Visits with Friends, from Long Ago and More Recent

I made a quick trip to Columbia, SC on Monday.  One of my grad school friends had a catastrophic stroke in summer of 2024, and she's in a skilled nursing unit.  I try to see her regularly, although it's difficult because of my schedule and her health issues.  She still hasn't regained all of her powers of speech, so I worry that my visits are frustrating.  But I also know how much people in care facilities need visits from their friends and family, and so I am determined to keep making the effort.  It's what I think I would want my friends to do for me.

We had a good visit.  We looked at some of the ornaments on her tree.  She's made counted cross stitch ornaments through the years, and the most beautiful and elegant ones are on the tree and hung on across the window.  We had a discussion of sorts about Jane Austen.  I thought of my grad school friend yesterday as I drove home and listened to a discussion of Jane Austen, on her 250th birthday; it was a great conversation on the NPR show 1A, which you can enjoy here.

After the visit with that grad school friend, I went to visit another grad school friend.  We went to our favorite pizza place for a very late lunch/very early dinner.  Zorba's on St. Andrews Road does an amazing job with their Greek pizza.  We also drove around the Shandon area to look at holiday lights.

Long ago, in our grad school days, we lived in a run down apartment building near Five Points, and we often drive by to see it.  Well, we won't be doing that again.  It's been bulldozed.  It was disconcerting to see a construction site where our apartment quadplex used to be.

I left yesterday morning and stopped by the new Trader Joe's out in Harbison--at last, a Trader Joe's with enough parking!  I stocked up on cheeses and other appetizer like snacks, along with a variety of stuffed pastas.  We had some neighborhood friends coming over for happy hour last night, so I wanted to get food on my way home.

I took a walk yesterday afternoon--the weather has gone from record breaking cold Monday morning to a high in the low 60's.   I took this picture because the blueness of the sky took my breath away.

And the photo makes me think that maybe my phone camera is more O.K. than I thought it was.  Maybe the washed out quality of some of the photos I've been taking is about the fluorescent light. 

After my walk and before the happy hour guests, I got a call from the melanoma doctor.  It was last Thursday when I got the phone call from my dermatologist.  I'd been keeping my eye on a spot that we all thought was a bug bite, but it didn't go away or fade, so we decided on a biopsy.  I was expecting it to be a cancer, but not a melanoma.

After the biopsy

My dermatologist refers melanomas to a specialist, so I was instructed to wait, which I did.  The melanoma doctor passed the first test, by calling me within days.  And I will go tomorrow for the consult.

The prospects are good for me.  The melanoma isn't deep:  .3 mm (.3, not 3.).  There's a 5 level scale of seriousness, and from what I can tell, .3 isn't even a stage 1.  The biopsy site looks like a deep cut, but who knows--I am sure there will be additional flesh removed.

But for today, let me focus on the pleasant:  coffee with a retreat friend, quilt group at the local Lutheran church, and a Zoom session with folks/friends who have been meeting to discuss books and the contemplative life.