma, you have a serious problem, because that one moves quickly.

That’s another way I’ve been lucky. In both instances, I was a bit too nonchalant about getting these treated, and I won’t do that again. In fact, when I get these stitches removed in two weeks, I’ll also get a little dry patch on my forehead burned off as well. I’m not waiting to point these things out any more.

– – –

Another thing I point out here frequently: most of my Pittsburgh friends are younger than I am. Guys? Before you dismiss this as more grumpy old guy talk from Uncle Crappy, here’s something to consider. That first growth showed up when I was about 33. It was removed when I was 35.

Not so old, right?

I try really hard to avoid being too serious here, and I’ll stop with the preachy in just a second. However: wear sunscreen. Put on a hat. Stay out of the tanning bed. If you have a mole that changes size or color, if you discover a little patch of dry skin that doesn’t go away, if you have a sore that doesn’t want to heal, ask a doctor about it.

It might only be a basal cell or squamous cell growth. It might not be anything.

Or it might be something much worse. Don’t take that chance. I want to be friends with yinz guys for years to come.