Skin Cancer

Just because you're a hypochondriac doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with you.

I had a small, tender bump removed from my back last week. It was squamous cell carcinoma, the "good" kind of skin cancer. No cancer in the margins of the excision, which indicates it has not spread, but my doctor is setting me up with a dermatologist for more detailed examination.

I had a dark spot removed from my back a couple of years ago, and it was nothing but a dark spot. I almost canceled the appointment to have this one cut out because it was feeling better, and I have a tendency toward hypochondria about such things. But I didn't cancel, reasoning that it was feeling better because I'd quit picking at it after scheduling the excision.

I told the doctor that it may be another false alarm, but that I grew up at high altitude, had frequent childhood sunburns, and am of Scandinavian heritage, so I'm a little bit hair-trigger on weird skin things.

This thing was extremely innocuous. As I age, I get all sorts of small cysts and other lumps and bumps. Many I can rake off with a fingernail, and that's that. This one was a small bump on my back that I could barely reach and couldn't see. Unlike a pimple, it had nothing in it. It was tender, especially when I touched it or touched against it, such as a chair back. It felt like a small rose thorn. I get a lot of those mowing the lawn around our wild roses. But my wife looked in bright light with a lens and could see nothing. It was just red, tender, and a bit scabby.

Catch these early, and they're seldom a problem. Wait too long, and they may spread.

Good information here:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/squamous-cell-carcinoma/DS00924

No more sun tans for this kid.

Power is On

I'm not sure which was more instrumental in geting our power back this evening, the amount of gasoline for the generator I bought today, or that I made the blog entry yesterday.

I took three five-gallon cans to town today. That's enough to run my generator for a week. I considered filling only one can, as I have an appointment in town in a couple of days and could get more then. But I filled all three, figuring that doing so would cause the power to come on before I could burn any of it.

This evening, late, a large white truck with a cherry picker cruised down our street with a spotlight following the power line. I grabbed a flashlight and ran out to the road to tell him wires were down at the very end of the road. He said a crew was down there already. He turned around and went back toward the highway. Half an hour later, the power came on.

Now that the water has had time to heat, I'm going to take a long, hot shower. And in the morning, I won't have to unplug the refrigerator to make coffee.

A Week Without Electricity

It's been a week since power went out on 14 September, and we're nowhere near Galveston. The cold front, boosted by remnants of Ike's energy, whipped through southwest Ohio with hurricane-force gusts and blew down trees everywhere. Power has been restored in most areas--cities and towns--but our dead-end rural street isn't on the list of areas the power company hoped to get to this weekend and next week. So far, the weather has been mild and dry.

We're luckier than many. We are on public water and use our well only for irrigation. And we have a generator.

Rather than go to the trouble of installing an isolation panel to allow us to power house circuits with the generator without conflict with public power, we run extension cords in the basement door and up the stairs. We can power a couple of lamps, refrigerator, freezer, TV, DVR. and computer. We unplug the refrigerator to make coffee in the morning, and we cook outside on the gas grill.

I didn't use the generator until the second day when realization that power was going to be out for several days sank in. But I turned it off at night, even though it's a quiet Honda, and it wouldn't start the next day.

The generator sits on a shelf in the shed most of the year. Until this week, I never bothered to throw out old gasoline or use a stabilizer such as Sta-Bil to keep gas good. My generator had a stuck valve.

Hondas are easy to take apart, and the valve springs can be removed with fingers. I worked the valve up and down with pliers until it worked freely, put the machine back together (Success! No lefover parts!) and it started on the first pull. It's been running ever since.

This generator has a demand throttle; it runs only as fast and hard as it needs to. Fuel burn is less than three gallons a day. I fill it first thing in the morning, at four in the afternoon, and again before going to bed.

Being without public power was inconvenient at first, but we're getting used to it. The biggest inconvenience is, we have to stay near home to keep the generator running. We want to drive to Boston to visit a friend, but we can't until power is restored.

I still flip on light switches when entering dark rooms. I hope we get power back before that habit has time to fade. One nice result of no power is, we don't eat much. Too much trouble. I'd wanted to lose about fifteen pounds, and ten are gone already.

The sun is going down, so I'll go grill our supper. Steak and salad and a glass of wine.

And it's time to fill the generator again.