Wear sunscreen

I just came from my annual visit to the dermatologist and I have a itsy bitsy band-aid on my nose. About nine years ago I discovered a basal cell carcinoma on my arm. To me it looked just like any of the other little keratosis -- karatoses? keratosises? -- on my skin that I wanted to get rid of. Just to be safe the doctor biopsied the bump, even though she was pretty sure it was benign. It wasn't, which totally freaked me out. I felt I was way the hell too young to have skin cancer, even the "best" one you could get. Sure, I'd had sunburns, lots of them, even really bad ones with bubbly blisters, but I felt that basal cells were for old folks with wrinkles and sun spots. Shut up, those are laugh lines and moles.

I found one more bcc after that, on my shin. It's been long enough since then that I only have to have my skin checked annually unless I find something suspicious looking. I know my skin pretty well and know when something new appears. Of course, I can't see my back and my near vision is getting crappier by the year. Most things I find the doc will just freeze off (and doesn't that just leave a lovely purple blood blister and a big scar) but once in a while she likes to have a biopsy. I was late getting this skin check, by about 4 months. I've been pretty good about the sun screen, especially on my face. But that didn't stop her from sticking a big needle into my nose, then scraping with a scalpel. Does that sound disgusting? Good. Go get your SPF 45 and slather it on anything you don't want removed!

I had a nice run last night with Pam. Yes, we ran our usual short short route in Danville. It looked much warmer than it was, one of those clear early evenings. We didn't go too fast, not too slowly, just ran along chatting the whole way.

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the Day is Winnie. On that trip with my sister I bought 3 bears. Corny came from Cornwall but I don't remember exactly where Winnie and Maggie came from. It was a little town, probably in the Lake District (because we spent a lot of time there). We were wandering through some shops and found a toy store with bears in the window. A lovely lady ran the shop and delighted in showing us the bears locked up in cases. They're Steiff bears, meaning they would have been way too expensive to buy in the US. The exchange rate was very good on that trip. Sis bought lots of cashmere sweaters, I bought bears. Go figure. I had such a tough time deciding between the bears that I just went ahead and got both. I did show some restraint; there was another bear, smaller, that I wanted also but left to the next buyer. I knew that I wouldn't have enough room in my suitcase to put two more bears so I arranged for the nice lady ship them to me. Several weeks after I got home I received a big box with the bears with a note from the lady. She had put their paws over their faces so that they wouldn't get scared in the dark. Awwww!