Thursday, December 24, through Thursday, December 31, 2015: The End of the Year:

We spent Thursday (Christmas Eve) looking for the snow we were promised.  It barely showed up;  we had just a dusting for Christmas morning.  It was pretty, though, and the four of us took advantage of it.  I got to wear my Sorels for the first time.  They are so comfortable!

Christmas is a special time for me, and I mostly enjoy just soaking in the joy and comfort of the season.  This is the first time in many years that we haven't spent Christmas with Becky's family in Pasadena, but it just wasn't in the cards this time around.  We phoned them and shared greetings with all of them, anyway.

Saturday we were greeted with great views of a nicely snow-covered Mt. Humphreys.  Just lovely.  For no apparent reason, that compelled us to have Mexican food for a late lunch/early dinner.  We chose Fiesta Grill, a new restaurant we had not tried before. 

It was opened by a family named Rodriguez, whose son, so the story goes, was passing through town and decided Williams needed a real Mexican restaurant.  The food was excellent and the people were very nice.  We'll be back for more. 

Saturday also involved a lot of football, of course, and I was particularly happy that the two Washington Pac-12 teams won their bowl games and I was disappointed, though not surprised, that UCLA was upset by Nebraska.  UCLA is consistent in that it nearly always loses games it is expected to win and vice versa.

Sunday was more football while Becky enjoyed a redbox movie called The End Of The Tour.  Otherwise, it was a day to forget.  Monday morning we received a visit from John and Sherry Phelan, who are spending a week in Scottsdale, away from the madness of southern California. 

They came the 185 miles to see our house and to have a delicious lunch at the Red Raven restaurant, our favorite in Williams.  (I had a Reuben sandwich, again.  I get into some bad habits.)  After lunch and a brief walking tour of the Route 66 memorabilia stores,

the Phelans returned to Scottsdale, and Becky and I, and the dogs, took naps.

Tuesday involved a trip to Flagstaff and our semi-annual visit with Dr. Stark for our teeth to be cleaned, etc.  The news was good, as usual, and we took our shiny teeth back to Williams in good spirits. 

Wednesday we returned to Flagstaff for our now-weekly meeting with my plastic surgeon to monitor my recovery from the recent surgery.  Dr. Boettcher was pleased, though not elated, with the progress.  Apparently, a small part of the skin graft is not doing as well as he had hoped, so we have now begun a twice-daily application (by Nurse Becky) of a magic cream to the surgery site. 

We'll see if that helps.  On the way home, we picked up a Pablo Picasso Mexican Salad from Oregano's, which we thoroughly enjoyed when we got home.  Wednesday night, USC got beaten (narrowly) by Wisconsin in the Holiday Bowl.  Yippee! 

Thursday (New Year's Eve) was filled with a lot of football and a little champagne. We don't take this "holiday" seriously and rarely stay up past nine o'clock.  And  this year was no exception.  I was really looking forward to the Alabama/Michigan State game, but my eyes were too tired after Clemson/Oklahoma game that I went to sleep instead.  That turned out to be good because Michigan State got its butt thoroughly kicked by Alabama, which I would not have enjoyed watching.  Becky was able to sneak in another redbox movie, Southpaw, with Jake Gyllenhaal, which she enjoyed.

Thus ended a complicated 2015.               

Thursday, December 17, through Wednesday, December 23, 2015: In Recovey Mode:

For the time being, I am considering myself to still be in recovery from the surgery, so I'm doing little in the way of exertion.  I feel fine but I don't want to push it.  I drive to the Safeway and the Post Office, but that's about it.  Otherwise, my day is pretty much what it is in a normal period---reading, doing crossword puzzles, catching up on emails, and watching a little TV.  (Sheldon and Amy finally slept together!)

On Thursday we had a little snow, just a couple of inches.  It looks beautiful as it forms a blanket over our yard.

On Friday, I ventured out to get a pedicure.  I stole Becky's appointment. 

Saturday was a bit of a football day.  I printed out a schedule of the 41 bowl games this time around, and, while I have no intention of watching all of them, I don't want to miss any that might interest me.  While I watched a little football, Becky ran into a couple of our old friends from the South Rim at the Safeway. Dorthy Westmoreland  and Nancy Charette have become fixtures with Xanterra at the canyon.  Becky had a good time catching up with them.

Sunday was more football, professional this time.  And we watched the latest Mission Impossible film with Tom Cruise from the redbox.  Other than the ever-more-spectacular special effects, it was more of the same---but longer and more confusing. I didn't care for it; Becky thought it was OK.

Monday we returned to Flagstaff so Becky cold get her hair cut at the Tirzah Salon.  I also stopped at Ace Automotive to have them see if they could get our new bed cover to work properly.  (I couldn't get it to close.)  All they had to do was show me the proper way to close it.  Duh!  I also picked up a pair of gloves from Peace Surplus

and two paper towel holders at Home Depot, for our garage and laundry.  And we got a tutorial on our snow blower from Jay, our next door neighbor.  It seems easy enough;  we're expecting snow for Christmas so maybe I'll get to use it.

Tuesday was Becky's day to make "home made" cookies for our neighbors.  It's our joke that Becky's cookies are home made.  Actually, she just buys premade cookie dough and pretends.  It's a lot easier that way.  And the cookies are spectacular.  She also got a pedicure on Tuesday.  That's not related to the cookie adventure, I hope.

We returned to Flagstaff on Wednesday, primarily to see Dr. Boettcher, my surgeon.  While Becky walked the dogs, he took a look and said my scalp looked good and to just keep plugging away.  Since this surgery involved a larger and deeper area than the previous two, it will simply take longer to heal.

We decided to have lunch at Busters in Flagstaff.  It had been highly recommended by Danielle Worthington, our Realtor, and lived up to its billing.  (I had a delicious Reuben sandwich.) 

We also ran a few errands and picked up dinner at Pato Thai.  We'll use any excuse to eat their food.  It's great.  So another week ended on a placid note. 

Thursday, December 10, through Wednesday, December 16, 2015: The Recovery Week:

Thursday morning, I talked my way out of the hospital. 

My third nurse named Rachel (from Ohio, she worked for Xanterra at the Grand Canyon during the summer of 2005 and fell in love with northern Arizona) fell for my pleading and allowed me to escape.  After Becky picked me up, we ran a couple of errands and headed back to Williams.  I felt pretty good, though I was tired, and we had a good day---finished off with dinner from Panda Express.

On Friday, I laid low, and just relaxed.  The pain was virtually non-existent.  Becky bought a dog fence at the hardware store, and we installed it in our hallway Friday evening. 

It's designed to allow us to keep the dogs away from the bedrooms (ours is their favorite) when we want to avoid being disturbed.  It will also allow us to put them in their crates at night without first having to convince them to get off our bed.

Saturday was more of the same.  It snowed lightly most of the day, and Becky shoveled our driveway. 

Since the county street maintenance department is only two blocks away, the street in front of our house had already been cleared.  The blanket of snow in our yard is beautiful, of course.

We watched Trainwreck from the redbox on Saturday.  It was an unusual film, with very crude (raunchy?) language, but very well done and very funny in parts.  I can see why Amy Schumer is popular suddenly.  One surprise was that LeBron James, who was in it a lot, is a very good actor.

Sunday was a little football and dog-tending for me while Becky went to the city's annual Community Holiday Dinner to help out with serving the free food.  It's a charitable event, put on by a number of local groups (Kiwanis, Lions Club, etc.) and Becky ran into some of the very few people we know here.  They served about 600 people on Sunday.  Our dinner was turkey, etc., that she brought home with her. 

This morning, Monday, we woke to a nice snowfall.  It lasted much of the day, and totaled about five inches.  It's beautiful.  While our need for it is a bit questionable, Becky ordered a snow blower this morning.  It should arrive near the end of this week.

Tuesday was a normal day of puttering, reading, etc.  Wednesday will be important because we are going to Flagstaff on Wednesday to see doctors and get our truck's bed cover replaced.  The old one had a fatal breakdown last Wednesday.  It's seven years old and has had a lot of use, so we were not surprised that it finally failed.

We left at 8:30 AM on Wednesday, heading for Flagstaff.  We needed to drop off Ramsey and Kelsey at the GC Railway kennel, pick up our rental car at Enterprise, drop off the truck at Ace Automotive, and arrive at the Arizona Cancer Center by 10:00.  We were a bit early and Dr. Mathern took us fairly quickly.  He's so thorough that he's always late for an appointment and the later in the day you arrive, the longer you will have to wait to see him. 

The overall news was good.  The tissue that was removed during the surgery was clear of melanoma except one spot that was on the border between the new surgery and the old one.  It was explained that this tissue might be giving off a false positive for that reason.  We will keep an eye on it and, after the most recent surgery heals a bit, Dr. Boettcher will test that spot with a tiny probe that does not require actual surgery.  We also will schedule a PET scan for some time in January to see if the cancer has spread to any other parts of my body.

We then had a three-hour wait for our appointment with Dr. Boettcher.  We stopped at the Peace outdoor store to buy boots to wear in the snow (our first pairs of Sorels!), then at the O'Reillys auto parts store to buy a gas can for our snow blower, then at Northland Optical to pick up Becky's new reading glasses, then at Hiro's Sushi for lunch, then at Home Depot for some accessory concoctions Becky had ordered for the snow blower, then at Ace Automotive to pick up our truck,

then back to Enterprise to drop off the rental car, then, finally, to Dr. Boettcher's office.  Whew!

Dr. Boettcher spent an hour (plus!) removing the "turban" from my head, analyzing the surgery (and deciding it was successful), treating my leg where the skin graft came from, and discussing future plans.  Basically, we will see him every week for several weeks to monitor my progress and play everything else by ear.  It was determined that radiology on my very tender skin grafts was not recommended. 

We then returned to Peace to buy two more knitted caps to cover my head, then headed for home and to pick up two very hungry dogs and eat leftover sushi for dinner.  It had been a very long day.   

Becky had taken a picture of the part of my head where the surgery took place, and I saw the wound for the first time.  Wow!  It's a lot bigger then either of the first two surgery sites.  It scared me a little, and I spent the rest of the day in a bit of  a shock.  I finally decided to hit the "sack" which, for the next week or so, is actually a living room recliner that will allow me to sleep without resting the left side of my head against anything, and slept soundly and peacefully for the entire night.  All is well. 

Wednesday, December 2, through Wednesday, December 9, 2015: The Next Surgery:

Wednesday morning, bright and not too early, Becky took off for the morning walk with Ramsey and Kelsey, and I had a long phone conversation with Bill Wheeler about the problems they're having with their motor home.  It's possible they will have to replace the engine, which would be at a ridiculous cost.  They may know more this afternoon.  The rest of the day involved a lot of puttering around.

Wednesday night, I slipped and fell in the bathroom---and landed on my nose.  I now have two slightly black eyes and one very red and swollen nose.  Becky says I look like Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull.

On Thursday, Becky decided it was time to get serious about Christmas.  We brought in the boxes of decorations we've been carrying around or storing for 13 years.  Since we had such limited room in our trailer, we couldn't use more than a few of the items in the boxes.  With our house, we have virtually unlimited space. Becky started the task; it was fun seeing some of the items for the first time in many years.  She's had a few of them for more than 40 years. 

On Friday, we bought a decorated (fake) tree at the hardware store and installed it outside the front door since we have no usable corners in the living room.  It's better outside anyway, so it can be seen and enjoyed by passersby.

Through the hardware store I found a local guy, Jim Winbourn, to put lights on one of the pine trees in our front yard.  He came on Saturday.  The lights look great!  We'll keep them on (about 6 hours a day) through the whole holiday season. 

Saturday was the day for conference champions to be determined in college football.  I was particularly looking forward to the Big-10 game (Michigan State/Iowa) and the Pac-12 game (Stanford/USC).  Everything turned out as I had hoped.  Michigan State beat Iowa and Stanford beat USC.  I had no eyeballs left at the end of the day.

Sunday was another football day.  At this point, all I care about is the Arizona Cardinals.  They won, and that's great.  We also put a few more Christmas decorations up around the house.

We also watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E., based on the old TV series.  I didn't much like it and walked away to putter.  Becky hung in there and watched the whole thing, and enjoyed it.

Monday was an ordinary day of Becky's walking dogs and my killing time reading and doing crossword puzzles.  Tuesday involved a trip to Flagstaff for a haircut for me and a little shopping.  We also picked up dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant there, Pato Thai.  Yum!  The elephant in the room is my surgery taking place on Wednesday.  Although I've been through the same surgery twice this year already, it's still a little unnerving to have to do it again---so soon.

On Wednesday I arrived at the Flagstaff Medical Center at 10:30 and started the three-hour pre-op procedure. 

I'm used to it, and it's boring, so I just did crossword puzzles while Becky and the dogs ran errands.  Promptly at 1:30, the designated time for the surgery, they wheeled me into the operating room and the anesthesiologist informed me that I would soon go to sleep.  I did.  The next thing I remember, of course, was waking up.  I was in no particular pain but I was a little disoriented.  The nurses were a little concerned about my oxygen level, not realizing that it's always a bit low.  After a bit of conversation about pain levels, it was decided (not by me) that I should spend the night at the hospital, rather than go home which was the original plan. 

I spent an uncomfortable night, for to reasons:  1) Because they woke me every 15 minutes for the first four hours, and then every 30 minutes,to check my vital signs, and 2) Because somewhere along the way I got a bruise on my butt.