#3076 three things: skin canc*r, live music, and snow

It's been a week. Let's get into it.

1. Skin canc*r. I have been a pale-skinned redhead for most of my life. Currently, I am a pale-skinned strawberry blond as the red fades. I have always enjoyed getting a tan, and haven't always taken care of my skin in the proper manner. (I mean, I am Gen X and we did love to slather baby oil on ourselves to bake in the sun.) In the past few months, I have noticed a few (seven) spots that I felt should be looked at by a dermatologist. I have already had a basal cell carcinoma removed from my body, so I am familiar with what It looks like. I called to get an appointment with a new dermatologist on Monday, and she had a cancellation so I was able to see her Tuesday morning. She checked my seven spots, and decided three of them needed a biopsy. She also did a full body scan and found two other spots to biopsy. On my left arm had two spots, the top of my head was another, and there was a spot on each of my legs, just above the ankles. She also froze a couple of spots on my face, one on my right arm, and four on my right hand. When the lidocaine wore off, I was hurting, especially the top of my head. All the five spots bled a lot, too. 

The results came back really quickly, within 24 hours of the exam. Two of the spots, one on my left arm and one on my left leg, are basal cell carcinomas. Those areas will be treated with a topical cream that I will apply for a maximum of six weeks or until the "expected outcome of oozy, red, crusty skin is achieved." Sounds attractive, doesn't it? The other three spots will be frozen and monitored during my appointments. 

Bummer, but I'm glad to know and get treated.

2. Live music. MT and I went to see Gary Clark Jr. last night at the Eccles Theater downtown. We bought the tickets back in June while we were on The Trip. I'd forgotten that we got really good seats. We were in the fourth row in the orchestra pit. I could have thrown a stuffed animal and hit Gary in the chest, we were so close. I think this is the fifth time we have seen him in concert, and he is just so, so good. I love his voice, and his guitar playing is incredible. He's got a great look, too. Last night he was wearing a dark pink three piece suit, a white button down shirt, and a rakishly-tilted fedora. He has a cool look and vibe, to me. We enjoyed the hell out of the show. 

3. Snow. We've had rain here in SLC for the past three days. Today was nice, though. The skies cleared up enough that I could plainly see snow on the Wasatch Mountains to the east and high up on the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. I think by the end of the day, the snow on the Oquirrhs had melted, but there's a lot of snow on the Wasatch. MT likes to go hiking up there, but the trails he likes are now snow-covered. The snow line is quite high; there isn't any snow in the foothills or the valley. I don't think we'll be getting any valley snow in the next ten days. Rain is fine, but I'm not quite ready for snow in my yard. Still, the first snow of the season, even in the mountains, is worth noting.

BONUS THING: hawks and squirrels. This morning when I was walking the dogs in the neighborhood, we spotted a squirrel in the pecan tree that is two streets up from my house. Mac loves to see the squirrels. She turns into stone and cannot be moved. Harley could mostly care less about the squirrels. 

So the squirrel is hiding a pecan in the ground at the base of the tree when a bird swoops down on it. The squirrel jumped onto the tree and quickly climbed up the trunk. The bird settled on the roof of a car in the driveway next to the tree. I hadn't seen that happen before, so we walked a little closer until we were standing in the middle of the road at the end of the driveway of the pecan tree property. It was close enough to see that the bird on the car was a hawk of some kind, maybe a Cooper's hawk? The squirrel shimmied right up the tree into the leafiest branches and the hawk just sat there on the car. Suddenly, another hawk flew over and the two of them left together. I'm pretty sure that squirrel wet himself, but he was safe, at least for now. 

I have seen hawks a couple of times in the neighborhood, but never that close and not trying to catch a squirrel. Nature, man. It's awesome.

#2459 thankful for a bright moment

It has been overcast and gray here all day. I don't think I ever saw the sun come out. MT and I took Mac for a walk at the park this morning, and since then, I have been in the house. I actually watched another movie. It is called My Octopus Teacher. I heard about it when the filmmaker gave an interview on Fresh Air on NPR. It's actually a documentary about this man (the filmmaker) and an octopus that befriends him. It sounds kinda strange, but it was fascinating and weirdly moving. The photography was exceptional. I'm glad I took the time to watch it.

I took Mac out for a walk in the neighborhood around 5:00. Like I said, it has been gray and drab all day, so imagine my delight when I opened the front door and saw this:

That orange sky was thrilling. And brief. By the time I admired it, took a photo, and put my phone away, the orange sky was gone. Only the grey clouds remained. 

I'm thankful that I happened to walk out the door at just the right moment so I could see this beautiful sight. 

Hope y'all had a good weekend. Be safe!

#2358 fantastic Friday: clean air is good

It was a pretty spring day here in the Salt Lake Valley. I went into the office for about an hour this morning. I think I saw less than ten people in total while I was there. I wore my new face mask, just to get the hang of it. Back at the home office, I kept myself busy, but I admit that I did easy stuff and got a bunch of tasks knocked off my to-do list.. It was a hard week. Did I mention that I'll be working at home until at least May 1? I'm glad about it.

T mowed the lawn today. It really needed it and he needed the money, so that was a win-win.

MT and I went for bike ride. Same place, but a bit longer, just under nine miles. We also stopped and took a tiny walk at the Lee's Creek area. I was wearing my cycling shoes, which are meant for riding, not walking, and that's why we didn't go very far. We told ourselves that the next time we felt like going for a walk, we would go back to Saltair and walk on the beach to the water. I might have done that a long time ago with my dad, but I don't really remember it.

One of the good things about so many people staying home is that there are fewer cars on the road and the air is so clean and fresh. The mountains looked so beautiful today, all white-capped and gleaming. Here are some pics I took while we were out this evening:

This is looking east at the Wasatch Range from the Marina. The building on the right is Saltair. I think the name of this beach is Silver Beach. That's not the beach I'm talking about walking on, but we could.

This is also from the Marina looking northeast. I think that is Stansbury Island.

That big column thing is a smoke stack at the north end of Kennecott. I like the reflection of the mountains and sky (and everything else) in the water.

Across from Saltair are marshy ponds that are teeming with birds. There are a bunch of these blackbirds with red or yellow throats. This one looked like a hybrid - an orange throat.. Pretty!

I don't have any big plans for the weekend. I'd like to do a bunch of reading while laying on my bed. I'd also like to watch a few more MCU movies. Tonight we watched Captain America: Civil War. It was a good one. We've got eight more to go. We are getting to some of the ones I have seen before.Watching the movies in chronological order has been good because everything makes a little more sense. They all tie together. There are always after-credit and after-after-credit scenes that give hints to the next movie. So good.

Have a great weekend!

#1796 supermoon SLC

I was driving home tonight and I noticed a glow just behind the Wasatch Front. At first I couldn't figure out what was causing the glow. It wasn't a fire and it was too high up on the peaks to be lights from town. The mountains are in the east, so I knew it wasn't the last glow of the sunset. That's when I remembered that today is the supermoon night.

By the time I pulled into my driveway, the huge orange-y moon was just peaking out from the mountains. I went out to my front yard and tried to take a photo, but the street light took all the thunder from my photo. At that moment, right next to me, a dude zoomed up on a skateboard, holding a nice camera. He looked at the moon, looked over at me and said, "Man! This is awesome!" I loved his enthusiasm :)

I had to return a movie to the Redbox, so I decided to do that and drive up to the water tower which is about the highest point near my house. I was rewarded with a gorgeous view of the lights of the valley with the big bright moon shining up in the sky. It's tricky to take photos at night, but I like the way it turned out.

Did you all get to see the supermoon?

#1787 autumn at Red Butte Garden

It's been awhile since I showed you any photos from Red Butte Garden. As you can imagine, the place looks completely different in the autumn. The leaves on the trees are either changing color or have already fallen off. Many of the plants have already been trimmed back by the gardeners. Some of the areas are so completely different than during the summer! There are still some flowers blooming - I was surprised to see so many roses.

I went for a walk there last Sunday and today, and here are some photos that I took on those walks. The ones with the bright blue sky are today's photos. The grey skies are last Sunday. As always, to see more detail in the pics, click on the image.

crab apple trees in the Children's Garden

Rose Garden. I like the pink roses and the white quaking aspen in the back.

the path near the Rose Garden. I like the colors and the textures.

these yellow roses!

So many colors and textures!

I'm totally crazy about this waterfall. And how about those colors!

Longer view of the beloved waterfall.

The pond with some lanterns hanging from the pavilion.

I didn't know the wisteria would turn gold like that

Red Butte Creek tumbles down the hill

 I've got to write a little about Garden After Dark sometime. I'll get to that tomorrow, so come back!

#1707 the garden is alive

I know, I know. Of course the garden is alive! There are thousands of plants and trees at Red Butte Garden, and there are lots of critters there too and they were all out and about this evening, it seemed like. Who could blame them? It was absolutely glorious up there tonight. Warm, but not too hot. A light breeze. Blue skies with high, wispy clouds floating overhead. The air was full of fragrance. It was idyllic.

In the evening there aren't as many people roaming around the garden, so you can really get in tune with the critters that live there. Tonight I saw hundreds of bumble bees - big, furry roly-poly bees merrily buzzing from flower to flower getting drunk on the pollen. There were an equally large number of butterflies - pale little yellow ones to medium size orange ones to great big yellow and black ones. There were dragonflies and hummingbirds. The magpies were there; the little finches were flitting about. I heard songbirds twittering away even though I couldn't see them. There was a group of four lady ducks by the waterfall having some dinner and taking a swim. I think I was stalked by some quail. At least I hope it was quail and not something else! I saw bunnies and squirrels.  And there was a snake, too, a rattle snake. Fortunately, I didn't see it, though it was in the Children's Garden. I just hadn't made it to the particular area where the snake was hanging out. A couple of ladies came to find me and told me about it and showed me photos. It was long. I immediately went to find a gardener and she came right up to take care of it. She said that she saw it and helped it go back up to the natural area where people don't walk. I was ok with that, but I was too scaredy-cat to go over to the squash and corn area where it had been. Hope nothing was blooming up there today because I skipped it!

RBG delights me every time I am there. Even when I don't really feel like going (like tonight for example), when I walk out the door to the Courtyard and I see all the changes that have happened from the previous visit and I take a deep breath and smell the fragrant air, I always smile. I feel my shoulders and spine relaxing. I look around and marvel at how much the grasses have grown and notice that what had been blooming has changed. There are so many shades of green. There are so many shapes and textures. I feel lucky to go there and be a tiny part of it.

If you live in the Salt Lake area, I really recommend that you try to get up there this summer. I think you will like it!

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I read this book! Check out the 2016 Reading List page.

#1689 blooming at RBG

I didn't volunteer at Red Butte Garden last week because my family was here for T's graduation. I did have the opportunity to take my mom and dad there on Memorial Day for a couple of hours in the afternoon. They didn't get to see all of the place, but I took my mom through the Children's Garden and through the terrace gardens while my dad enjoyed the breeze, the view and the scent of the herb garden from under the wisteria arbor. I was so glad to share RBG with them! It is such a beautiful and restorative place.

Today I decided to pull a "double" volunteer shift. I got there around 11AM to do the bloom recording in the Children's Garden. It took about 90 minutes. Then I took a quick walk through the garden to see what was blooming everywhere else, then did the docent gig for a couple of hours. There is a tram driver now on Saturday afternoon, so it was nice to have someone to talk to. The tram driver's name is Joanne and she's very nice.

It was an incredibly beautiful day and the garden was spectacular. The highlight for me today was the Dumke Floral Walk down to the rose garden. The roses are in full bloom. The scent of the air was sweet and fragrant. The colors were vivid. Every person I saw had a big smile on their face. The place is magic. In my brief time as a volunteer there, I have not yet been disappointed or felt like I was just putting in time. It's always special and ever-changing. I feel super-lucky to be able to spend time there.

I took a few photos to share. I encourage you to click on the photos for greater detail.

This view is from the wisteria arbor into the herb garden. I love how the white flowering bush looks like a patch of snow or a waterfall.

Look! New pine cones!

These beauties are on the Dumke Floral Walk. The purple flowers on that tree are gorgeous.

A view of the "hot wall" on the Dumke Floral Walk. I'm standing under the pear tree arbor. I love the different colors and textures.

A view of the Rose Garden.

The Red Garden is in full bloom!

Another view of the Rose Garden.

The Fragrance Garden.

#1653 Sunday stroll - Decker Lake

I thought that it would be rainy all weekend, but today the skies were clear, even though the temperature was quite a bit cooler than it was late last week. I did a few chores around the house, then I decided to take a walk in the afternoon. Using the list from the Intermountain Healthcare website, I chose a walk that was short, easy and fairly close to my house: Decker Lake.

I've driven past Decker Lake thousands of times probably, and I knew there was a trail around the lake, but I've never been there before. The lake is right beside I-215, so you hear a lot of freeway noise, but the trail is nice and fairly flat. It is mostly a gravel path, but it's level. I wouldn't say it's the prettiest place to walk, but it is fine for me because it's close to home and there's water and birds. I saw a family of Canadian geese along with what I can only assume is the surrogate grandma goose who decided to adopt the family. Click on the photo to enlarge the image and check out the goose on the left. Not Canadian.

goose family

If you don't already know, I completely love the Wasatch Mountains. They are rugged and beautiful and extremely photogenic. If I can get them in a photo, I will. In the photo below, you can see the snow line is shrinking. I'm good with that because it means warmer weather.

view of the Wasatch Mountains from the west side of Decker Lake

The Oquirrh Mountains are pretty too. They are not as rugged as the Wasatch, but I still like them. I like the clouds in the next photo.

Oquirrh Mountains from northeast side of Decker Lake

There are lots of grasses and foliage around the lake for the birds and ducks to live in. I like the different colors in this next photo.

Decker Lake

The walk took about half an hour and was about a mile and a half or so. I kept stopping to take photos, and I'm not a fast walker anyway. I prefer a nice stroll.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

#1649 bad and good

Since I've been back from San Diego, I have had an emotional week culminating with some upsetting news from my knee doctor on Friday. I think I mentioned before that I had to go to University Hospital for a CT scan on my right knee. It turns out that I have a few cysts in the kneecap between the bone and the implant. The cysts are not causing me pain, and they haven't grown from September to March, so we plan to watch them and see what happens. I'll meet again with the surgeon in six months for another evaluation.

Removing the cysts would require surgery and the hospital where the surgeon practices is not covered as a primary provider by my insurance. I can still have the surgery there, but the out-of-pocket expenses will be higher. Also, my left knee has been causing me lots of pain lately; in fact, I had a steroid injection and liquid drained from the knee on Friday also.

It was a lot of shit to deal with on a Friday morning! I cried a whole bunch, even though I knew the tears were worthless. Stress relief, I suppose.

Today I felt better about life in general. My left knee felt good because of the steroid injection. At WW I stepped on the scale to find myself up 1.6 lbs. I wasn't surprised. I've been doing some emotional eating this week, plus I ate like I was on vacation while I was in San Diego. It was worth it. And bright side, when I weighed myself on Tuesday morning here at home, I was up about four pounds over my last WW weigh in, so I think I did a pretty good job of getting myself back in line before today's weigh in.

To get out of my dark mood, I was a giver today. I gave blood at the Red Cross. I do double reds which means I'm hooked up to a machine that takes out whole blood, filters out the red blood cells and puts everything else back in. The hospitals end up getting two pints of perfectly wonderful filtered red blood cells that are ready for use and I don't have to give again for 112 days.

After the blood giving, I headed up to Red Butte Garden to do a little volunteer work. I spent a couple of hours wandering with purpose around the Children's Garden recording everything that is in bloom. There are a lot more things in bloom this week than last week. It's really cool to see the changes. I like bloom recording because I have to stay focused and in the moment. My mind doesn't get to roam around and think about anything but the plants and trees that I'm looking at. I get completely caught up in the task at hand. I love that.

After thoroughly looking through the Children's Garden, I got my camera and walked around the whole garden taking photos. I don't know if they will find anything they will ever use, but I sure have fun. I just like to take photos of landscapes and colors and shapes that I find beautiful. Here are a few photos that I took today:

click on this photo and you'll see a duck on the left that came in for a landing

entrance to rose garden

I liked the look of this fluffy flowering plant

Texas scarlet flowering quince. First time I've seen it in bloom

view to the Oquirrhs

cute fish sculpture by the pond

LILACS!!

I love this Gambel oak covered with ivy

Just...ahh

this is the first time I've seen the flowering pears on the trellises

the path through the cherry blossoms

I am totally infatuated with Red Butte Garden! Every time I go there is something new to see. I wish you could smell some of these photos. The aroma up there is incredible. I have a personal goal to have 50 hours of volunteer time there this year. I'm pretty sure I can do it. I worry about getting burned out, but so far so good :)

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I finished this book! Check out the 2016 Reading page

#1643 testing out my photo taking skills

Today was a busy and fun day for me. I want to focus on just one part of the day, but here's a quick list of the things I did:

made copies of and mailed off a scholarship application for T

weighed in => down .8 lb (good!)

got my hairs cut

put in some volunteer time at Red Butte Garden (RBG)

made crazy good shredded chicken tacos for dinner and from-scratch brownies for dessert

watched both Final 4 games

downloaded a bunch of photos I took at RBG

washed dishes

did laundry

moaned about how much my knee is hurting

I think that about covers it.

What I want to focus on here are the photos I took at RBG. One of my volunteer activities is taking photos there. I took these for myself, just to see what I would get. I took about 50 photos with my big camera. I won't show them all to you, but here are some of my favorites. You can click on the photos to enlarge if you'd like to see more detail.

view of the snow-capped Oquirrh Mountains from the Children's Garden

The Children's Garden, where I spent some time looking for blooming plants has an amazing view of the valley from the upper level. I live way across the valley from this spot, much closer to those mountains back there.

the old wagon trail

Back in the early days of Salt Lake, wagons would come down this trail from the granite quarry up in the Wasatch Mountains to bring the granite that would be used to build many of the buildings in the city. The oak trees were cut back by the wagon drivers and as the trees grew back they formed an these arches. I can't wait to see how gorgeous this is in the summer when the leaves are on the trees. I really want to walk on this trail, too and go back to the quarry area.

mama Canada goose on her nest

The mama goose didn't seem very happy to have me looking at her. I am not close to her at all. I zoomed in with my camera. It will be fun to see the baby geese!

mini daffodils

In the rose garden area, there are lots of these mini daffodils. They are adorable.

gnarly trees not yet budding with daffodils and yellow twig bushes

This photo looks better when it's bigger. There are a lot of contrasting colors and shapes.

Lenten roses

I have never heard of Lenten roses before I went on the garden tour at RBG. These roses are so pretty. There are different colors but  this dusty rose color is my favorite. The roses only bloom once a year, around Easter.

can you see the bee in the flower on the right?

 With these purple flowers, I was testing out my zoom action to see if I could get a shot of the bee that was getting pollen from the pretty flower.

white magnolia tree

 The magnolias are blooming! I was totally infatuated with this pretty tree and its flowers.

orchid show

There was an orchid show happening inside the orangerie. (By the way, the orangerie is one of my favorite places at RBG.) It smelled amazingly fragrant in there. Orchids are awesome. I enjoyed looking at them, but I have to tell you, nothing beats seeing an orchid growing in the wild.

I warned you that you would get tired of my droning on and on about RBG and it's only April 2. The place is just really, really wonderful and it changes every time I go there. Of course, since I'll be going there at least once a week, I might burn out on it sometime during the summer. But for now, I like it a whole bunch!