Ahoy, mateys!

When I was a child in the 60s skin cancer and sunscreen just weren't on our radar like they are now. Jeez, it was the opposite. Lather up with the oiliest substance you could find, mine of choice was cocoa butter, and bake until you were tan. With me it was bake until you were burnt to a crisp, then peel, then freckle--but I tried anyway. I am now paying the price.

The dermatologist and I have become quite good friends and he seems to know my body as much as my beloved which is an icky thought because I just found out he was at UCLA the same time as our daughter and son-in-law. I know he's a doctor but come on, he's a kid to me.

So it goes, getting older, but it's what he's looking at that gives me pause; Actinic Keritosis. He finds these little dry scratchy places, usually on my face and zaps them with liquid nitrogen. I'm sure if he just put a cigarette out on that spot it would have the same results but with smoking laws what they are and all his little shot of this freezing liquid does the trick.

What really stops me in my tracks are the one he biopsies. He'd been watching something on the back of my leg above my knee. As I remember that was a favortie place for me to burn come summer time. Lots of walking in shorts. He always says, "Oh I'm sure it's ok but let's be safe" and it has been ok, so far.

Prevention would have been the best way to go but since that ship has sailed and most likely sunk, I make sure I keep the appointment with my boy-doctor. He must know something, right? He also teaches at med school so I'm sure he wasn't a "C" student. That doesn't mean I've given up, I use a sunscreen every morning.

Here's a site with some good info on skin cancer. We do live outside a lot here in Southern California and that won't change. Just change some of your habits and you won't have the need to scrape these barnacles off you old hull. Mayo Clinic Skin Cancer website.

Editor note: The biopsy report says it was benign. Let's hear an Amen from the choir.

This is a test. If it were a real emergency …

Last night was girl's night out. Darling husband was at sweet daughter's house getting ready to make a new roof so a lady friend and myself had dinner and went to the picture show. When over it was late, for us, but since she is single said what the hey to a cup of tea at my house. She left after 11:00 and since there was zip on the TV I did some writing.

Very silent house except the clinking of the keyboard so you could hear any little noise the house makes. Just me and Buddy.

Let's have a bit of back-story here. We have a Carbon Dioxide detector that has been relegated to the garage. Seems as though the "chirps" it makes ever now and again makes the terrier certifiable. He will actually climb up in your lap, no matter where you are--note to self: close the bathroom door all the way--and quiver like the hounds of hell are pursuing him. We've had this problem before and that is why the current detector is out of his earshot, or so I thought.

Buddy was the first to hear the chirp and I should have known. Usually if you are up late he just heads off to bed. "See ya in the morning, don't forget to lockup." He was right next to my chair when I heard the detector hit the high note again but it is always one of the those, "Did I hear something?"

The next time it was unmistakable, at least for the dog because all of his 27 lbs leaped into my arms and refused to get down. With some soothing I convinced him off my keyboard and I was out to the garage. I yanked the detector from it's plug and showed Buddy. "See, I've slayed your dragon my great protector, now go to bed." Which he did until the damn thing set off again. Seems like I forgot to also pull the battery. Now there was nothing else to do with except shut down the computer and be off to bed where he slept closer to me than ever.

Some of you safety people are saying, "How could you disabled the detector; maybe there was actually a problem?" Not to worry, I have another one and it said on the case, chirpping every three minutes is a malfunction. It's off to Lowes this morning to buy a new one.

Who knows what that noise means to him. It is loud but not as ear piercing as the actual alarm. It's constant but only every three minutes when it's in the malfunction mode. Well at least we don't have to worry about not hearing the alert, Buddy will keep us safe long before the carbon monoxide gets us.