WooSoxing Again and Downside Derming

As I wrote in my last post it was going to be a busy week. Last night was one of the highlights as Great Aunt as well as Keene Friend and his lady joined us for the WooSox game. It was a perfect summer evening, and the game atmosphere was very entertaining as usual. The game itself was less so. If the Red Sox are looking for a solution to their abysmal hitting, the answer is certainly not with their AAA team. Their once promising young talent Kristian Campbell struck out 4 times and supposedly reinforcement rehabbing Romy Gonzalez also struck out 4 times when he didn’t ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. You may interpret this as an indication of how frustrated I am with the parent club who just finished losing two of three to the worst team in baseball. I’m guess the Sox are now vying for that title.

At The Game Last Night

Frustration aside, it was a great evening spent with these outstanding people. It helped soften the blow of the phone call I received earlier in the day. I had my semi-annual skin screen with the dermatologist who was bragging to me about the new sensor she got which could look deeper into the skin. That turned out to be just the start of the bad news. She ended up taking three biopsies, as I left the clinic looking more like the Frankenstein monster than usual. The phone call yesterday had her telling me that the one on my forehead will require Mohs surgery, while the one on my shoulder will be treated with chemotherapy cream (always a delight). The one on my wrist was cancerous so she’ll freeze that when I see her again in December. Going to the game with outstanding people was just what the doctor ordered (just not mine).

Thoroughly Biopsied

I was in the midst of assembling the newly acquired glider for Deckzilla when that call came in. In a stunning development that had me reaching for the phone to alert the Associated Press, my Favorite Panamanian actually liked the new swing. Since she was specifically excluded from choosing it, I was certain I was in for a severe case of spousal abuse and repeated “I Told You So”s. None of that happened but she did demonstrate that she had acquired a modicum of assembly expertise and, without the aid of seeing the instructions, proceeded to tell me what I was doing wrong. I’ll take the win.

Parts Awaiting Assembly

The New Glider

Finally, since the end of my A-Z watch, I’ve been grazing through my assembly of old TV shows that have been moldering on the shelves for many years as I focused on movies. For the past couple days, I’ve been switching back and forth between Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Combat! Talk about swerving. I own the complete series of both shows. I fell in love with the Python gang watching their show in college and then the awesome movies. Combat! was the show all of my friends and I watched growing up in the early 1960s. One game we all played, all summer long, was “war” where we chose up teams and spent hours stalking each other through back yards, each claiming to be Sergeant Saunders or Lieutenant Hanley. Probably how I ended up loving the military so much once I got in. All of our parents lived through and/or served in World War 2, so it was must see watching. It hasn’t aged well; you can tell Combat! was shot in California and not Europe. Very cool to see so many iconic actors in small parts and the iconic opening still makes me smile remembering the excitement of a very young version of myself as it came on the screen, so many years ago.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RECURRING CHARACTERS:

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete – my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother-in-law (whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Upstairs Neighbors – American couple and great friends who live in condo above us in Panama; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course