In the AM

It's early and the sky is just now beginning to turn that beautiful shade of blue that says the sun will soon be shining on us. Looking over the fence I can see the two excavators that will roar into life in about an hour and they will then dominate all the sounds in the area. Boo, the Magical Cat, has pestered me enough so that I let her out into the backyard. When she hears the roar of the excavators she will be back at the door, begging for admittance. Today is also the day for watering the yard. One of the three days a week we are allotted for sprinklers to sprinkle and soakers to soak. But...a news flash just appeared in the upper right hand corner of the screen on my laptop; "A strengthening El Nino in the Pacific Ocean has the potential to become one of the most powerful on record, federal climate officials said today." Now that is good news! If only it comes true...

There will be some additional noise this morning as the Sun Power crew continues with the installation of our solar power plant. They will finish up tomorrow and then we will have to wait a week or so before the power company becomes our customer for a change. A very welcome change! The solar panels are on the south side of the roof and can't be seen from the street; something my wife wanted. I was hoping that they could be seen; a symbol of the future.

While I'm typing I am waiting for the pain killers to kick in. Lately, I have been plagued by a severe pain in my left hip. I had the same pain, but, in my right hip about a year ago. I have a wonderful pain doctor and I have an appointment to see her at 11 this morning. Self diagnosis is not a good thing, but I do believe that this pain is caused by an inflammation of the bursa around the Greater Trocanter...or the 'hip bone'. Last time, an injection of corticosteroids fixed things up in about two days. The pain from the injection itself was enough to make me cry. But I will welcome it today!

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with my dermatologist. He will greet me with one hand for me to shake while his other hand will be holding the liquid nitrogen spray. After about fifteen minutes I will emerge from his office with dozens of burn marks where he has used the liquid nitrogen to burn off all suspected pre-cancerous growths. My life as a 'beach rat' is catching up to me; luckily, he has never found any full blown skin cancer.

As I have noted before, I have too many doctors. In 2004, when I retired, I had no doctors to call my own. Zip. Zero. Nada. Now I have seven. With another half dozen holding files on me and my body. This is not exactly how I had planned my retirement.

But, on the positive side; one of our daughters and one of our granddaughters will be over this morning for a game of Monopoly. They will be bringing the coffee, a caramel Macchiato for me. We usually meet at a local coffee shop on Thursdays but they love board games and we're changing our habits today. Let the game begin!