The Dark Side of the Sun

sun damage

When I was growing up we played outside all the time. After all, there was no air conditioning in the house, so at least being outdoors with friends made us forget the heat. There was also no sunblock available, at least at my house. Through the years my skin has had a lot of exposure to the sun, and I have been paying for it since I got my first skin cancer diagnosis in 1992. 

Last week I went in for my six month checkup. One of the spots the doctor had frozen at my last visit has disappeared, which was great news. I pointed out some trouble spots to her, and she froze four on my right hand and one on my left temple. The temple one will bear watching. But she took a biopsy of a spot on my left arm above my elbow. 

I should have gotten the results by now, but I guess the lab is backed up. I'd like to think no news is good news, but she has been spot on (pardon the pun) when it comes to calling what she thinks is a skin cancer. But I can still hope she is wrong, I guess.

Though I am diligent now with applying sunscreen and wearing a big hat, I can't undo the damage that was done in the past. I just have to accept these continuing skin cancers as a part of my life. And hope that this one isn't number 19 for me.

Clean Up Crew

tree crew

We were fortunate to be able to find a tree service who could come on Saturday and remove the fallen oak. It was an added bonus that he was a couple hundred dollars less expensive than the next higher bid. He came recommended by a neighbor, and his company is insured so we felt comfortable accepting the bid. Our neighbor was having concrete poured for his new walkway and steps on Monday, so it was imperative that the tree be removed before then.

the aftermath

The tree crew made short work of getting the limbs off the car so that it could be moved out of the way. Unfortunately the large limb somewhat crushed the roof of the car. I am not sure it will be feasible for it to be repaired. Speaking from experience, if the insurance company decides to total the car, no one wins. I hope they can fix it. You can see from the top picture that the excitement in the neighborhood drew quite a crowd. I'm sure these guys aren't used to having so many people watch them work. They finished up by mid-afternoon, and nothing was left but all the gouges in the grass.

Mirassou Moscato

It was nice for us, too, that the work was done on Saturday. We had nine people over Sunday afternoon for Easter dinner. It was such a beautiful day that we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. I mixed up a batch of Moscato Limeade Punch from a recipe that I found on Real Housemoms. It is really good, but I felt like it was a little heavy on the limeade flavor. So I added an additional half bottle of moscato to the pitcher. It went from good to great! In my estimation, Mirassou makes the best moscato, so I always have a couple of bottles in the wine rack. This was a tasty punch recipe that I will be making again.

My niece brought a layered taco dip appetizer, and my nephew brought deer sausage and cheese. I balanced that with a veggie tray. I prepared a ham, scalloped potatoes and rolls, and my sister brought baked beans and deviled eggs. She also made an adorable cake for dessert. I am not a personal fan of peeps, but the cake was really good underneath all the peeping. It was a Hoppy Easter, for sure.

Easter Cake

Oh What a (Stormy) Night!

St. Louis storm damage

Last night was the monthly board meeting of the St. Louis Publishers Association, which is held at the St. Louis Bread Company in the Galleria. Just as I was getting ready to head out the door, the winds whipped up, the rain began to pour sideways, and the hail came down. No way was I going to take my new baby, much less myself, out in that storm. As I waited for the storm to moderate, lightning struck, the lights dimmed, and a crackling noise indicated the end of telephone service. Jim was still at work, so the lack of a land line was not a big deal.

When I returned home from the meeting I went outside with an umbrella to take the recycling bin out to the front curb for the Wednesday morning pickup. I noticed a lot of debris in the yard, but that was nothing compared to what I saw when I reached the parkway. I use the word "saw" loosely as it was pitch black outside by then. I hurried back to the house to get a flashlight, and the next door neighbors stepped out to let me know that our downed tree branches had taken out their phone, Internet and cable. Sure enough there were a lot of limbs down, some of which were hanging out in the street. I moved them back onto our parkway and sidewalk the best that I could while juggling an umbrella and a flashlight.

When I got back into the house I fully expected that we would not have any of our AT&T services either. But our line was not affected at all. This morning I could more fully assess the damage. The tree is a 100+ year old Horse Chestnut (aka Buckeye) that won an award from the city of Webster Groves a few years ago because it is such a beautiful tree. Fortunately it does have a lot of branches, so you really can't tell where the limbs fell off. At least I couldn't tell today - once all the leaves are off that may be different.

The beauty of Webster Groves, besides the houses, is the abundance of stately, mature trees in the community. But many of them are nearing the end of their life spans. I can only hope that homeowners are planting replacement trees before it is too late.

storm damage to the Buckeye