17.08.2023 Whoops!

 ~o~

 Thursday 17th 54F [7.30] Uniform, grey overcast. Cooking class today. I am going by e-bike.

 A strange night! I was being woken by an itchy back between my shoulder blades. Though I struggled to reach the spot. Finally I caught something with my nail. After which it stung and itched even more! My immediate guess was a deer bug. My recent gardening had brought me into close contact with the undergrowth. Not to mention brushing through hedges at the museum.

 Now I was concerned I had pulled the body off a deer bug. Leaving the legs under my skin. Possibly leading to infection. So I tried to find the area with two mirrors. A shaving mirror in my hand. With my back to a large wall mirror. The light was poor but my back seemed to be covered in red spots. Perhaps an allergy to soap powder? Then I glimpsed something even more worrying much lower on my back!

 So I started up the computer and used the webcam to try and see my back. This required more peering into the shaving mirror. To see the computer monitor behind me. With much writhing and adding more light sources I could finally see an ugly looking "mole." Much like the common images of skin cancer online!

 I managed to take a few pictures. Which involved holding the mouse still, on the desk behind me. Struggling to left click. While simultaneously moving my back around to bring the mole centered in the camera's field of view. All the while using the handheld mirror to see the screen. The best picture was no artwork but all I could manage at 4.30am! I immediately sent the image off to my doctor for his opinion.  

 I do not deliberately sunbathe and haven't done so for decades. That doesn't mean that the sun doesn't shine though my thin cycle, racing jerseys. My tanned legs are ample proof of my solar exposure. Ironically, I had recently taken to wearing a small, cotton scarf around my neck. To protect it while riding my bike. My wife used to worry that my neck often looked like mahogany during the summer. I had better ready the bike and shower for another day at the grindstone.

 14.00 67F/20C  It didn't feel very warm so I wore my windproof, cycling jacket. At the cooking class I peeled, cooked and mashed 2kg of potatoes. It didn't feel much warmer on my way home. When I was riding in my t-shirt. 

 After a nap I started on the laundry. Though it took fixed ropes and a ladder to scale the first pitch!

 20.0015C/60F.  No dinner required today. So I was good and trimmed hedges, strimmed and mowed grass. Half a trailer full again. A horse fly bit me on the arm! Grr! A load of towels was dry. Another load still drying outside. More cycles underway in the machine.

~o~