Mixed Bag

The weather suits my current state in a lot of way. Mixed bag for sure. We had a 60 degree temperature change within a 48 degree period. Although the balmy weather doesn't suit me this time of year, as I preferred the cold, I know it's a blessing for the birds. I have to feel lucky when I see what a hard time the midwest and other parts of the country are having. Ice and snow are one thing but power losses are a pain and dangerous in some situations.
Where I live, I went from scraping ice off the windshield one morning, to pealing down to a short sleeve shirt the next. I find that unsettling and am actually ready for winter. Then again, hearing about the power losses in Oklahoma reminds me of one winter where I didn't have power for 11 days and I'm aware of how lucky we are.
During the winter of 2002/2003, we had a lot of snow for us and a major ice storm, power went out in the triangle area where I live and my neighborhood was one of the last places to regain power. I camped out in front of my fire place after clearing the smoke when I forgot to open the flue. My daughter stayed with friends who had power. They invited me but being in the middle of a bathroom remodel, I wanted to stay home and keep the water dripping to avoid pipes freezing. During the day when the sun came out, I could sit in my greenhouse and get warm but I started getting goofy in my cold house at night. That experience definitely made me be careful what I wish for. While I really don't want the unseasonably warm days right now there are much worse things and I know it's helpful for the birds.The third picture in this post was taken at my periodontist office. The others were taken at my house. I found out I have an abscessed tooth and a lesion on my tongue so I'm set for an appointment with an oral surgeon on January 2. Oh brother. In a way that's not a bad thing. I've been feeling a under the weather without knowing why and if pulling a tooth will take care of that then it's not all bad.
The lettuce in my winter boxes are doing great. I covered them during the cold period and now they are open again. They are doing so well I have a crop of weeds that need to be pulled gently out from between lettuce plants. I even have a few roses growing amidst all the frost damaged leaves. The late roses stand out because all the other flowers got zapped when we had a brief cold spell.One thing I like about keeping a blog is how easy it is to look back and see where I was at last year, now that I've been blogging for over a year. It takes the sting out of some things. Last year I had some pesky little concerns and some bigger ones which is why I ended up with one more doctor. My medical oncologist is the last of the doctors I've ended up with. My surgical oncologist is the melanoma specialist and I trust him and know he has a lot of experience with advanced melanoma. If I had decided to do Interferon, I would have had a medical oncologist for that but since I decided not to do interferon, I didn't have a medical oncologist.However, I had a lot of pesky junk and one of my doctors referred me to a local medical oncologist for a consultation. He did some more scans and tests and we ended up deciding that he would see me every six months. That was last December so next week will be my third appointment with him. I didn't end up with more appointments because there really isn't much to follow on my skin. Therefore, my dermatologist switched from every three month to every six month appointments. It works out that I'm seeing my surgical oncologist and then three months later the medical oncologist and the dermatologist falls in there every six months.
Although at one level I wish I didn't have another appointment next week, at another I feel like the medical oncologist looks at the whole picture and his follow up is a little different than my melanoma specialist. They are both good doctors and the surgical oncologist is certainly up to date about melanoma and will discuss various aspects of my health with me but he relies pretty heavily on one particular scan (fusion PET/CT). The medical oncologist added some things to my follow up which in my case make sense. Looking back on my blog, I could have a sense of deja vu but at another level I can see that thus far, I really am doing great from the cancer angle. No recurrences.
Last December I had a fresh start on exercise and started a check in type exercise log on my blog. It worked quite well until the summer when I lost momentum. Not sure where the momentum will come from this time. I do walk some with Bill but can't seem to get back into a routine. However, somehow I did find the momentum last December and walked regularly until late June. Part of the mixed bag is that I can take encouragement from the fact that last year I did find the momentum to walk regularly, as long as I don't allow myself to feel defeated by the fact that I'm not walking regularly at the moment. I had a delicious meal out with some of the ladies in my neighborhood last night so a small step may be to take myself out for a walk today for long enough to burn off the calories from the godiva chocolate cheesecake. The weather is mixed, my mood is mixed, but within the mix are some positive aspects.