I See the Icy River

cold but sunny day

ice doilies around the rocks

Snow and rain at the beginning of the week cleared things out for the holiday, but in spite of the bright sun, it is bitterly cold out.

Keith, Carrie and Kemmer all got Thursday off and we went out to a local restaurant where Carrie loved her scallops but Kemmer and Keith were less impressed with their turkey.

Friday, Carrie worked, so Keith took Kemmer out for a drive, stopping at Sabattus Pond, Lisbon Falls, and then pulling in to Miller Park in Lisbon. Turns out there is a walking/biking trail along the Androscoggin River here that we never knew about before this.

We braved the cold and walked along the trail for a while, encountering a few other hardy souls determined to avoid Black Friday shopping. We'll have to bring Carrie to see it soon.

 ice agate pattern

click on an ice crystal to enlarge any picture

Spotting Proposition

Having lived an active outdoor life in spite of my fair and delicate skin's tendency to get sunburn, it was no real surprise that after a few years of living in Arizona a doctor pointed out some pre-cancerous lesions forming on my face and arms. Further examinations showed a bit of basil cell melanoma on one arm as well, which had to be cut out.

Yearly checks and yearly applications of liquid nitrogen kept things at bay, though a bit more was used every year and I did have a second basil cell removed.

20 years lived in Arizona with doctors well acquainted with these things, then I moved to Maine. A bit of searching for work before getting a job with health benefits and my own tendency to procrastinate made for a gap of years before I got myself checked again. The dermatologist did a bit of freezing, but also had to burn out two spots of basil cell.

2 more years before I get another check (shame on me!) Different dermatologist who says I have so many lesions (legions of lesions?) that he would rather try a different approach. Using a special ointment that would be, as the pharmacist put it "chemotherapy in a tube." Four weeks on my arms and two weeks on my face. It would attack both the seen and the unseen lesions. It would also look horrible as it attacked and destroyed them.


I did my arms first and showed my coworkers what was happening so as to prepare them when my face started looking like I'd escaped from the Zombie Apocalypse.

click a spot to enlarge the lot

Happy Anniversary to us!

22 years today!