Monday Rambles

Well, my scan turned up a small, unexplained subcutaneous spot on my back.  It's about 8 mm long.  It's too deep and too small for the doctor to feel, so I had to have a biopsy on Thursday, which meant more missed work.  (Work was cancelled due to weather on Monday and Tuesday.)  I won't get the results until next Tuesday.

I'm trying not to dwell on it, but it's hard.  The rational side of my head (yes, there is one!) says that it's likely nothing and that we just have to check it out, given my history.  The other side of my head is trying not to panic.  Until I know for sure what's going on, it doesn't make sense to play "What if?" games.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Part of the reason for my concern is the abnormal mole on my back that my dermatologist has been watching.  I'm not sure where it's located in relation to this new spot, and that worries me a little.

The whole biopsy was an adventure unto itself.  It was supposed to be done with ultrasound, but the machine could not detect the spot.  They sent me back for another CT scan, so they could pinpoint it better.  I actually got my hopes up that maybe there wasn't a spot, and the whole thing was just some kind of glitch.  Except that the CT scan found the damn thing again.  The doc put an "X" on my back and then they tried the ultrasound one more time.  It still couldn't find the spot, so they did the biopsy with the CT scanner.  They would shove me in the machine, yank me out, poke at my back, shove me back in the machine, yank me out, poke at my back--over and over again, until they decided they had enough cells to test.

And now I wait.  Yeesh!

Let's move on to something more pleasant, like disappointing yard sales.  (I didn't say "something a lot more pleasant."  Still, even disappointing yard sales are more pleasant than biopsies.)

The unthinkable happened on Saturday. I left one of my favorite church sales empty-handed!  There just wasn't anything there.  At least, not at the sale.  There was all kinds of good stuff, but it was going out the door as I was going in.  Apparently, that was all the good stuff that was there, because there wasn't anything left.

We got delayed by a foot race that had some of the streets blocked and we took a wrong turn in the park we were cutting through to avoid the street closings.  That made us just late enough that the booty went home with someone else.  Waaaah!

Normally, I don't sweat someone else getting the goods before me, but I'm needing big stuff right now.  I've been trying to stay true to my motto:  "It's only stuff.  There will be more stuff." but that's hard to do when you're pouting.

I did get a few things at a couple of other sales, but dropped them all off before I could get pics.  It was far from a huge haul though.  It's still early in the season.  We've just come out of another bad weather spell.  The pickings are kind of slim right now.

I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon cleaning out my shed.  This accomplished several goals for me.  I have more room in the shed now.  All of the old merch from the booth I closed in October is now in storage at the Peddlers Mall.  (I'll be putting it out this afternoon.)  My tubs of backstock are now in my storage space as well.  I also made a really nice pile of crap for curbside junk pick-up which happens this week.

Before I was even done, I got hit by a scrapper who grabbed my broken lawn chairs and a busted folding table.  (I scared him when I yelled at him not to make a mess.)  Later on, a little girl and her dad got all excited by a box of scrap paper I had set out.    They took it home for art projects.  Having made my contribution to the curb economy, I then set out to see what I could find for myself.

And the finding was good.  More than good enough to make up for a weak yard sale day.  Almost good enough to make up for the biopsy.  Almost.

According to the curbside pick up rules, you have the entire weekend to set stuff out, and the trucks will come by sometime during the week that follows.  What this means is that Sunday is the best night for picking.  I filled the van.

I was picking through one pile, when a junker who sells at the store I left offered me four dining room chairs, which I took on the spot.  Then I found a large, heavy decorative piece of pottery at another spot, followed by an old quilt rack.  A couple of streets over, I snagged a two drawer file cabinet that had somehow been missed by two different scrappers, who were parked down the street.

I also got some cool small stuff too, including a couple of old lunch boxes and a pair of vintage light covers.  I also found a brand new roll of Christmas wrapping paper.  You never know what you'll run across during junk set out.

All of that means that I'm going to be busy this afternoon at the booth.  All the curb finds need to be cleaned and set out, plus the stuff I got out of the shed.  That busy-ness will carry over into the rest of the week.  Now that I have some space cleared out in the shed, I need to spend some more time out there sorting through things.  There's a Goodwill load or two out there, plus I want to have a yard sale in a few weeks.  There's also another batch of things I could run through the booths.  I just have to find it.  Finally, there's also a table out there that I want to move into my junk room in the house, so that I can actually make some progress towards taming it.

Truth in blogging time:  If it stays warm and dry, I'll probably make a couple more curb runs before the trucks get to us.  Usually, they don't get to our street until the end of the week.  Even though they're not supposed to, people will add to their piles as the week goes on.  Besides, I can always find things other pickers miss.

Let's hear it for Spring Cleaning!  And Spring Junking!  And Spring!

Please keep your fingers crossed for my biopsy results.  I appreciate it.